Hello:

O'Reilly beats NBC's Brian Williams. (http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2012/01/31/cable-beats-broadcast-mondays-the-oreilly-factor-tops-rock-center-with-brian-williams-viewership/118273/) So, WHY isn't he the mainstream media??

excon

That's interesting since Williams is one of the better anchors on the networks .

O'Reilly however does a commentary show and doesn't pretent to be an unbiased journalist ;as Williams pretends .
O'Reilly as I recall will have people on his show that defend both sides of an issue ,and acts as either an advocate of a position ,or a moderator when two guests debate.

The reason that commentary shows are increasing in popularity is the nature of news today. By the time Williams comes on air ,what he is reporting is old news . Most people who have interest in the news have heard it or read it already .

The network news is a dinosaur (thus I prefer to call it 'dinosaur media' instead of "mainstream" ). It will continue to lose share in the market much like the weekly news magazine has already.

What the cable news outlets have figured out is that all they need to do with the news is to have periodic updates ;and then throw out the red meat to the audience.

Yeah what Tom said.

Mainstream is, generally, the common current thought of the majority. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mainstream)

Does O'Reilly represent the majority of media thought? No. Beating Williams doesn't put him in the majority, the 3 major networks alone dwarf FNC's audience and that doesn't even include the major print media and other cable networks. That's why.