I know that a few of my "O'Reilly fan" friends will probably be upset with me now after reading this blog, but I noticed a change in his style about a year after he started his The O'Reilly Factor show on FoxNews.
He started placing too much emphasis and too much show time on HIS counterpoints and opinions, instead of allowing his viewers to hear the reasoning from the guest "experts" that were the subjects of his interviews. I would rather not hear his counterpoints and opinions, and wish he allowed the extra time for me to hear the reasoning of his "expert" guests. It seems to me that after a year or so into his new job, he was bitten by the self-aggrandizement bug. Maybe that is impossible to avoid when the ratings go up? I call it the "You're All That" syndrome.
I see this effect in both the interviews with his "regularly scheduled" guests (the O'Reilly girls), and also in his interviews with his unique, one time only guest interviews. At the very least, to me, he often seems inconsiderate to both types of his guests. I understand that his job is to keep the guests "on topic", but that can be done without interjecting his counterpoints and views into the interviews. I think I know where he stands on most things (when I can keep up with the changes).
This video interview is a typical example of what I have been feeling more and more over the last several years. O'Reilly Interview . I wanted to hear much more of the doctor's opinions - she is the expert here.
Radio and TV hosts live in fear of losing their audiences to the clicker or the refrigerator. They feel if they know what a guest will say the audience does too and will move off, thus they jump on the guest to keep the intensity up. The problem is that often as not they make an unintelligible mess of it and nothing turns me, and perhaps many, off faster. As well, O'Reilly has a Levittown chip on his Manhattan shoulder. He will never get over it.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the "insider" insight Adrian. I know you have a lot of knowledge concerning media machinations.
ReplyDeleteThat may be why I became a little uncomfortable with O'Reilly - I felt like most of his "direction" of his interviews seemed designed to promote himself. I get a similar feeling from Geraldo.