Obama in the No Spin Zone

In the run - up to the 2008 American presidential election, the three Senators who were competing to replace outgoing President George W. Bush in the White House ( John McCain, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton) each gave extended interviews to cable channel Fox News ' nightly show The O ' Reilly Factor . Billed as the ' No Spin Zone ' , this news programme and its eponymous host, Bill O ' Reilly, pride themselves on cutting through the ' spin ' of political communications machines, the ' bloviation ' of politicians and the ' bias ' of major newspapers and broadcast network news channels to reveal for viewers the ' truth ' or the ' bottom line ' with regard t o current affairs. Because of his willingness to engage in tendentious, argumentative and sometimes confrontational discourse in the course of his interviews , O'Reilly is a controversial figure in contemporary American broadcast news . But despite his belligerent reputation , he has secured many high profile interviews for his show, including at least two major ' sit - downs ' with President Barack Obama. The first of these, conducted during the campaign leading to Obama's success in the 2008 election, provides t he data for this chapter. [First paragraph]