FAQ: General Questions
Frequently Asked Questions from the Bill O'Reilly Audience


1. I want to send an email to Bill. Do you mean I have to pay to contact Bill?
You don't have to pay anything to send Bill an email. Anyone can send an email to Bill by emailing him at bill@billoreilly.com. However, Premium Members at Bill O'Reilly have three additional ways of getting Bill to directly respond to them:

1: Ask Bill - where Premium Member's questions to Bill are delivered right to his office.

2: Message Boards - where Premium Members can interact with one another and Bill and his production team.

3: Exclusive Webcasts - Where Bill answers your emails directly on a streaming video cast.

2. Where can I find Bill's "Radio Factor" program streaming on the Internet?
Licensed live and on demand streaming audio of each day's "Radio Factor" are available exclusively at Bill O'Reilly.
You must be a Bill O'Reilly Premium Member to access these features. Click here to learn more the benefits of Bill O'Reilly Premium Membership.

3. Is Bill a Republican, Democrat, or what?
Bill is independent.

In his latest best-selling book, Who's Looking Out for You, Bill writes, "...ideologues can never look out for you. They are too blinded by the light on the right or the left and will never see things for what they really are. If you become an ideological prisoner, the truth will always elude you because you will never seek it. Instead, you'll evaluate each issue and problem with an agenda: trying to prove your ideology is correct."

In his first best-selling book, The O'Reilly Factor, Bill writes: "...You might be wondering if I'm conservative, liberal, libertarian, or exactly what... I don't want to fit any of those labels, because I believe that the truth doesn't have labels. When I see corruption, I try to expose it. When I see exploitation, I try to fight it. That's my political position."

Millions of Americans of all political persuasions have embraced Bill's books, television program, radio program and print columns precisely because Bill doesn't root for the political right or the left - he bashes corruption and incompetence and exposes fraud and outrage regardless of party.

As Bill likes to say, "I'm conservative on some issues, liberal on others, and sane on most."

4. Where does Bill get his story ideas from?
Bill looks to his audience - on television, on radio, in print or on the web - for story ideas.

He reviews Bill O'Reilly Premium Member Viewer Voting and e-mails every morning, reads thousands of viewer e-mails to bill@billoreilly.com every month, and gets some of his best story ideas when he meets folks just like you during public appearances.

Additionally, Bill and his team of producers, researchers, fact-checkers and bookers constantly look at major news sources - television networks, cable television networks, newspapers, magazines, web sites, etc. - for stories that could be of interest to Bill's audience.

Bill also taps the outstanding contacts he's made in over two decades as an award-winning journalist for story ideas.

5. How are stories chosen?
Each morning, Bill holds planning meetings for The Radio Factor and The O'Reilly Factor television programs.

Additionally, Bill holds "pitch meetings" about twice a week with his staff for long-lead stories (enterprise journalism/investigations/etc.).

During these meetings, Bill is joined by his Executive Producer (David Tabacoff), show producers, web producers, and bookers for the radio and television programs. Stories are pitched and debated (often vigorously).

Many times, great story ideas come directly from you, the Factor fans, from your e-mails to Bill at bill@billoreilly.com (this is the best way to suggest a story idea to Bill and his team).

Stories are evaluated on criteria such as:

  • Is the story newsworthy?
  • Is the story interesting?
  • How many people are affected by the story?
  • Is the story indicative of a dangerous - or promising - social trend?
  • Is the story being covered accurately by mainstream media?
  • Is the story about corruption - and can exposing the story help hold the "corrupters" accountable?
  • Is the story about a subject important to America's national security?
  • Is the story about a subject important for America's children?
After stories air on The O'Reilly Factor and The Radio Factor, Bill reviews e-mails from (and Viewer Voting by) Bill O'Reilly Premium Members - to make sure that you, the O'Reilly fans, feel we're meeting our mission to serve you.

6. How do guests get selected to appear on the O'Reilly Factor?
Bill's production team includes several "bookers" - people who specialize in finding appropriate guests for Bill's show.

The guests are chosen by evaluating a number of factors, including:
  • Can they offer expertise or insights on a topic?
  • Do they have a personal connection to the story?
  • Can they make pithy comments - can they appropriately represent their point of view on TV?
  • Can they meet the tight production deadlines of out television and/or programs?
  • Have they appeared on Bill's programs recently - and if so, does Bill's audience like them?
One of the challenges facing Bill's bookers is the incredible breadth of subjects Bill discusses - in a single week, a booker may have to procure guests like Bush administration officials, Clinton administration officials, political operatives, military officials, legal analysts, celebrities, musicians, teachers, sports stars and much more.

7. How do callers get selected to go "on the air" with Bill on his radio show?
When a person calls into The Radio Factor, his/her call is answered in the radio broadcast studio by one of Bill's producers.

The producer gathers the following information from the caller: name, town, and brief summary of the topics the caller wants to discuss.

The producer then passes this information to Bill - and Bill makes the final choice as to whether a particular caller gets on the air.

Since the show gets hundreds of calls a day, it's impossible to put every caller on air, but Bill tries his best to work in as many callers as possible within the context of each program.

8. What's the difference between subscribing to your mailing list and becoming a Premium Member?
Anyone can subscribe to the free Bill O'Reilly mailing list to receive email updates about the site. Just type your email address in the SUBSCRIBE field on the homepage, or click "subscribe to newsletter" on the "Bill Interactive" drop-down menu and fill out the field on that page, and you'll be placed on our mailing list. Of course, you can unsubscribe anytime.

Simply signing up for the free newsletter does NOT make you a Premium Member or provide access to Members Only areas of the web site.

To access Premium Member areas of Bill O'Reilly you need to purchase a Premium Membership by visiting the Bill O'Reilly store. You can get more information on Premium Member benefits by clicking here: Read more about Premium Members Benefits

Do you have a question you'd like to see answered here? Click Here to email