Long before he found fame and cable news ratings dominance at “The O’Reilly Factor,” Bill O’Reilly was a news reporter and anchor, working not just for CBS News, and also for local television stations in Connecticut, Texas, Colorado and Oregon. He did it all–investigative reporting, anchoring, even movie reviews.
For less than a year, O’Reilly worked at Portland ABC affiliate KATU–and the people who worked with O’Reilly say they recognize the guy viewers see on Fox News each night, but not the O’Reilly portrayed by Mother Jones as a liar.
“He never struck me as a dishonest person,” former KATU news photographer Doug Brazil told The Oregonian. “In order to be an on-air person, you have to have a reasonable-sized ego, and I certainly think he met that qualification. On the surface, he was rather pompous, but beneath that surface, he was a reasonable, and what I thought to be an intelligent individual.”
O’Reilly was brought to Portland with the promise of a market-leading salary, and promoted to viewers as a journalist with big market and network news experience.
Pat Wilkins, who was a reporter at the station in the 80’s, said it was clear O’Reilly had no intention of putting down roots in Portland. He came in, made a ton of money, and was out in nine months. “He was very sure of himself. Lots of people are very sure of themselves, but I think O’Reilly takes the cake on that one.”