Bill O’Reilly‘s “Most Ridiculous Item of the Day” related to ratings last night. He says: “The ratings for April are in, and here at ‘The Factor,’ we improved our total audience over April 2005. A nice achievement since the pope died last April, and there was huge interest in that story. We thank you all very much.”

(O’Reilly actually lost viewers at 8 p.m. compared to April 2005. He averaged 2,102,000 last month, compared to 2,178,000 for the same month last year. O’Reilly must be combining his 8 p.m. average with the repeats at 11 p.m. and 4 a.m.)

“But if you read some of the FOX hating print press, you’d never know how well we’re doing, actually, because the writers in the Los Angeles Times and Rocky Mountain News, among others, want to prop up our competition.” Then he praised Brian Lowry‘s column in Variety, and offered “more truth:” “Last Thursday evening, in total audience, The Factor beat CNN by more than 300 percent and MSNBC by an astounding 500 percent.”

(Now he’s comparing the 8 p.m. averages again.)

“The Factor’s third rerun at 4 in the morning actually beat MSNBC’s 8 p.m. original.”

(Now he’s comparing just the 4 a.m. repeat.)

“So the next time you read nonsense about cable news ratings, please understand it is disseminated by people who despise this network,” O’Reilly said.