Why do some people hate O'Reilly so much and say he isn't balanced?

Question

I personally think most of the people who hate him and his show are just idiots that probably haven't even watched one pecosecond of his show.

Just for all you O'Reilly haters that claim he is far-right, he has pissed off necons and the Bush administration because he is showing how they won't seal the borders and want blanket amnesty, how the war in Iraq is a mess, and he has even been labeled a "Communist" by some because he went after the oil barons for their obvious price gouging. Any response to that?

Also, according to recent cable stats release, FOX has the most viewers and the best ratings every night for the past five years, with O'Reilly leading the charge, so most Americans like him.

And by the way, when guests don't answer his questions and waste precious airtime he has every right to interrupt.

By the way, he is cool.

Answer 1

You can't please everyone. The Factor is number one because he tries to show both sides. Yes, he does not tolerate spinning the facts and will stop a guest when they do that. I don't see anyone else on TV that fights for the children more than Bill does. There will always be haters, especially when George Soros has a following.

Answer 2

Maybe because Bill O'Reilly lies. If you want to check out a pretty famous example of O'Reilly lying check these links out:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,197635,00.html

http://www.foxnews.com/wires/2006Aug14/0,4670,GuenterGrass,00.html

(I can use Fox News against you Cons...)

Bill O'Reilly claimed that U.S. soldiers slaughtered unarmed members of the SS at Malmedy. The fact is, that it is the other way around. SS soldiers slaughtered unarmed American solders at Malmedy. Not only did O'Reilly completely distort the truth, but he made it look as though U.S. soldiers were cold-blooded murderers when it was really the Nazi soldiers! Does this sound balanced to you? It sounds way more treasonous than anything the Cons have charged against us Liberals.

So, you can say that O'Reilly is balanced and you may say that he is always correct or whatever, but the facts clearly indicate something else entirely.

Answer 3

Bill O'Reilly is NOT far right but that does not mean that he is "balanced." His opinions are often backed with questionable stats and are often used to "spin" his argument.... and yes, he does "spin" in spite of his calling his show the "no spin factor."

Personally, I don't hate O'Reilly; he is entertaining and very articulate. Most of his guests are off-the-wall liberals that no one has heard of and more polished and well-known conservatives... so he stacks his show with liberal tomatos so the more capable conservatives can make the liberal side look silly. You have to admit this. I would never take facts from O'Reilly but I sometimes watch just because I think its very funny (usually I find O'Reilly's antics like "war on Christmas" so paranoid and ridiculous that I think even HE doesn't believe some of the things he says).

Like I said, I don't hate him but I see him as a entertainer instead of a journalist.

One note though... anyone who claims to be "fair" on a daily basis, that he actually has to say THAT... well, just be fair and then you don't have to say it... O'Reilly always has to say how fair he is. If he was really fair then why does he have to constantly tell us that? Only people like you buy that... you can like him but he is not fair.... and that's okay, its his show.

Answer 4

Funny that I saw this, I was just watching some videos on youtube by C0ct0pusPrime. In case you aren't aware, this guy absolutely despises Fox and has a whole bunch of "F*** Fox" videos. The guy's brilliant, takes all sorts of clips from Fox and just attacks everything they say with undeniable logic and reasoning. No intelligent person would ever rely on that network.

Answer 5

It's because he interrupts an answer to belittle the guest and make them appear wrong and stupid. That isn't balanced. He had one guest on and was talking about torture, and the guest was answering the question, and when the guest started to answer in a way that wasn't in line with the Neoconservatives, he cut him off.
Guest..."Well, it could work, but..."
OReilly..."I think if it helps us win, it should be done regardless of what it is."
You have no idea what the guest was going to say, but it probably wasn't an endorsement for torture, and he may have only tried to say that issue was "complicated", but he was cut off, because he needs to stick his two cents in and make sure that all the news has HIS spin on it.

Fair and balanced means you give both sides equal opportunity to speak, without interrupting, and sacrificing your airtime if they don't answer tough questions in sixty seconds.

Answer 6

If Bill O'Reilly is "balanced" then Iraq isn't a disaster.

Check out Media Matters when you get a chance.
They have plenty of instances of Billo's many nice friendly chats with guests. If you consider him telling someone to "shut up" and yelling at his guests okay and fair.

Your right thought....for his Time slot he is leading the pack.
But for the last 4-5 years he's been losing plenty of viewers to Olbermann.

And for the record, I used to be an O'Reilly viewer.
Then I stopped like the spin he would put on everything.
Also, I do not hate the man. Just don't care for his version of "No Spin" and "Fair & Balanced".

And please stop saying he's not Far-Right.
He's way out there...just like Rosie is as Liberal as Liberal gets.

Answer 7

Bill gets around 3-5 million viewers on average...

out of 300 million Americans... that's like 1-2 percent

just because he's no. 1 on cable news... doesn't mean most Americans watch him... it just means that most people don't watch cable news... and the few that do tend to watch him more...

and he's an idiot... about 30 minutes of watching him, if you keep up with the news... and you easily realize this...

Answer 8

I'm not a big fan of O'reilly but I don't hate him. He obviously leans conservative but at least he brings opposing viewpoints on his show.

I think you are right that most of the people who hate him have never watched the show. I try to watch all the news channels to get info from both sides. I don't find Fox news as conservative biased as I find MSNBC and CNN to be liberal biased, but you have to watch them all if you want enough information to form you own opinion. I find that most people who don't watch Fox because of their perceived biased are closed minded. They dismiss any information that does not fit into their preconceived opinions as being not credible.

I watched the most hypocritical thing I have ever seen on MSNBC not too long ago. Keith Olberman having Rachael Maddow as a guest on his show talking about how biased Fox News Channel is.

Answer 9

He's too leftwinged on too many things and it drives me nuts.

So he's just like everybody else in this country and in our fake two party system that behaves like it's a one party system.

Anyone who subscribes to political correctness on any level is mentally ill.

It's a religion just like the green movement.

We're starting to look more and more like an authoritarian state with a populace that embraces groupthink in lock-step with it.And then we appear to be getting a new "green" enviro-religion along with that.

Gee,doesn't that sound just a little bit too much like Nazi Germany?

And then they are all internationalists/socialists who want no borders and a world government.

Gee,doesn't that sound a little too much like Marx's demented vision?

So I guess CommuNazism for all then?

I'd prefer Independence with liberty and justice for all.

Answer 10

Inflated ego that he must have stroked each and every night. He takes command of the show and must always be right. he can dish out the criticism to others. But he will spend time on the show denouncing and one who appose or is critical of Bill.