The Daily Free Press
“The O’Reilly Factor” succeeds because it entertains and engages viewers while other news programs bore viewers, Fox News host Bill O’Reilly said Friday at Boston University about his news commentary show.
“If you give [viewers] a product that is entertaining and informative, you win,” O’Reilly, a 1975 BU alumnus, said. “If you don’t, you get murdered.”
Former NBC News Executive Vice President Bill Wheatley, a 1970 alumnus, interviewed O’Reilly, the host of the top-rated “O’Reilly Factor” on Fox News, as part of a conversation titled “A Bold Fresh Look at the Future of News” at a College of Communication alumni lecture at Metcalf Hall. More than 450 students, faculty members and alumni attended the talk.
The discussion took on the elements of a “Factor” episode with O’Reilly sharing his opinions with the crowd on a variety of topics.
Media outlets must be stimulating and interesting in order to thrive, O’Reilly said.
O’Reilly cited Campbell Brown’s primetime news show on CNN as an example of a more traditional show that is not succeeding. More…