And for me, the obvious assumption was that he was just playing the role of "straight talkin tough who cuts of the mike of the longhairs"..., that the "___ Factor" was just a concept dreamed up by the puppetmasters at FOX and Bill auditioned and got the gig.  If auditions had gone a different day, the show would have ended up "Fritz Factor" or "Farnsworthy Factor".

This opinion was supported by the observation that O'reilly seems to quickly lose his focus when he takes off the earpiece and wanders onto another TV venue (where he usually pussies out big time or drifts into his stale "Joe New Jersey" bit.

Now this is probably true of many fake news celebs, Edie Tarbox is another obvious Fox example of the classic bubble head but it certainly extends the length and breadth of network and cable news.

My anger is never really aimed at the talking heads themselves but rather at that earpiece and the people on the other end of the line (except Diane Sawyer! she is the devil)

Maybe this is obvious enough to all, but my problem is that responses to "O'reilly war on Joy" seem sincerely aimed at O'Reilly as if he were a real person rather than a TV character.  Am I alone i thinking of Bill O'reilly (the actor) as equal parts non-journalist and non-satirist..My confusion really began with the Franken bookfair showdown...and with the introduction of the Colbert Report (which sets out to spoof O'reilly as if the Factor was not the joke I thought it was)...I am totally lost...am I suppose to be enjoying some kind of meta joke?...is this all real?...can someone please talk me down?