Posted on 09/20/2011 4:02:49 AM PDT by iowamark
When Bill OReilly went to Fox News looking for work in 1996, Roger Ailes, chief of the startup cable network, asked him whether he could avoid getting into fistfights in the hallway. OReilly was known in the business as a born broadcaster but one whose career had been defined by pique. As an anchor at a Boston station, hed once grabbed a disagreeable management consultant by the necktie and dragged him across the newsroom.
At Fox, OReilly channeled his rage into the self-designated role of national sentry, with the nightly mission, as he puts it, of protecting the people against an assortment of malefactors (who tend to be representatives of the bicoastal liberal elite).
Fifteen years into the role, OReillys successhis primetime cable competitors dont come close to his ratingshas brought wealth and, as he is happy to assert, the power of influence. I have more power than anybody other than the president, in the sense that I can get things changed, quickly, he says. I dont have to go through the legislative process; I dont have to do any of that. I can just bring it to the people, and say, look, this has gotta be dealt with.
Even so, OReilly lately found the nation in such dire straits (It is chaos ... chaos) that he believed something more was required of him: he would write a book of history.
He already had a string of books to his credit, mostly derived from his broadcast, The OReilly Factor. The most recent, the memoir A Bold Fresh Piece of Humanity, made it to the top of the national bestseller lists. These books, typical of the genre, intend to tax neither author nor reader; if you watch the show, youve pretty much read the book.
But his new book, Killing Lincoln, co-written by the historian Martin Dugard, marks a bold, even fresh, literary turn, signified principally by the fact that Bill OReilly is not in it. In this time when were struggling for leadershipand whether youre a Republican or a Democrat, you know that we are struggling with leadership in Americawe need to go back to a guy like Abraham Lincoln and understand what made him great, OReilly says.
After the taping of his broadcast one recent evening, OReilly opined on the current uses of historical narrative. His large corner office on the 17th floor of the News Corp. building in New York, with a broad Sixth Avenue view, is itself a kind of history lesson, its walls filled with rare, signed presidential letters, photographs, and lithographs, hung alongside a homemade Viet Cong banner and the last flag of the Republic of South Vietnam to fly at the American Embassy in Saigon.
OReilly, now 62, says Americans are ill equipped to make wise decisions (History in the public-school system now? Forget it) in choosing their leaders, and that a dose of Lincolnthe gold standard of leadershipmay help. But he has not gone suddenly egghead. Killing Lincoln is not a work of original scholarship or of breakthrough insight; it is meant to be a page-turner, modeled after the thrillers of John Grisham. Thats the kind of books I like, he says.
He mostly succeeds in that regard, in the sense that if Grisham wrote a novel about April 1865a tiny span densely packed with history, from Appomattox to the Lincoln assassination and the hunting down of John Wilkes Boothit might well read like Killing Lincoln. OReilly and Dugard collaborated on the project via email and telephone and wrote it in six months. If it sells, OReilly says, he plans a series of such books.
I have one of the best presidential collections, but I dont like to give it a lot of publicity, he said. I dont want people breaking into my house. Security is of grave concern to OReilly, who told me that he has 24-hour protection because people want to kill me. As we left the News Corp. building and stepped onto Sixth Avenue, a large, genial fellow fell in a few paces behind, escorting us to a small Italian restaurant a couple of blocks away.
Our conversation turned to The Factor over dinner. (Id like the linguine with white clam sauce, OReilly told the waiter, adding, Take the clams out of the shell, though. The shell frightens me.) He had spent part of the day on the telephone with Texas Gov. Rick Perry, trying to talk him into coming on the show. OReilly didnt want a quick satellite hit with Perry, but the full, in-studio OReilly experience.
Even from the distance of a remote locale, the OReilly experience can be an ordeal, as White House spokesman Jay Carney learned when he volunteered to appear on The Factor after the presidents recent jobs speech. After lecturing Carney on the futility of Obamas plan (Why continue to build the American Jobs Act around higher taxes that the Republicans arent going to vote for?), OReilly turned to a recurring themethe villainy of General Electric chairman Jeffrey Immelt, who first attracted OReillys ire as the corporate chief of Fox rival MSNBC and is now the presidents jobs czar:
OREILLY: Who was sittingwho was sitting with the first lady tonight? Do you know who was sitting with her?
CARNEY: Well, there were a variety of folks.
OREILLY: Jeffrey Immelt, GE CEO. Jeffreyyou know Jeff, right? Hes a big, tall guy. Jeffrey Immelt?
CARNEY: Sure.
OREILLY: Guess who moved his airline division to China and his med-tech division from Wisconsin to China? Thats Jeffrey Immelt. Made in America, Jay? Whyyou, Jay, you should walk and throw him out of that box. bill-oreilly-killing-lincoln-book
Why would Perry, or any guest, subject himself to that line of inquiry? Because if they do well, they get huge, huge currency, OReilly says. I mean, the upside is just enormous.
A guest whom he dearly covets is former vice president Dick Cheney; he tried, and failed, to book Cheney every week during the eight years he was in office, and is trying still. It seems strange that Cheney would avoid OReilly, given that Cheney is promoting his memoir and has appeared all over the airwaves, including on Fox.
There is a fear factor, OReilly explains. Ive watched four or five of his interviewsI mean, its all cupcakes, you know? I ask em questions, all right? Obama. I mean, when Obama sits with me, he doesnt know what the hells coming, and its exciting. Its exciting.
Obama is one of OReillys favorite guests, having appeared (after much aggressive pursuit, on air and off) on The Factor both as a candidate and as president. A guy like Obama, hes got reason to be afraid, and hes not, he says. Hes composed; he likes to joust. There are personalities that do, and there are personalities that dont.
When OReilly visited the White House for a Super Bowl interview with Obama last winter, the president, knowing OReillys interest, brought his guest to the Lincoln Bedroom to show him a copy of the Gettysburg Address written in Lincolns hand. I agree with the 70 percent of Americans who like him, OReilly says. I like him.
That is not to say he sympathizes with the president. He states flatly that Obama will lose his reelection bid next year, and deservedly so. I think he tried, but its not working, he says. And he doesnt seem to be nimble enough to make that pivot to OK, this didnt work.?
OReillys liberal critics tend to cast him as the biggest bogeyman of the Fox NewsRepublican conspiracy, but he insistently disclaims ideologyasserting an independence that, in a relative sense, has some merit. Where Sean Hannitys positions on a given partisan issue can be reliably predicted (He has a Republican show, OReilly says, and Republicans should have a show), OReilly is not strictly doctrinaire except for a slavish adherence to what might be called the Ideology of Bill: a set of certainties derived from his Roman Catholic upbringing in a working-class home in Levittown, on Long Island, where the values of the 1950s and early 60s were indelibly imprinted upon him. Truth be told, I liked my country better pre-Vietnam, he wrote in his memoir. It was more fun. The Aquarius deal was too confusing.
While a firmly fixed Catholic (of the Baltimore Catechism, fish-on-Fridays school), OReilly steers clear of the faith-based conservatism that animates his friend, and former Fox colleague, Glenn Beck. When the two men toured together, OReilly says, hed have to warn Beck to avoid evangelizing. I think hes a sincere, good guy. I would say to him, Dont be Elmer Gantry; dont do thatbecause sometimes he would. He really believes that its his mission to spread a certain point of view on spirituality. My mission isnt to convert you, or even to convince you of anything. Its to protect you.
The OReilly certainty occasionally galls some in the Fox News base, as when he supported TARP and the Obama stimulus plan (I understood that for the government to basically watch the economy slide down the drain is irresponsible), and when he recently chided the Tea Party faction of Congress for resisting compromise. Some people got mad and canceled their membership, he says. But I cant be taking that into consideration. I mean, what we ask the viewer is very easy. We dont ask you to agree with us. We just ask you to listen, and consider. And if you think were wrong, we want you to email us, or whatever. I dont want you to think the way I do. I want you to think the way you do. But just keep an open mind. Blind ideology gets nowhere. And we dont do that. I think its boring.
OReilly now intends to get the Republican presidential candidates on the record, whether they are willing or not. He has formed a political unit, featuring his star producer-reporter, Jesse Waters, famous for his ambush interviews. (Waters once chased down Al Gore, a Factor avoider, at a speech venue, shouting, Do you stand to make any money from cap-and-trade?)
If they wont come to us, well go to them, OReilly says, with a slightly sinister smile. Theyre not gonna hide from us. Everybodys gonna be asked questions. The easy way is, come in, good lighting, well give you a doughnut, well have a nice conversation. The hard way is, Waters is standing in your driveway at 7 in the morning. You know? Its your choice.
Some would call that journalistic thuggery. I dont care; I couldnt care less, OReilly says. My job is to bring information to the people. If they wanna think Im a thugtheyre probably right.
OReilly remains intensely driven by ratings, and he pores over the numbers when they arrive each day at 4. The debut of Becks premium Internet enterprise, GBTVa daily two-hour webcastprovides a new data point, with about 250,000 subscribers so far. By comparison, OReillys show after the presidents speechwhich was rebroadcast, as always, later in the nightreached 5 million viewers.
Still, OReilly says that he can imagine the end. He does not fancy the slow fade of the man he displaced in primetime cable, CNNs Larry King, and vows to leave television when the audience begins to leave him.
Im interested in history, he says. There are projects that, if Killing Lincoln is successful, well go into. Im not addicted to the tube.
The author says O Reilly has an admirable sense of independence (or something like that.) To me it seems more like an intellectual incoherence.
IMO, Mr. O’Reily often gets distracted by his voice echoing around in his head.
the man is a big mouth, arrogant and certainly thinks he knows it all.
He even calls for a VAT but then says it is not an increase in taxes.
He’s a buffoon and even on social issues like the homosexual agenda he hides from it and backed away from it with pro homo , pro cross dressing liberal Megyn Kelly
I stopped watching the blowhard several years ago when he had on a former Israeli PM and tried to inform him about the Middle East.
Precisely. He has no underlying ideological (rule of law) for his opinions, so it is whatever he wants. He thinks this makes him "independent", but it just makes him an irrational idiot. Having a clear ideology is a good thing.
He believes in the government picking winners and losers just like the Dems, he just wants different people to be chosen.
O’Reilly doesn’t even know the difference between a loofah and a falafel.
Yes, he is SOOO “Ted Baxter” indeed.....
stopped watching the fool when he started to cry because he could not get an interview with president zero and then confronted zero.
>>> Intellectual incoherence combined with maniacal narcissism is OReilly in a nutshell.>>>
True. And the only redeeming part is that over at MSNBC and CNN, they know he is incoherent, not that smart, and a world class egomaniac - and they also know his ratings still kick their butts.
So while I have no idea what must go on inside the head of a BOR viewer, I know that he is in the heads of the hard core libs. That’s the only good thing.
As an occasional BOR viewer, he is an egomaniac and really thinks the sun revolves around him, but every once in a while, he has a nugget of truth and light.
He is well dressed by Hickey-Freeman.
He is well dressed, and he does sometimes stumble onto a nugget of truth. And I do flip through for a few minutes (usually when it’s Miller Time) from time to time.
I still have no idea what is going on in the head of regular viewers, the kind who drive his ratings and buy all that “Factor Gear” etc. That I just don’t understand. The intellectual inconsistencies drive me up a wall.
(I’m like Monk that way).
I really hate it that he tries to talk over any opinion that isn’t his own! He does have good guests from time to time and then ruins it for me by showing his ignorance. I refer to him as the Jerry Springer of Fox News.
Megyn Kelly is UNWATCHABLE!!!
As if having to endure that interview with BOR's lips planted firmly on obams's bum wasn't evidence enough???
He appeals to a segment of the mushy middle who don't have a lot happening between the ears. He's a populist panderer of the lowest sort...he knows how to appeal to his audience and he does so, shamelessly.
There is one guest that O'Reilly himself is afraid to invite on his show. He is afraid because he cannot take what he doles out. That person is knowledgeable in politics, personalities, ideology, prophetic, and lucid. That highly independent and creative person is Michael Savage, successful writer, philosopher, and radio talk show host.
O'Reilly will not even admit that Savage exists. O'Reilly speaks for the entire Fox network I believe.
I guess you’re right. He definitely is shameless in how he appeals to the dumbed down middle. This explains why he thinks everybody in the political media is simply performing a “schtick” - because that’s what he is doing.
That’s why he has never been able to understand Rush’s program or his audience or his appeal. Like him or not (and I like him) what you hear is what you get with Rush. With O Reilly, it’s much more cynical.
I cannot imagine being so ignorant as to not see through O Reilly - but obviously a lot of folks are.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.