Idiot O'Reilly Facts

It has been such a wild six weeks of things happening in the news, it has been hard to pick one item to talk about in a post. I could spend all day writing on this blog; unfortunately, the paychecks would eventually stop.

But, I couldn't resist tonight. On "The O'Reilly Factor", host Bill O'Reilly had as guests former CBS newsman Bernard Goldberg as well as American University journalism professor Jane Hall to discuss recent anti-war comments by "The View" co-host Rosie O'Donnell.

During the course of the discussion, O'Reilly claimed that the ratings for "The View" are "way down", because Americans are disgusted with O'Donnell's antics.

Way down?

Here are the ratings for "The View" from March 19-25, the most recent rating period:

1) "The View" was the 4th-ranked program of the week (tied with "All My Children" and the second half hour of "The Price Is Right"), with a 1.4 rating and a 10 share, delivering 3.5 million Total Viewers. The show is up 34% in Total Viewers vs. the same week in 2006 and is up 18% season to date (the season starting in September 2006).

2) The program was up 18% vs. the same week last year (the only daytime program up) among Women 18-49, with an average audience of 901,000. "The View" beat the average of the combined half-hours of "the Price is Right" by 8%, "As the World Turns" by 14% and "Guiding Light" by 26% among Women 18-49.

3) Season to date, "The View" is up 21% among Women 18-49 and 23% among Women 18-34.

4) Among Women 18-34, "The View" was up 38% vs. the same week last year.

So, I am left with the following question -- from how far up his anatomy does O'Reilly pull out his "facts"?