Bill O’Reilly: ‘We’ve Been Pretty Independent for a Long Period of Time’

Bill O’Reilly is featured in this Sunday’s Los Angeles Times‘ Calendar section with the question: “In a time of political turmoil, can the Fox News commentator be seen as a moderate?” From Matea Gold:

“The O’Reilly Factor,” which kicks off the network’s prime-time lineup, is Fox News’ most valuable advertising vehicle, a fact evident in O’Reilly’s salary, which is well north of $10 million a year, according to a person familiar with the terms. This year, he is on track to record his best ratings ever, averaging 3.7 million viewers, up 8% over 2009, according to Nielsen. His competitors lag far behind, with MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann pulling 984,000 viewers on average and CNN’s Campbell Brown drawing 635,000.

“The dirty little secret of Bill’s show is people tune in who like him and people tune in who don’t like him,” said Bill Shine, executive vice president for programming. While Beck’s colleague, Brit Hume, says, “Other channels have thrown everything they could at him, and there he is. At this point, Bill is kind of supreme.”

(Photo: Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

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