Tags and topics realted to this article include Damon Dash, Eminem and Ludacris.

It happens seemingly every night.

At 8 and 11, millions of people tune in to watch Fox News commentator Bill O'Reilly make mincemeat of yet another ill-prepared soul.

So why can't anyone hold a candle to Mr. O'Reilly, the heavyweight champion of television debate shows? Is he so intelligent that the wealth of knowledge within his noggin always includes something that can be used in his attack? Possibly.

Are his debating skills superior to everyone else's? Probably not.

Could it be that O'Reilly always seems right because he always is right? Not hardly.

O'Reilly's program is called the "The O'Reilly Factor" for a good reason: There are several underlying factors associated with "The Factor" that help swing the advantage to O'Reilly every time. By themselves, these factors don't appear to move the pendulum very much; but working together and in collaboration with O'Reilly's respectable debating skills, these factors result in "advantage O'Reilly" every time.

Let's examine those factors.

The most obvious is that O'Reilly's audience loves him. Despite his claim to be a centrist, O'Reilly is a conservative who, as fellow conservative talk-show host Joe Scarborough told the New York Observer, does a show aimed at a predominantly conservative audience.

But O'Reilly has his audience fooled. In probably the cleverest ruse I've seen in my 20 years, O'Reilly leans to the left on some issues just enough to convince his largely conservative audience that he really is a centrist and that his commentary is "fair and balanced."

The result is that far-out right-wingers tune in night after night for self-gratification. Staunch conservatives take O'Reilly at his claim of being moderate, and because those conservatives find themselves agreeing with O'Reilly most of the time, they begin seeing themselves as unbiased and impartial.

There is evidence that O'Reilly is truly conservative. First of all, he wrote for Townhall.com for more than two years. Townhall.com is a strictly conservative site displaying the viewpoints of such columnists as Kathleen Parker, Jonah Goldberg, Ann Coulter and Pat Buchanan.

O'Reilly is also a former registered Republican. And when he takes a left-wing stance, it's often for conservative reasons. For instance, O'Reilly told Playboy magazine recently that he is against capital punishment. But O'Reilly opposes the death penalty because he sees it as an easy way out, an argument that is rooted in conservatism.

Because viewers like O'Reilly and faithfully tune in night after night, they are inclined to agree with him. That brings us to the second factor giving O'Reilly the advantage.

Viewers not only like O'Reilly, but also trust him. O'Reilly therefore can get away with airing mistakes and not correcting himself. He also can get away with being a little less than "fair and balanced."

Al Franken's book "Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them" cites four examples in which O'Reilly gave incorrect information to his audience. Those mistakes swung the argument in O'Reilly's favor, and because of that, O'Reilly never made it a point to correct himself.

Why should he? Using his inaccurate data, O'Reilly won. Correcting himself would force O'Reilly to admit he might have been wrong. And admitting he was wrong could cost O'Reilly some of his audience's faith.

When O'Reilly made those mistakes, his guests told him he was wrong. But who are the O'Reilly faithful going to believe, their "humble servant" or someone who claims he is giving incorrect information? No one is going to bother researching the data; and because O'Reilly is the person the audience adores, he's the one the audience will believe.

Because he's the one the audience trusts, O'Reilly can refrain from being fair. Take his Oct. 24 episode, when he debated UCLA professor Richard Walter on various topics, including rapper Eminem. After O'Reilly bashed Eminem, Walter attempted to tell him that Eminem has made songs with positive themes and lyrics.

O'Reilly, however, shouted Walter down and cited an instance when Eminem said something negative. O'Reilly followed his citation with: "Is that the - is that the family-oriented stuff you're talking about?"

O'Reilly wasn't right about Eminem, but his audience thought he was.

Another subtle O'Reilly advantage stems from his debating many guests by satellite. Franken says in his book that because parties debating by satellite cannot see the people they are talking to, they are at a slight disadvantage. O'Reilly interviews many of his guests by satellite, and although he can see them, they cannot see him. O'Reilly is in his comfort zone. His opposition is likely to feel nervous and uncomfortable and can't see when they have O'Reilly cornered.

O'Reilly's experience gives him a major advantage. The man engages in a debate every night with someone who doesn't. O'Reilly has gone up against rappers and newspaper journalists, among others, who usually do not have the oratorical skills he has. Even when O'Reilly's position is weaker than that of a guest, he often seems to make stronger points simply because he is a more experienced speaker.

The fact that "The Factor" is O'Reilly's show gives him a lot of power and an added unfair advantage. O'Reilly has the ability to end debates prematurely. He also has the power to step out of his role as "moderator" and insert his own opinion, as he did Nov. 13.

While rap mogul Damon Dash debated an elementary school principal, O'Reilly said: "Listen, you guys, you're looking at a guy who teaches inner-city kids and who is telling you face to face that he has problems with kids based upon the rap music, and you're rationalizing it all up and down." When Dash reminded O'Reilly that he said he'd simply moderate, O'Reilly said: "No, I can give my opinion. It's my program."

And O'Reilly can determine what is fact on his program. O'Reilly never hesitates to disregard a guest if what he says is subjective. Yet O'Reilly himself can take something subjective and make it into fact. For instance, O'Reilly said it was factual that rap music was leading children to use words such as "hoe." He said it was factual because teachers were reporting that such was the case.

Given how ridiculous some teachers are nowadays, I'd say O'Reilly's facts based on teacher accounts are anything but fact. And O'Reilly would never let a guest get away with doing something so asinine.

O'Reilly's program is far-reaching and airs twice a night. O'Reilly therefore always has an opportunity to find further evidence for his points in case he was burned by a particular guest. However, if the person he's debating finds further evidence to support a point he made, that person might not be invited back on the show. And the only way to strengthen a case to the audience is to appear on the show. No other media outlet will provide adequate resources to a guest to further strengthen his case after a filming.

With all this in mind, one has to be a fool to appear on "The O'Reilly Factor." The show is set up so that no one with views contrary to O'Reilly's will be able to make a strong case and convince the audience.

When people like Alec Baldwin and Tom Daschle avoid appearing on the program, they are not being cowardly, as O'Reilly would have you believe. They are being smart because they know O'Reilly is perfect in the eyes of his audience and nothing they say will change that. We can hope that one day everyone will realize there's no point to appearing on O'Reilly's show. But for now, O'Reilly will use all his gimmicks to his advantage and continue to run circles around his guests.

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