Inside outsiders: Three media mavericks come to terms with success.

• Author: Kurtz, Steve
• Position: Cultres & Reviews

Matt Drudge, Larry Elder, and Bill O'Reilly are all media figures who sell their politics through a mix of news and entertainment. While they may have different beliefs, one thing unites them: They define themselves defiantly as outsiders. Thumbing their noses at the "mainstream media," they claim to give you the truth you can't get elsewhere.

These "outsiders" have now published books at about the same time; all of their titles have spent weeks on The New York Times' nonfiction bestseller list. In fact, The O'Reilly Factor even reached the very top of that list. If the Establishment is trying to stifle their voices, it's doing a pretty bad job.

Which raises the question: Just what is this mainstream anyway? Who defines it? O'Reilly has his own nightly TV program, Elder has a drive-time talk radio show in a big market, and Drudge has his news Web site, all easily accessible and all with big audiences. With more and more choices out there, and a greater variety of viewpoints represented, it's tough to decide what's in the mainstream and what's at the fringe.

Years ago, the story goes, there were fewer media options. You had only three TV networks and they told you what the news was. If The New York Times and The Washington Post worked at it, they could bring down a president. This version of things is obviously too simple: There have always been numerous alternative sources of information, and numerous media cultures and subcultures. Still, it's clearly the case that media barons have less power to monopolize information and analysis than they used to. (Critics of media mergers claim just the opposite, of course, even in the face of vastly expanding choice.)

ABC, CBS, and NBC used to command 90 percent of the prime-time TV audience; that number has been cut almost in half. Upstart networks like Fox, UPN, and WB have nibbled away at the broadcast audience, but it's cable that has smashed whatever hegemony the networks thought they had. Viewers are likely to find programming to match their tastes--including their taste for news--almost any time.

First came CNN, with around-the-clock coverage, international viewership, and such celebrities as Larry King and Bernard Shaw. MSNBC and Fox News now beckon viewers as well. (Indeed, CNN has recently laid off hundreds of employees, in part due to increased competition.) It was once said when Lyndon Johnson "lost" Walter Cronkite regarding the Vietnam War, he knew he'd lost the country too. It's questionable if Tom Brokaw, Peter Jennings, and Dan Rather combined could match that impact today.

Fox News has grown to rival CNN. Its biggest star is Bill O'Reilly. He brags on his show whenever he beats Larry King's ratings. If CNN is establishment, isn't Bill O'Reilly?

O'Reilly is openly opinionated on the air. His book, The O'Reilly Factor, is a chance to explain his worldview at greater length. On the plus side, the book is like his show--fun, lively, and, as he loves to say, "pithy." He writes like the journalist he is, keeping the story moving, sticking to the point. On the negative side, a book is not a TV show. On TV there's never enough time, and...