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Over the years, there have been several issues highlighted in American political commentator Bill O'Reilly's print and broadcast work. He has drawn criticism from several individuals and groups, which include media personalities such as Al Franken, Bill Moyers, David Letterman, Bill Maher, and Keith Olbermann. He has also been criticized by progressive media watchdog groups such as Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, Free Press, and Media Matters for America.

Analysis of Bill O'Reilly and his methods

Indiana University study

In early 2007, researchers from the Indiana University School of Journalism published a report in the academic journal Journalism Studies that analyzed the Talking Points Memo segment. Using analysis techniques developed in the 1930s by the Institute for Propaganda Analysis, the researchers compared O'Reilly's comments and style to a 1939 study of Father Charles Coughlin. The study found that O'Reilly used propaganda far more often than Coughlin, was three times more likely to engage in name calling, and consistently cast non-Americans as threats and never in the role of victim or hero."

O'Reilly criticized the study, asserting that "the terms 'conservative,' 'liberal,' 'left,' 'right,' 'progressive,' 'traditional' and 'centrist' were considered name-calling if they were associated with a problem or social ill." The study's authors responded that those terms were only considered as name-calling when linked to derogatory qualifiers, for instance "Kool-Aid left". O'Reilly also claimed that Indiana University has received millions of dollars from George Soros' Open Society Institute, to which the authors responded that they had "received no funding for this study".

Fox News producer Ron Mitchell wrote an op-ed in which he accused the study's authors of seeking to manipulate their research to fit a predetermined outcome. Mitchell argued that by using tools developed for examining propaganda, the researchers presupposed that O'Reilly propagandized.

Marvin Kitman and his O'Reilly biography

In January 2007, St. Martin's Press released the biography The Man Who Would Not Shut Up: The Rise of Bill O'Reilly, written by longtime Newsday TV critic Marvin Kitman. O'Reilly initially cooperated with the author by giving him 29 interviews. According to Kitman, O'Reilly was going to help promote and publicize the book until, just prior to publication, they had a disagreement over the inclusion of a chapter covering Andrea Mackris' 2004 sexual harassment lawsuit against O'Reilly. After the book came out with the chapter included, Kitman asserted that O'Reilly attempted to bury it by "intimidating" and "terrorizing" Fox News prime time shows to keep them from inviting Kitman.

In an interview with Keith Olbermann, Kitman criticized O'Reilly as "kind of a hypocrite" by pointing out O'Reilly's belief that journalists should not attempt to flatter or indulge the people they cover. Kitman also said he found it strange that O'Reilly sought to suppress the book when it cast him in a generally favorable light. Kitman said, "This is the only book that‘s ever said anything positive about Bill, except for the six he wrote about himself." Several critics agree that the book's portrayal is fair.

FAIR's Peter Hart

Peter Hart, a media analyst for the progressive Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, co-authored The Oh Really Factor: Unspinning Fox News Channel's Bill O'Reilly. In the 2004 documentary Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism, Hart states that The O'Reilly Factor is a "perfect example" of what is wrong with Fox News, alleging that the Republican Party gets favored treatment over the Democratic Party on O'Reilly's show, as well as the network in general.

Factual inaccuracy and selective edits

Critics of O'Reilly allege that he misleads his audience by presenting false information and also engages in misleading and selective editing. For example, he featured a story about a "national epidemic" of teenage lesbian gangs who carry pink pistols and try to indoctrinate young girls into lesbianism. When confronted on the story by civil rights groups, O'Reilly later admitted it was overhyped but defended its validity. Furthermore, critics such as Media Matters claims that O'Reilly misleads his audience when he described his upbringing and that he overstates his influence such as when he pointed to a non-existent publication to support his claim that his call for a boycott of French goods cost the French billions of dollars.

On June 24, 2004, law professor David D. Cole told Al Franken on Air America Radio about an alleged incident that occurred while he appeared on the June 21 edition of O'Reilly's show. Cole claimed that as the episode's Talking Points Memo segment was being taped, O'Reilly told his producers to re-record the segment in order to prevent the airing of footage showing former New Jersey governor and 9/11 Commission chairman Thomas Kean confirming no evidence had been found suggesting a link between Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq and the al-Qaeda terrorist network. Cole alleged that O'Reilly then claimed Kean had confirmed a link between the two groups, without playing the footage. Cole also said that when he directly challenged O'Reilly's deception, O'Reilly went "berserk", calling his guest a "SOB", and "said I would never, ever be invited to be on the show again." Cole said that when the interview was broadcast that night, the portion of the interview showing Cole's confrontation and O'Reilly's subsequent outburst was edited out by Fox News producers.

Franken also criticized O'Reilly for alleged selective and misleading editing in an interview of Senator Joseph Biden by George Stephanopoulos. In the interview Biden proposed the submission of legislation for an independent commission to look into wrongdoing in the U.S. Army's prison system at Guantanamo Bay, Abu Ghraib and elsewhere. When O'Reilly analyzed the same interview on The Factor, the broadcast edited out all references Biden made to appointing an independent commission and only presented Biden's call to shut down Guantanamo Bay. O'Reilly accused Biden of misusing the prison abuse story and then presented the missing part of Biden's remarks as his own opinion: "The Bush administration should set up an independent commission to investigate American detainee policy across the board. The president must take the offensive on this, or else the country's image will continue to suffer and the jihadists and their enablers will win another victory."

O'Reilly has also been criticized for his interview style such as when he and Congressman Barney Frank got into a very heated argument during a discussion of the ongoing financial crisis, and when he cut off the microphone of anti-war protester Jeremy Glick. Furthermore, he has also been criticized for being insensitive to certain victims and groups. An example of this was Shawn Hornbeck whom O'Reilly inferred that there was an element that he liked about this circumstances. He also received criticism for comments that were taken to mean that San Francisco should not receive government protection from Al Qaeda after the city passed a ballot measure that declared the city's opposition to "the federal government's use of public schools to recruit students for service in the military."

Critics and rivals

O'Reilly has been involved in numerous controversies and rivalries with various people and organizations. Some of the more notable are Al Franken, George Soros, Bill Moyers of PBS and Keith Olbermann.

Media Matters for America

Media Matters for America describes itself as a politically progressive, web-based, non-profit organization that reports and criticizes what it describes as "conservative misinformation in the U.S. media." O'Reilly is often the subject of Media Matters' online reports.

O'Reilly has referred to Media Matters as "smear merchants," and "the most vile, despicable human beings on the planet," and has expressed distaste for the site he claims is funded by George Soros. Media Matters maintains that it has never received funding from Soros "either directly or through another organization."

Al Franken

Al Franken's 2003 book Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look At the Right included a picture of O'Reilly on the cover and a chapter devoted to him inside. In his book, Franken accused O'Reilly of distorting facts both to serve conservative politics and to improve his public image.

Keith Olbermann

Olbermann's show Countdown on MSNBC, which airs opposite The O'Reilly Factor, is highly critical of O'Reilly. Olbermann frequently names O'Reilly in the "Worst Persons in the World" segment of the program.

Notable controversies

Bill O'Reilly has been involved in several controversies throughout the years.

American Red Cross and the United Way

After the September 11 terrorist attacks, O'Reilly devoted substantial time on his television show and wrote pieces accusing the United Way of America and American Red Cross of failing to deliver millions of dollars in donated money, raised by the organizations in the name of the disaster, to the families of those killed in the attacks. O'Reilly claimed that the organizations misrepresented their intentions for the money being raised by not distributing all of the 9/11 relief fund to the victims. Actor George Clooney responded to O'Reilly's claims, accusing O'Reilly of misstating facts (including confusing the United Way with the Red Cross), sloppy reporting and harming the relief effort by inciting "panic" among potential donors. Congressional hearings were called on the matter and an investigation by New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer took place. Bernadette Healey, the president of the Red Cross, resigned shortly thereafter. In a statement before the House Ways and Means Committee in November 2001, Congressman J.D. Hayworth asserted that media pressure, most notably from O'Reilly, helped cause the Red Cross to increase payments to affected people and helped cause other charities to participate in an oversight database established by Spitzer.

Harlem restaurant comments

On the September 19, 2007 edition of The Radio Factor, prior to having a discussion about racial stereotypes with fellow Fox News commentator and author Juan Williams, O'Reilly mentioned a lunch he had with Rev. Al Sharpton at Sylvia's restaurant in Harlem. Before Williams joined the discussion, he said that he "couldn't get over the fact that there was no difference between Sylvia's restaurant and any other restaurant in New York City. I mean, it was exactly the same, even though it's run by blacks, primarily black patronship." Later on the show, while discussing how white America feels that gangsta rappers dominate black culture, Williams stated, "Oh, and it’s just so awful. It’s just so awful because, I mean, it’s literally the sewer come to the surface, and now people take it that the sewer is the whole story", to which O'Reilly responded, "That’s right. That’s right. There wasn't one person in Sylvia's who was screaming, 'M-Fer, I want more iced tea'".

O'Reilly also said, "I think that black Americans are starting to think more and more for themselves, getting away from the Sharptons and the Jacksons and people trying to lead them into a race-based culture. They're just trying to figure it out. 'Look, I can make it. If I work hard and get educated, I can make it.'" Roland S. Martin of CNN said that the notion that black people are just now starting to value education is "ridiculous" and that the notion that black people let Sharpton or Jackson think for them is "nuts". He suggested that O'Reilly's view was "based upon a stereotype" and called on O'Reilly and others who think like him to "wake up".

Karl Frisch, spokesman for Media Matters, said O'Reilly's comments were "ignorant and racially charged." O'Reilly responded in his Talking Points Memo that he believed that Media Matters took him out of context. He defended his comments by saying, "It was an attempt to tell the radio audience that there is no difference black, white, we’re all Americans. The stereotypes they see on television are not true." O'Reilly said, "Media Matters distorted the entire conversation and implied I was racist for condemning racism."

Juan Williams said the criticism of O'Reilly was “rank dishonesty” and that the original comments "had nothing to do with racist ranting by anybody except by these idiots at CNN." Williams went on to say it was "frustrating" that the media try to criticize anyone who wanted to have an honest discussion about race.

On the Today show, host Matt Lauer said, "I thought Bill O'Reilly was saying that we should not be surprised." He said O'Reilly's point is that "the small group of people" who think that certain rappers represent all African Americans "need to get out and live life a little bit". Lauer later speculated that O'Reilly would want to get "a do-over" and phrase his comments differently.

Following the controversy, Jesse Jackson made his first appearance on the O'Reilly Factor. Jackson asked O'Reilly what he had intended by his comments and said that "to underestimate the civility of black people was offensive" but that the controversy over O'Reilly's remarks had obscured other, more important issues.

Controversy about O'Reilly's childhood home and upbringing

O'Reilly has long said that his inspiration for speaking up for average Americans, or what he calls "the folks", are his working-class roots. He has pointed to his boyhood home in Levittown, New York as a credential. In an interview with The Washington Post, O'Reilly's mother said that her family lived in Westbury, which is a few miles from Levittown. Citing this interview, Al Franken, Michael Kinsley, and others have accused O'Reilly of distorting his background to create a more working-class image.

O'Reilly has countered that The Washington Post misquoted his mother, and he said his mother still lives in his childhood home, which was built by William Levitt. O'Reilly placed a copy of the house's mortgage, which shows a Levittown postal address, on his website. Levittown was redrawn into a squarish shape to conform with the 11756 ZIP code, which was introduced in 1963. After this time the O'Reilly home was located in Westbury. On a 2005 episode of The Al Franken Show, Franken invited a Long Island historian onto the show, and she said that O'Reilly's statement about having lived in "the Westbury section of Levittown" was generally accurate and that the house could fairly be described as being in either town. She also said that O'Reilly's neighborhood was not the "hardscrabble" environment he suggested it was.

O'Reilly has also said, "You don't come from any lower than I came from on an economic scale" and that his father "never earned more than $35,000 a year in his life." Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting has calculated that adjusted for inflation, $35,000 in 1978 would be worth over $90,000 in 2001 dollars. O'Reilly has retorted that his father's $35,000 income only came at the end of his long career, at which point O'Reilly would have been long independent of his parents.

George Tiller

George Tiller, a controversial medical doctor, was shot dead on Sunday, May 31, 2009 while serving as an usher during worship services at Reformation Lutheran Church in Wichita. Shortly thereafter, the New York Times pointed to O'Reilly's claims about Tiller as incitements to violence against the doctor. O'Reilly denied such claims, insisting that his reporting about Tiller was factual and the murder should be condemned by all.

Tiller was first discussed on The O'Reilly Factor on February 25, 2005. Subsequently Tiller was discussed in at least 28 episodes before his death. On the show he was sometimes described as "Tiller the Baby Killer" and host Bill O'Reilly warned of what Tiller would face on "judgment day".

On November 3, 2006, O'Reilly featured an exclusive segment on his The O'Reilly Factor, saying that he had an "inside source" with official clinic documentation indicating that George Tiller performed late-term abortions to alleviate "temporary depression" in the pregnant woman. Tiller responded to O'Reilly's statements by demanding an investigation into the "inside source" through which the information was leaked, suggesting that Phill Kline, then the Kansas Attorney General, was responsible. Kline subsequently denied the charge.

O'Reilly denied that his criticism of Tiller incited the violence, defending his coverage saying "every single thing we said about Tiller was true, and my analysis was based on those facts". O'Reilly also denounced the action saying "clear-thinking Americans should condemn" the killing.

Civil rights activist Burt Neuborne said that speech such as O'Reilly's does not legally qualify as incitement and that calling it incitement rather than political speech diminishes "the ability to speak vigorously".

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• Articles with dead external links from November 2008
• Criticisms of living persons articles