One man's culture war: Bill O'Reilly sticks up for the little guy--that is, himself.

• Author: Young, Cathy
• Position: Columns

ON OCTOBER 5, 2006, Bill O'Reilly left his fellow Fox host Neil Cavuto nearly speechless with a rant against the liberal financier and philanthropist George Soros, whom Cavuto had just interviewed. O'Reilly called Soros "the single most dangerous individual in the United States of America. And his assassins, the people he hires to harm the people with whom he disagrees." When Cavuto noted that Soros had given money to many good causes, O'Reilly shot back, "Mussolini made the trains run on time, Neil." The genial Cavuto could only sputter, "Oh man--oh man."

This tirade bears all the hallmarks of the O'Reilly Factor host's current act: demonized opponents, over-the-top rhetoric, and an intensely personal preoccupation with alleged character assassins.

A confession: I used to be a bit of an O'Reilly fan. I was always put off by his authoritarian leanings, his black-and-white approach to the world, and his habit of invoking "the children" as a catchall justification for social policies; but his common-sense populism could be a refreshing response to intellectual pretensions and political correctness. Today, O'Reilly has not lost the independent streak that sets him apart from GOP apparatchiks like Sean Hannity. But shrill, intolerant rhetoric has almost entirely eclipsed intelligent discussion on his show, and his pugnacious but likable populism has given way to a paranoid and venomous self-aggrandizement.

O'Reilly cultivates an image of a giant almost single-handedly fighting for "the folks" against slimy politicians, elitist journalists, nutty professors, namby-pamby judges, and greedy corporations. Sometimes he champions unquestionably good causes, such as the rights of abused children. But even then, he undercuts his own stance with grandstanding and selective presentation of facts.

Early in 2006, for example, O'Reilly went after Edward Cashman, a Vermont judge who gave a child molester 60 days in jail (or, to be precise, suspended all but 60 days of his 10-years-to-life sentence) because he couldn't get treatment in prison. O'Reilly's campaign, which included the threat of instigating a boycott against Vermont, left out a few salient facts: that the offender was mentally retarded and apparently did not understand the nature of his offense, and that his release was contingent on constant monitoring and treatment.

O'Reilly's bigger cause is the alleged culture war between "traditionalists" and "secular-progressives" (or "S-Ps"). The cover of...