Bull "Falafel" O'Leily's views are 71 years old (average age).

[AX10]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/cenk-uygur/why-bill-oreilly-is-irre_b_24868.html

Cenk Uygur

"Here's a startling number. The average age of Bill O'Reilly's audience is 71. You didn't see that wrong -- 71 years old!

If you've been retired for several years, you're still several years younger than the average Bill O'Reilly viewer.

I don't have anything against old people, really old people, but it's hard to say that O'Reilly's audience is the future. Half of them would be lucky to make it past the decade.

So, it turns out this big, bad, powerful O'Reilly is basically doing a show at a senior citizen's center. Are O'Reilly's viewers going to determine where this country is heading? We can't even tell where they're heading because they won't turn off their left blinker."

[BlooInBloo]

1. viewERS. The views themselves are significantly older than that.

[AX10]

2. ROFL!

:rofl:

Good one!

:thumbsup: and a :kick: for you too! :hi:

[TomInTib]

3. That is danged funny! nt

[AX10]

6. And a ROFL! for you too!

:rofl:

Good one!

:thumbsup: and a :kick: for you too! :hi:

[Richard Steele]

17. Ba-dum Bump *tish*

[BlooInBloo]

18. awesome rimshot smilie!

[Richard Steele]

38. I stoled that offa the internets.

Man, they got EVERYTHING on them internets!

You need a cartoon vibrator with a birthday cake? It's on the internets!

[tularetom]

4. That's not only their average age

It's their average IQ as well.

[Skittles]

37. oh come on

no WAY is the average IQ of the average O'Reilly fan 71 - no way - that is much too high

[Bluzmann57]

5. And my parents are both well over 70 and dislike him

So if his average audience is 71 and people over that age can't stand him, what does that say? I think it says Billo, give it up.

[yurbud]

30. Those old enought o remember FDR aren't righties unless they are dyed in the wool racists

who would have rather gone hungry than know a black family was eating too.

[supernova]

7. I believe it

Most of the people of my acquaintence who listen to O'Really, and think he hung the moon, are in their mid-late 60s or 70ish.

Come to think of it? What is Billo's age?

It could just be a case of same agesters having their own echo chamber.

[Sparkly]

8. Maybe they can't hear him. That would explain it.

"What's that about a falafel?"
"He said he felt awful. About the war, I guess."

"Who's this Keith Olbermann?"
"I think he said he 'keeps dobermans.'"

"What's he saying about Michael Moore?"
"He said he 'might kill more' -- I guess he's going back into combat."

(Sorry. I am hoping to live long enough to need a hearing aid, too!)

[rucky]

9. Is that why he yells so much?

eh? speak up, sonny!

[dsc]

10. wow talk about anti old propaganda

That was purely despicable. I am no fan of O'Reiley but attacking the old to make fun of him is more like what O'Reiley would do.

[DemBones DemBones]

31. I agree. Ageism is discrimination

and shouldn't be displayed on a liberal site.

[Raine]

39. Especially the remark about

someone 71 not making it passed the decade that's a hurtful remark. :-( My father is way passed 71 and he is just fine plus he hates O' Lielly.

[bbinacan]

11. I'd like to see a link

to the data supporting the 71 year old average. Not that I doubt it, I'd just like to see the source.

[dsc]

13. I am also a little skepitical

I could see a median age of 71 but a mean is very hard to see. To see why imagine one person out of ten age 20 watching that show, then the other 9 would have to actually average 76. As a median age it would be more likely.

[bbinacan]

16. Exactly and that's why

I want to see the supporting data.

[Ikonoklast]

25. MSNBC's data

Read the story, and click on the link, '71', that is highlighted. It has the data there.

[bbinacan]

41. It only says that MSNBC claims

the 71 number. I want to see the data.

[More Than A Feeling]

12. I think I know the only viewer under 30. n/t

[TheCowsCameHome]

14. Not bad, since his ideas are straight out of the 1600's

[HereSince1628]

15. That would make their average year of birth 1936--too young for Korea to old for VN

These "tweeners" would have experienced a United States very different from what most of us can imagine. I suspect that experience is quite important to the aquisition of attitudes that resonate to Bilge-O'

[sandnsea]

23. Chip on the shoulder generation

Never felt good enough because they didn't save the world like their older brothers did. They've been swooning for another "good war" ever since. Only way they know to show their "patriotism". That's what I think.

[gatorboy]

19. His average viewer hates the idea of universal healthcare.

But take their fucking Medicare away and watch them have a Mr Magoo shit fit.

[cynatnite]

20. My grandpa is in his 80s and luvs BillO...

I love the man dearly, but he's a big fan of Mr. BillO. :(

[sandnsea]

21. They do remember the Birchers

That's why linking these right wing nuts to Birchers is a great way to get them to realize what they are, and Glenn Beck kicked that door wide open.

[Nevernose]

26. Is Glenn Beck a John Bircher?

It was in the mid 90s when Senator Ensign, (R-NV) was making his first unsuccessful run for the Senate. I was explaining to my future in laws (and now my past in-laws) that I wouldn't vote for him because a) he was unqualified and b) being a member of the John Birch society indicated how extreme his beliefs were. Her dad said, "What's wrong with that? I'm in the JBS."

I knew I was in for a hell of a ride.

Tell me more about Glenn Beck, though, please. I can't bear to watch him myself. It's easier for me to listen to Rush Limbaugh than to listen to Glenn Back, because at least Rush isn't pretending NOT to be a total asshole.

[sandnsea]

33. He had one on his show

said he thinks they make "more and more sense". Is that not a hoot?
http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/11604.html

I first ran across a Bircher when I was 17 and a very sweet, but nuts, co-worker was a Bircher. I had no clue. I was raised in California by transplanted St Louis Catholic Union Democrats. I don't even know how people get to be that way. I don't know how you live with them, oh, well I see you didn't. Oops. I've never had to, glad for that.

I posted about their connection to the Bradley Foundation and the other neocon groups. They all come out of the same monied interests, that 95% of America knows absolutely nothing about. Maybe if people like Beck keep courting these nutballs, they'll filter over to O'Reilly and at least a few more of those 70 year olds will wake up.

[Nevernose]

34. Thanks.

I hadn't realized that Beck had them on as experts on immigration. Hopefully their predictions are as accurate as Eisenhower's communist sympathies turned out to be.

[LostInAnomie]

22. Half of them probably just fell asleep with the TV left on.

:boring:

[mitchtv]

24. Hooray!!!!!!!

I'm too young for something

[Hawaii Hiker]

27. The only viewers that watch his non-sense are those in

the reddest of the red areas..His show probably does well in Utah, Idaho, etc....But I'm sure no one watches in NY, LA, Boston, etc....

[mitchtv]

28. watchers are in nursing homes

tied to wheelchairs, or walkers taken away

[yurbud]

29. a lot might be even older and can't figure out how to change channels

[Berry Cool]

32. Keith always says this is why Billo's ratings are trending downward.

His viewers keep dying on him.

[ComerPerro]

35. "Average age" just smelled like bullshit. It was. It is the median age, not the average age

so while it does indicate that a very large share of his viewers are past retirement age, it is very different than "average"

[enki23]

43. ack. missed that one. anyway, ditto.

.

[slampoet]

36. I worked in Rest Homes 30 years ago. I met the parents of these 71 year olds.

I got to know a lot of older people who would be 90-120 years old now if they are still around.

I can tell you that all of the "Flapper" generation people were interesting and well informed Americans. I really miss their generation and their stories about bootlegging, dust bowls, passenger pigeons, smoking reefer, making their own booze, their first telephone call, building the first cars....there was even one guy in our area who is the only person to ever drive a car across lake Michigan the last time is froze over back in 1935. It was a modified model T. He still gave kids rides in it. Not only did i get to know these older people of the 1970's I also got to know their children.

These are the O'Reilly-agers back in the 1970's when they were 40-50 years old.


I don't have almost any good stories about this current older generation. Every decent senior citizen i personally know is either over 85 or younger than 65 with maybe one exception. (there are always exceptions)

Every once in a while you will see some older person who is a real a$$hole. Someone will comment that people get bitter with age. But with most of them it isn't age, they were always jerks even when they were young. That is what i have seen, more than not, in the generation that Bill O. tries to appeal to. Thankfully i am old enough to recall what jerks a lot of 40-50 olds were back during the disco era. Back then even their parents thought they were awfully rude, money grubbing and didn't care who suffered to get them their cash, I heard extensive tales of how much they slept around, overdrank, divorced at will, and yet always the Flapper generation would also say that their kids just didn't know how to have fun.

I am glad that I learned how to have fun from former Ziegfeld girls, Jazz cats, and Rum-runners.

Y'all can make comments about ageism and think that you are defending someone. But if you actually knew a couple different generations of senior citizens, instead of lumping them together, you would notice dramatic generational differences.

[Locrian]

40. my dad is 79

And he occasionally watches O-Reilly. He used to think he was great - back when O-Reilly was promoting the "I'm just a plain working class guy". He now sees through the lies - but still watches. Mainly because he just cant get into the computer / internet. He has a PC that I fixed up for him, but wont get a decent internet service - he has free NetZero dial up (aaarrhhhh).

I think the reason that there are so many older views is they still tend to "trust" the MSM - and not enough familiarity or interest in the internet (exceptions of course apply).

[enki23]

42. The Times reports it as a median, not an "average"

one would expect, considering just how damned old (for a median tv viewing audience) 71 is, that the mean age would be skewed a bit lower than that. still, half his viewers are older than 71... that's just jaw dropping. it's like something is skewing the numbers.