Bill is NOT “conservative”.
He is a populist seeking to gain the largest audience.
I agree. O’Reilly is for O’Reilly as far as his show is concerned. But I do believe his being run out of town by an allegation not backed by proof is a shame.
He never claimed to be. He is conservative on many issues and that is what he primarily focused on.
Bill is NOT “conservative”.
He is a populist seeking to gain the largest audience.
Bit improvement.
I don't think Bill O'Reilly ever claimed he was a conservative. I don't think it was his job to be a conservative. Fox News presented itself as fair and balanced. Even though O'Reilly came down more often than not on the conservative side of an issue, I think he wanted to be perceived as "fair and balanced". What I liked about O'Reilly in the days that I watched him was that he did not go easy on any of his guests, whether liberal or conservative. We are so used to seeing powder puff interviews from the MSM, and here was O'Reilly telling his guests "I don't believe you answered my question". He would present his perception of something to a guest and then ask "how am I wrong?", giving them a chance to set the record straight. The idea of the "No Spin Zone" was that he would not let people spin their way out of things. For a long time, I think he succeeded in this.
Eventually, I got tired of watching O'Reilly and all the rest of the bite-sized debates and analyses that make up TV news. I often noticed that O'Reilly was not terribly well informed about the subjects he was trying to debate, and he would sometimes bring on a throw-down guest simply to use as a sounding board while he went off on one of his rants.
Even though I "outgrew" O'Reilly, I know he was admired by many of the conservatives in flyover country. There is a reason he was consistently #1. This article says little about what O'Reilly is supposed to have done. I am still not convinced that his ouster is based on legitimate complaints (though I could be wrong about that; more info may come out). It is not good for conservatism IMO that O'Reilly is gone. Most of the base that elected Trump does not hang out on message boards like Free Republic. Their only source for news has been Fox News or the MSM. O'Reilly was able to explain things in an entertaining way. He regularly pointed out the hypocrisy of the MSM. I think a lot of people are not going to be up to speed on things without O'Reilly to guide them.
I agree but it is hilarious now to read all the moaning and groaning on FR about how “the Left took another scalp” and all, since the same people have been moaning and groaning all these years about how Bill O’Reilly is not conservative!
What he is is pretty obnoxious, by almost all the personal accounts you read about people who have worked with him, and then there’s the anectdotal “cursing angry” video and what we’ve seen seep thru the mask when he gets pissed at guests like Bawny Fwank. It’s not unheard of for men in power to attempt to use it to seduce women, it’s just gotten a lot harder to get away with it in today’s climate and especially for a person who isn’t all that well liked or pleasant in the first place.
Contrast the BOR personality with that of Bill Cosby for example. I’ve never met either in person but while Cosby clearly had a dark side, the first words most people would say about him are “nice, funny, warm” etc. Not so with O’Reilly.
He’s rich also so I don’t see any tragedy.