As part of my media-culture thesis at the University of Levittown, I wanted to determine how much, if any, heavy doses of particular broadcasts affects the mental, emotional and physical health of the viewer or, in some cases, viewee.That lead me to Bill O'Reilly. As an admitted liberal, card-carrying member of the ACLU and enthusiastic contributor to PETA, I knew I had to leave my beliefs and bias at door. I would watch and listen to Bill O'Reilly everyday for a month. Two hours of radio in the morning and one every evening on Fox TV. This type of trial is always risky, but to advance the study of culture influences on mankind, I'd even listen to Michael Savage.
To produce a clear distinction between the O'Reilly effect and not let extraneous environmental conditions bias the study's results, when O'Reilly wasn't on the air, I would read O'Reilly's books, fiction and non-fiction, adult and kids and spend the balance of each day pouring over BillOreilly.com.
Here are the results.
Monday, 8AM: Except for a slightly diminishing libido, a complete examination by a licensed chiropractor suggested a clean bill of health.
9:06AM: Tuned the AM dial to "The Radio Factor," O'Reilly's two-hour radio program just in time to hear opening litany of sound-bites where Bill is praised and dazed by a lot of folks. Meryl Streep is heard to say, "I'm just an actor, this is not the Factor." I don't get it.
9:10AM Bill says he hates the blather from the left AND the talk radio right. He spends the rest of the rest of the hour ripping the blather from the left.
9:15AM: Bill seems to be ripping into some guy named Stuart Smalley who's running for the U.S. Senate, telling him to "shut up!" Seemingly contradicting an earlier assertion that he never tells anyone to READ THE REST OF THE SUDY HERE:
Steve Young blogs at steveyoungonpolitics.com
