Bill O'Reilly (broadcasting)

Bill O'Reilly (1949-) is an American broadcaster, author and political commentator. His main broadcasting outlet is The O'Reilly Factor on the Fox News Channel. He also hosts a radio programme, The Radio Factor, and has written eight books including The No-Spin Zone (also the strapline of his televison show), Who's Looking Out For You? and Culture Warrior. He declares himself to be politically independent, but he is widely considered to be on the right wing of the American political spectrum.

The "no spin zone" is his claim to strip away propaganda and symbolism. In his presentation, however, only O'Reilly is assumed to have truth; he is beyond opinion: "See, I don't want to fit any of those labels, because I believe the truth doesn't have labels." He has, however, vehemently objected to bloggers as out of control because they work for no one.

Senior executive producer David Tabacoff terms the program an “opinion-driven show that has a journalistic basis.” Tabacoff was discussing confrontational surprise interviews that are a staple of the show, usually conducted by producer Jesse Watters. Some of Watters' subjects have called police for protection. O'Reilly said the tactic was justified to "...because there’s no other way to hold these villains accountable.”

Terrorism

Stephen Schwartz, a vehement critic of Wahhabism and Saudi Arabia, said that he had never seen "a single serious interview with an Islamic religious figure on Western television. This is in itself a shocking fact. Of course, first an interviewer would have to know who to interview and what questions to ask. ...Proper media coverage of Islam, meaning the views of serious clerics and intellectuals, seems unlikely to happen in a media industry where ... Bill O'Reilly preens himself by referring to Islam as 'the enemy's religion.'"

Racism

Juan Williams wrote that O'Reilly was unfairly accused of racism when Williams appeared on the show, and O'Reilly criticized the image created by certain rappers.

Domestic terrorism

MSNBC commentator Keith Olbermann accused O'Reilly of domestic terrorism in inciting the murder of late-term abortion provider George Tiller, whom O'Reilly called "Tiller the Killer". O'Reilly denies the charge.

Conservative investigative journalism

On his 23 September 2009 show on Fox, he spoke about the investigation of ACORN by James O'Keefe and Hannah Giles.

Congressman Frank of Massachusetts and Congressman Conyers of Michigan want Congressional investigators to see if the undercover duo broke any federal laws. In addition, they want to find out exactly what ACORN is guilty of and they want to examine the group's housing opportunities agenda In my opinion, Frank and Conyers should be giving Ms. Ms. Giles and Mr. O'Keefe congressional medals for exposing corruption that apparently the Feds were not able to expose."