O'Reilly would be more accurately characterized as "Muddle of the Road" or even "All Over The Road, In The Ditches, Across The Median & Spinning Out Of Control". /grin
He has no discernable, coherent set of standards or principles from which his positions on various issues are derived, although he does show a fairly consistent predilection that, no matter what the problem may be, more government power is the answer. His opinions are always based on what he "believes" or "feels". This is fine for an entertainer, of course, but it renders him unfit as any sort of authority or arbiter on anything. When you mix in his arrogance and the abysmally poor and superficial factual research and investigaton he and his staff seem to put into all but a few issues, the decision to change the channel comes easily.
I could not have said it better myself. I think he pretty much tries to go with however he thinks the popular majority leans on most issues -- with a few contrarian positions (on carefully selected minor issues) thrown in to give him the opportunity to boast about how independent he is.
His agenda is not to promote conservatism, liberalism, or any ideology. It is purely to promote Bill O'Reilly.
His boorish arrogance really came through a couple of nights ago when he was interviewing Fox News' highly competent legal reporter, Megan Kendal (Sp.?). He'd asked her how she thought the upcoming Hamdi SCOTUS was likely to come out and she launched into a well-informed, erudite response. He kept trying to cut her off with his own bloviating before she could finish answering his question. Megan did a great job--she plunged on and finished her answer in spite of the bloviating. Worst of all, O'Reilly was just trying boorishly to insert himself and didn't really agree or disagree with what she was saying.
From what I can tell--and I don't watch him a whole lot anymore--he's a "populist", kind of like what Al Gore was trying to be in 2000. He poses as a fighter for "the little guy". "We're watching out for you" or something like that is his line, isn't it?
So, sometimes BOR is on the conservative side, and sometimes he's on the liberal side...because his "guiding" principle is what he perceives as the "common man's interest".
I haven't watched his show since he made the ignorant claim that the Assault Weapons Ban was about regulating machine guns. He might as well become a director of the Brady Campaign. Why would I believe anything else he says?