The New York Times wrote an interesting article about how Bill O’Reilly does his ambush interviews. I am not a fan of O’Reilly and many of you saw the times he chose to come after me last year in response to our protests against his racist tactics. I personally don’t mind the existence of journalists like O’Reilly and never let him bother me too much. But I thought that some of you might want to know a bit more of the background behind how he attacks people he has personal beefs with. I actually find his existence to be a bit enjoyable….like watching a drunken frat boy urinating in the front seat of his car. O’Reilly is paying the bills in the best way he knows how, and I actually give him credit for his ability to take advantage of the racism that exists within our nation. In most countries around the world, O’Reilly wouldn’t have any viewers. But in America, he has the #1 cable news show in the country. I can’t even hate on that. America built O’Reilly and for the amount of money he’s making, he will probably continuing playing this role forever.
The article is below:
When Bill O’Reilly’s camera crew ambushed Mike Hoyt at a bus stop in Teaneck, N.J., a few months ago, the on-camera confrontation and the microphone in his face reminded him, oddly enough, of the “60 Minutes” interviewer Mike Wallace.
Fox News
Michael Hoyt, left, of The Columbia Journalism Review is interviewed by Dan Bank of “The O’Reilly Factor.”
Mr. Hoyt, executive editor of The Columbia Journalism Review, was well-versed in the venerable art of the on-camera, on-the-street confrontation, perfected by Mr. Wallace and other hard-charging television journalists in decades past. Now, in an appropriation of Mr. Wallace’s techniques, ambush interviews have become a distinguishing feature of Mr. O’Reilly’s program on the Fox News Channel.
Mr. Hoyt, one of more than 50 people that Mr. O’Reilly’s young producers have confronted in the past three years, said the interviews were “really just an attempt to make you look bad.” In almost every case Mr. O’Reilly uses the aggressive interviews to campaign for his point of view.
Mr. O’Reilly, the right-leaning commentator who has had the highest-rated cable show for about eight years, has called the interviews a way to hold people accountable for their actions. “When the bad guys won’t comment, when they run and hide, we will find them,” he said on “The O’Reilly Factor” recently.
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