Customer Reviews

The Man Who Would Not Shut Up: The Rise of Bill O'Reilly

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Well, Marvin Kitman tells us in advance that he's a liberal but that's not going to prevent his writing an objective account of Bill O'Reilly, and that's exactly what he proceeds to do. I have no complaints about the fairness of his perspective. In fact, I am somewhat amazed that the mighty, megamouthed star did not sanction it as official biography. This is a book he should be proud of. Kitman even, at certain points, is unquestionably kindly disposed towards his subject. We are given a brief summary of his life; a life in which his standing was, for the most part, more marginal than supreme. To non-fans like myself, his immense appeal is not easy to comprehend. What does seem clear is that he is a sincere person who cares about his family and country. Behind his dramatic atmopsherics lies an iron anvil of belief. One also gets the sense that there is not anything else he'd rather be doing that getting before that microphone. In actuality, it's not hard to understand how an old-school liberal like Kitman would appreciate a guy like O'Reilly. The icon's views are not generic, and no party I know of is mercurial enough to encompass all of his positions ...and ego. As far as specifics go, I have to say that before opening The Man who Would Not Shut Up I never knew what exactly happened with the sexual harassment suit brought against him, yet I am now ashamed and angered that he allowed himself to be taken advantage of by such a sinister person. Regardless of cost, he should have taken that scammer to trial. This is a riveting and concise read.

I have a couple of alternate titles for Marvin Kitman's latest book, "The Man Who Would Not Shut Up: The Rise of Bill O'Reilly." He could have called it "What Makes Bill Run" or "Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about Bill O'Reilly but were Too Freakin' Terrified to Ask." Kudos to Kitman on writing a book that is not only an in depth study of a modern media phenom, but an incisive no holds barred commentary on the state of TV journalism today - and how it got that way. Who better to present that analysis than the man who was Newsday's former top television/media critic for 35 years?

Kitman takes O'Reilly apart and puts him back together again. The result is a fair and balanced portrait that might make you change your mind about The Zone Czar. You may not come away loving him but you certainly will understand him and perhaps even respect him.

Did you know that O'Reilly holds two master's degrees; one in broadcast journalism from Boston University, the other from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard? Would it surprise you to learn that Bobby Kennedy is the politician most admired by O'Reilly during his lifetime or that he's a proponent of gun control, sex education in the schools and federal negotiation to lower pharmaceutical costs? Before I start sounding like Anne Coulter, Kitman also points out that O'Reilly can be arrogant, abrasive, egotistical and cheap.



Kitman conducted 29 interviews with O'Reilly in his office, at his home and other non-spin venues. He spoke to his childhood friends, relatives, former bosses, co-workers and checked out old videotapes of O'Reilly's early career. There are also a number of great personal photos, including an adorable little O'Reilly at his first communion and others showing a startlingly handsome teenager and young man.

Kitman provides front row seats to O'Reilly's verbal wrestling matches with Jon Stewart, Keith Olbermann, Barney Frank, David Letterman, Barbara Walters, former New York Governor Hugh Carey and the country of Canada, to name a few. (The coverage of O'Reilly's famous feud with Al Franken is a gem.) On the balance side, Kitman also notes that the greatly admired ABC anchor Peter Jennings had high regard for O'Reilly's ability and considered him a friend.

And in what can be considered a major journalistic coup, Kitman answers a question that has plagued O'Reilly supporters and detractors for years. Was Fox's man of the people (a native Long Islander) raised in blue collar Levittown or upscale Westbury? For that answer and a seriously entertaining look at Bill O'Reilly and the world of television news, read Kitman's book. And that's no spin.

I already knew that Marvin Kitman had written an "unauthorized" biography of Bill O'Reilly a couple of years ago titled "The Man Who Would Not Shut Up," and I honestly never really thought it would be a serious or worthwhile read. But after reading the one or two sane reviews on Amazon.com, I decided to give it a try. I was not only surprised, I was for the most part pleasantly surprised.

I think it was initially the book title that probably caused me to give the book a pass. But after seeing the tremendous amount of time and research Kitman put into this book, which included almost thirty interviews with O'Reilly himself, I was ready to give it a serious look. Kitman beautifully lays out the book in five very informative and chronological parts. He spends more than half of the book (Part I) taking a detailed look at O'Reilly's pre-The Factor life. He appropriately titles this section "The Making of an O'Reilly." If you have already read O'Reilly's latest biography, "A Bold Fresh Piece of Humanity," a lot of the information in Kitman's book is familiar ground, yet is presented from a different and a very interesting point of view. In this part, Kitman mostly just lays out the biographical facts, while inserting only a limited amount of opinions, observations and analysis from the biographer.

Kitman makes no attempt to hide the fact that his is a liberal and has little in common with Bill O'Reilly. But I believe most readers will at least be satisfied that he certainly did his homework in compiling the research and interviews for this book. Kitman spent five years of researching background material, conducting interviews and locating classic black and white pictures and legal documents in preparation for writing this book!

The book is filled with revealing quotes from O'Reilly himself (Of course), and a virtual "who's-who" of O'Reilly's childhood friends, teachers, schoolmates, coworkers, employees, bosses, rivals, friends and foes alike. Kitman really went all out with interviewing those in O'Reilly's past. This is what I found to be the strongest and most impressive aspect of the book.

Though Kitman admits most of those in broadcast news write O'Reilly off as little more than a demented, obnoxious, insufferable loudmouth (and Kitman admittedly agrees with them), but during the writing of this book he also admits that there is much more to O'Reilly than meets the eye; a much deeper person and journalist than the blustery and physically imposing man (6'4", 200+ pounds) he first encountered. This book is no simple caricature of Bill O'Reilly, but an intimate and sometimes moving look at the man and what really matters to him. He follows O'Reilly through his rough years at home, in school, his experiences as a high school teacher in Florida, and as a nonconformist in the world of written journalism and broadcast news.

In Part II, Kitman covers O'Reilly's rise to the position of senior anchor and "boss" of The O'Reilly Factor on the FOX News Channel. Most people in broadcast news try to simply pigeonhole O'Reilly as just another rigid conservative and not worth listening to. But Kitman believes journalism needs more unconventional, independent freethinkers like O'Reilly; trained journalists, reporting the news others won't touch and providing balanced analysis, coupled with their own viewpoint in addressing as many of the public's tough questions as possible.

I enjoyed getting to know more about O'Reilly's family, sister, wife, and two children, something O'Reilly has stayed far away from talking about. I least enjoyed the latter chapters of the book (especially Part III) where Kitman seems to lose focus as a biographer and begins to join the other "anti-Spinheads" by launching his own personal insults at O'Reilly. I felt this departure from standard biographical form detracted from an otherwise excellent book.

By the time you near the end of this book, you will probably realize that Kitman genuinely likes O'Reilly. Not his arrogant persona, mind you. He really likes O'Reilly, the journalist. Note the following quotes:

** "Every night he brings passion to the tube....Those are the things that won me over. I liked O'Reilly's anger. He goes after the dragon, what Fred Friendly, Ed Murrow's producer at CBS News used to say was the true function of news. O'Reilly has the fire of a reformer, a man who got angry at social injustice, as he saw it. He wasn't afraid to get involved."

** "I think it's probably a better world having people like him (O'Reilly) on the TV news.

** "O'Reilly is a serious journalist who doesn't play by the rules of objectivity. He is not alone in considering news and analysis valid journalism. Actually, he is a throwback to the way it was in the old days when CBS News was the paragon, the model for all TV news."

I believe the quotes above speak for themselves.

I do have one minor administrative note for your reading entertainment. This is the second book I have read this year where the writer, or maybe the publisher, chose to use, in my opinion, a near useless format for their End Notes. There are no notations in the text to even indicate there are any End Notes. Then, when you find there are pages and more pages of notes (22 pages in this book!), the only indicator what each note is referencing to is a page number. No indication on what line or what specific information on the page the note is referencing to. This was very aggravating for me since I see real value in footnoting. I realize the traditional form of Footnotes or End Notes (The kind most of us learned in high school and college) take more time and effort, but in this book anyway, the author would have garnered the undying gratitude of readers like me if the traditional method was used. Enough grumbling about that. The book also contains and excellent Bibliography and an Index.

In closing, whether you are a "Spinhead", an "Anti-Spinhead" or you are just too busy watching reruns of American Idol to care either way, there is definitely something in this book for every reader to either really love, or really despise in "The Man Who Would Not Shut Up (The Rise of Bill O'Reilly)." Go ahead and take a chance; You simply can't go wrong here.

Author Kitman has written an indepth behind the scenes perspective on Bill O'Reilly. This book reveals a bristling, tough, knowledgeable, person,shaped by some not so nice events in his own life. We learn about some of the cruel and unfair treatment he received as a young man coming of age --- and while attempting to climb the television journalism ladder of success. In some instances, Marvin Kitman shows readers that Bill was a major contributor to his own difficulties. At other times his out-spoken candor, individuality, intelligence, talent, high-energy level, true grit, and intense work ethic served as the catalyst.


The book is well written. It overflows with past and current O'Reilly capers. Just to mention a few; with Joey Bishop, Keith Hernandez, Mike Wallace, Mike Kinsley, Sen. John McCain, Roger Ailes, Monica Collins, Madeleine Albright, Geraldo Rivera, Levittown, the Marx brothers old house, Al Franken, Keith Olbermann, David Letterman, Peter Jennings.

Thank you Marvin Kitman for an informative book, but you could have included at least one interview with Ms Arthelle Neville, who used to critique Bill O'Reilly on his own "No-spin zone" show. I enjoyed watching that portion of the show. He accepted her criticisms with good humor. Her commentary in this book might have been very interesting.

An interesting read on how Bill O'Reilly came to be the pundit we see today. If you are interested in the background on today's comentators, this is an enlightening book by an independent observer.

THE BOOK I RECEIVED,ALTHOUGH USED WAS IN EXCELLENT CONDITION. WOULD PURCHASE FROM HERE AGAIN. THANKS ^_^

This is a good read. It doesn't gloss over, nor fully agree with, O'Reilly's immovable viewpoints but is sympathetic to what he's trying to do. You get some info on O'Reilly's origins and how he came by his strong opinions as well as the kind of life he leads off-camera. You certainly don't have to be a right-winger to enjoy this book, just have an interest in how people develop into what they become as adults and how a few can persist against popular opinion. You also can see, if you're looking, that O'Reilly, and probably other high profile voices, don't take themselves nearly as seriously as they appear to on camera and certainly not a seriosly as some of their critics.

I don't often give five stars, but this book is deserving of one. I knew a little bit about O'Reilly's background. I watch his show, but flip over to other channels quite a bit. On whole I probably watch about 20% of his show on average. Most interesting is his interviews with Dick Morris and Karl Rove.

I find it interesting that O'Reilly is a cheapskate and that he prefers living on Long Island as opposed to Manhatten. It probably helps keep him grounded. Too bad other media stars don't do the same. He drives used cars, as cars mean nothing to him. Can he be all that bad? Yes, he has his character flaws, but then so does everybody else in the media or elsewhere. I did appreciate the insight to newsrooms and the politics of working in TV. It's realy not much different than what everybody else who works for a living has to put up with on a daily basis.

Read the book and judge for yourself providing your neutral or a conservative. Liberals will get heartburn as they love to hate Mr. O.

A very well written book...told me lots of things I did not know
about Bill O'Reilly.
What a man of character he is...
Have now read several of his books that he wrote.....
This book written by another person brings out his entire life
and I am proud to say I would recommend it to everyone.

Having done such a fine job putting our past political history into perspective for the layman with his "Making of the Prefident 1776" and " George Washington's Expense account", Kitman performs a similar service with this up-to-date topic, Love him, or hate him,The (No!) (Yes!) Spinmeister,...Bill O'Reilly. Whatever side you eventually come down on, Kitman provides you with an entertaining, if no nonsense account of how Senior O'Reilly wound up sitting on his pile of,...papers. Unlike many biographers who take up page after page with their solopsistic quips of their own Freudian analysis of whoever they happen to be writing about, Kitman lets you make up your mind for yourself. This turns out to be a smart move. Because the truth is that we can turn on the tube to watch him nightly to see for ourselves what to personally make of this man. What we need, and what Kitman delivers, is the meat, his childhood, (including grade-school photos! Now That's research!), his early stabs at a career, even the stories of how network news-shows operate, (merely another reason to read the book, almost two stories for the price of one!, for those interested in that side,...and it IS fascinating to learn how these people who, shape/try to shape, our take on the world operate in their little moral vacuum), and the timetable and snowballing of O'Reilly's heave-ho to the top of the "junk-news heap".
Mr. Kitman has obviously spent his time pouring over every photo and document made available to him to share every, (some tawdry, but all interesting and insightful), tale that led this "everyman" from "Blue-collar-ville" Long Island to become someone many people love or love to hate. Whichever side of the fence one winds up on, Kitmans depth of research gives you a strong platform of facts on which to make your stand.
When I was a kid, my Grandfather told me that, "To become a great man, you should read the lives of great men". Well, let it be said that it is as important to read "greatly about the man I wish not to become". But the second are usually the more fun to read, as is the case here. And with the secondary tale of the rising non-stop pablum-fest that TV news has become, (which daily causes my own cookies to almost rise!) and how it got that way, it is more than a worthy "thirty bucks" spent to get Kitman's "two cents" on this man who would so love to "change" our world and how we perceive it. Light on Spin and heavy on facts, "The Man Who Would Not Shut Up" will leave you "shut-in" as a weighty addition to your library from first page to last.