Bill O’Reilly is an American journalist, political commentator, and author. He achieved fame as the longtime host of the cable news show The O’Reilly Factor on Fox News. Calling his studio “the no-spin zone,” he pioneered an abrasive, no-nonsense take on current events made his show the most watched program on cable news, and made a massive influence on the entire political news industry. Raised in Long Island, he attended the prominent Chaminade Catholic boys’ high school and Marist College, majoring in history. Having been a student reporter, he then pursued a masters in broadcast journalism at Boston University. He worked at several local news outlets before joining CBS news as a correspondent, followed by ABC news. From 1989 to 1995, he was the anchor of the newsmagazine program Inside Edition on CBS. In 1996, he became the host of The O’Reilly Factor on the then-new Fox News Network, an hour-long show of commentary and interviews on current events. The show was a rating juggernaut for many years, spawning a host of imitators and even a sustained parody in the form of Comedy Central’s The Colbert Report with actor and comedian Stephen Colbert, which ran from 2005 to 2014.