Bill O’Reilly is a weird, old man who shouts at people about things he doesn’t like. Weird, old men are more likely to submit complaints about things than any other demographic. So this litany of FCC-collected complaints concerning the host of The O’Reilly Factor is like a cantankerous carnival funhouse of mirrors. The grievances, shared via MuckRock, span an entire spectrum of dissatisfaction, from discomfiting paranoia, to your run-of-the-mill general demand that Fox News relabel itself something other than a news network. The best complaint, however, may be the objection to the use of the word “Santorum,” from a viewer who was clearly unaware of the former Senator and Presidential candidate, and discovered the neologism that was coined The A.V. Club’s own Dan Savage, and is still at the top of Google search results.
While Fox News viewers may be the least informed among news consumers, these complaints make a strong argument for scandalized Fox News hate-watchers being an even less-informed subset.