Hater Hall of Shame: Bill O’Reilly Edition

(I’d say that pretty much sums it up, but they left out sexual deviant)
Bill O’Reilly,  Born September 10, 1949

William James O’Reilly Jr. was born in New York City to William James Sr. and Winifred Drake-O’Reilly; his father worked as accountant for an oil company, and his mother was a homemaker.  At a young age, his family moved from Fort Lee, New Jersey to Levittown on Long Island.  Bill attended St. Brigid parochial school, and then Chaminade High School – a private Catholic boy’s school in Mineola, NY.  After he graduated in 1967, O’Reilly attended Marist College at the urging of his father.  At Marist, he was a punter on the football team - I would have pegged him as more of a defensive back – and wrote for the school newspaper.  His junior year, he studied abroad and attended Queen Mary College at the University of London.  This is a surprising educational background for someone who once told the New York Observer, “You don’t come from any lower than I came from on an economic scale.” – I don’t know many kids from dirt-poor families who attended private school and studied in Europe.

After graduation, O’Reilly moved to Miami and began teaching English and History at Monsignor Place High School, where he worked for two years.  In 1973, O’Reilly returned to school and received a Masters in Broadcast Journalism from Boston University.  While there, he was a reporter and columnist for several local newspapers; he would also go on to attend Harvard University’s JFK School of Government, earning a Masters in Public Administration.  His television career began at WNEP-TV in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and led him to other local TV gigs in Dallas, Denver, Portland, and Boston, among others.  In 1991, Bill became the anchor of a sensationalistic tabloid/gossip program called Inside Edition, and began to hone his skills as an opinionated, self-righteous blowhard.  In 1996, his unique brand of douchebaggery caught the eye of Roger Ailes, who was the chairman and CEO of the newly formed FOX News Channel.  Mr. Ailes believed O’Reilly would be a perfect fit for their opinion-based brand of news - probably because he was both stubborn and stupid – and The O’Reilly Factorwas born.  Since its debut on October 7th, 2006, this program has become one of the most-watched cable news-ish shows, and averages around 3.5 million viewers a night.  The show has also had its fair share of detractors, and is constantly under fire for “distorting facts and providing misleading information to the masses” - I’m pretty sure that is FOX News’s slogan too.

I’d like to end this with my favorite tidbit of info about Bill, which involves the sexual harassment case brought against him by a female FOX News producer back in 2003.  Andrea Mackis claimed that over the course of her employment, O’Reilly had repeatedly spoke to her about topics like “phone sex, vibrators, threesomes, masturbation, the loss of his virginity, and sexual fantasies.”  He publicly denied any wrongdoing, and claimed to be the victim of an extortion plot; but O’Reilly and Mackis ended up settling out of court for an undisclosed amount of money, meaning the lawsuit was eventually dropped.  Luckily, The Smoking Gun was able to obtain a copy of the Mackis’s complaint, which is rife with all kinds of sordid details and alleged vomit-inducing conversations.  Here are a few excerpts describing the “quid pro quo” harassment – most of which are too detailed and explicit to be untrue, in my opinion - including O’Reilly doing his best Tony Montana impression:

• “O’Reilly advised Mackin to pick up 23 year-old men in bars…and to use her vibrator to blow off steam. He also informed her that he advised another women to purchase a vibrator, and taught her how to masturbate over the phone.”
• During one phone conversation, “O’Reilly informed Mackis that he was watching a porno movie, and babbled perversely regarding his fantasies concerning Caribbean vacations”.  Then O’Reilly began to go Penthouse Forum on her, and described what would happen if they went on this type of vacation together.  At one point, Slick Billy started describing a shower fantasy:  ”I’d be rubbing your big boobs and getting your nipples really hard, kinda kissing your neck from behind…and then I would take the other hand with the falafel thing (?!?) and I’d put in on your pussy but you’d have to do it really light…just kind of a tease business.”
• When the subject of previous exploits with former female employees was brought up, Mackis hinted to O’Reilly that one of them might tell someone.  To which he responded: “If any woman ever breathed a word, I’ll make her pay so dearly she’ll wish she’d never been born”.  He would also go on to say, “If you cross FOX News Channel, it’s not just me, it’s Roger Ailes (FOX President) who will go after you…Ailes operates behind the scenes, strategizes and makes things happen so that one day BAM!  Look at Al Franken, one day he’s going to get a knock on his door and life as he’s known it will change forever.  That day will happen, trust me”.

  (Entire transcipt found Here)

I’m not as surprised at the freak out as I am by a Journalism major who can’t figure out what the term ”play us out” means:

Stephen Colbert goes toe-to-toe with “Papa Bear”:

Lil’ O’Reilly rips Massachusetts congressman Barney Frank a new one:

(Original interview w/ Barney Frank here)