If you know who I am, you know why I get letters like this one from a certain Linden S., who lives in Rochester, New York:

O'Reilly, dislike and contempt dominate your thoughts. So highly charged is your bias that it is a constant astonishment to realize that you are unaware of the effect of your own thinking. A thoughtful, deliberative person doesn't stand a chance with you.

That's only one letter, selected at random. They come in bushels every day. Something about me and my nightly news analysis program, The O'Reilly Factor, drives some people up the wall.

But, hey, I'm used to it. I didn't even have to have the top-rated cable news program to get the same response from my first-grade teacher. I was controversial in the first grade, Linden! I come by it honestly!

It took Sister Mary Claudia only to the second day of first grade at St. Brigid's School in Westbury, New York, to get my number. When she ordered our class of sixty six-year-olds to open our Think and Do books, I slumped in my seat and let loose a deep sigh. See, I have always had a thing about lies, lying, and liars -- and this book was pure propaganda. The illustrations of kids smiling while doing math problems was a major lie. I knew that at six years old.

But Sister Mary Claudia didn't care and leapt on me like a mongoose.

"William," she shouted. "You are a bold, fresh piece of humanity! You will open your book and close your mouth. You are bold!"

Thus was laid down the course of my life and career, as writers of another age might put it. Ever since, I have starred in a series of confrontations with overreaching authority figures. Sometimes I was just being a pain in the rear. (Hey, you have to practice these things!) But a lot of the time I was challenging the prevailing wisdom because my sense of justice or truth was outraged. That outrage became my passion... and my vocation. Today I get paid a healthy sum for pursuing that passion on national television in prime time. The O'Reilly Factor has been on the air for four years, and they say the ratings are steadily rising while the overall prime-time ratings for cable news networks are sinking. Sister Mary Claudia, can you hear me over the harps?

Doesn't matter. If the good sister's not in touch, there are always people like the Reverend and Mrs. Dennis N. of Georgia:

Mr. O'Reilly, you have lost us as viewers. We are sure your lies are born of ignorance. Repent while you still can.

Thanks for the concern, but it's too late, Reverend.

If you've tuned in to The O'Reilly Factor, you know that I usually have five guests on my hour-long program. You might see me interviewing George W. Bush about the latest wrinkle in his campaign. Or bugging former special prosecutor Kenneth Starr about his refusal to go public with all he suspects about the Clintons and their sleazy shenanigans. Or getting former White House chief of staff Leon Panetta to admit that the Clinton administration doesn't know what happened to some $1 billion it sent to Haiti. Some people think I'm a tough interviewer, but I think I'm fair. And I'm appreciative of my guests. It takes guts for some of these people to come on the Factor, because they don't know which way I'm gonna go.

Sometimes I bring on my paid on-air consultants, like Newt Gingrich, Geraldine Ferraro, and Dick Morris. They don't usually agree with each other, as you might expect, and they don't usually agree with me. And I always begin each program with a "Talking Point." You'll see what I mean as you read this book, because I use a few here. And I always give the floor at the end of the program to viewer reactions, which are by far the liveliest in all of broadcasting. Some of those comments are scattered throughout these pages.

If you haven't seen The O'Reilly Factor, you might be wondering whether I'm conservative, liberal, libertarian, or exactly what. I hope you're still wondering when you do catch my program and also after you've read this book, my first attempt to put my thoughts in print.

See, I don't want to fit any of those labels, because I believe that the truth doesn't have labels. When I see corruption, I try to expose it. When I see exploitation, I try to fight it. That's my political position.

And in this book, just as on the Factor, I will not waste your time. Count on it. I will get to the pith quickly and undiplomatically -- even if the pith pithes you off. Sorry, but that's not my problem. I tell it. You hear it. The truth is often annoying. It's always easier to look the other way. But it is essential that we all look at American life the way it really is today. If we don't do that job, we're gonna lose the battles to the frauds, fools, and thieves -- the kind of people you are going to be hearing about in this book.

I love doing the Factor. I'm proud of my work. But television can be frustrating because there are so many subjects every day, and so little time every night. So I decided to write a book that would have no commercial interruptions and no director signaling me that a segment's got to end. I took my time writing this book, and I hope you will take your time reading it and thinking about my ideas. What I've tried to do here is give a blunt look at our times, which are very complicated. America in the twenty-first century can be a savage place, full of ridiculous situations and idiotic people. Life in the U.S.A. can also be fun and rewarding. But to make that happen, you have to separate the good from the bad from the ridiculous. I'm trying to help you do that... in a none-too-gentle way.

The O'Reilly Factor, the book, is divided into three sections. The first part of the book deals with what you as an individual are up against in your life as an American: That means things like your status in society, money, sex, and the ever-present media. Then we focus on personal relationships -- the important ties that bind you to family, friends, and bosses. The final chapters concern America itself and what is happening to the country today.

I won't spoon over any Chicken Soup advice here. We're not gonna get "in the zone" or use New Age claptrap or find answers in any Mars-Venus conflict. This is just the straight story as I've lived it and you've lived it. You'll see.