TheTony Snow Award
The Tony Snow Award is designed to recognize a citizen in corporate America, the media, and/or the public eye in general who by their actions has made a significant difference in the lives of injured service men and women—and who has demonstrated an unwavering commitment to the Wounded Warrior Project (WWP) and its mission.
The award was created in honor of Tony Snow, former syndicated radio broadcaster, newspaper reporter, FOX TV News anchor and the third White House Press Secretary to serve under George W. Bush. During his time at FOX News, Tony utilized his visibility and resources to help raise awareness and support for WWP on a broad scale, bringing to forefront of public consciousness the challenges faced by service men and women returning from combat with serious injuries. He remained a steadfast supporter of WWP during his service in the White House and inspired all of us with his courageous battle with cancer.
This year the award will be presented to Bill O’Reilly.
Every time Bill O’Reilly mentions WWP on his program, we directly see an impact, from interest on our website to phone calls from people looking to donate or give back in some way. He has gone out of his way to include WWP in various promotions and auctions. Bill’s unwavering and passionate support for our nation’s wounded heroes has provided a voice to our mission and his message has been well-received.
For more than ten years, over 120 months, “The O’Reilly Factor” on FOX News has been the highest-rated cable news show. In fact, the program has frequently topped shows offered by the broadcast networks. Presiding is Bill O’Reilly, the most talked-about, and often the most controversial, TV journalist today.
“The Factor,” as most people call it, was designed to be—and remains—a unique blend of news analysis and hard-hitting investigative reporting dropped each weeknight into “The No Spin Zone.”
In addition to “The O’Reilly Factor,” Bill finds time to turn out a weekly column appearing in more than 300 newspapers, and to write books, the latest of which is a deeply personal and revealing memoir. Bill explains the title came about when he remembered how one of his first teachers looked at him in class and said, “William, you are a bold fresh piece of humanity.” And so that’s what he named it—because “A Bold Fresh Piece of Humanity” is what he truly is. And that’s not surprising at all to Bill’s millions of viewers, listeners and readers. Or to his often agitated critics.
The memoir, selling over one million copies and resting comfortably for many months high on the New York Times top ten bestseller list, comes on the heels of Bill’s four previous non-fiction works, all of which went to #1 on that same list. In addition, “The O’Reilly Factor for Kids” outsold all other children’s non-fiction in 2005. All in all, more than five million copies of Bill’s books are in circulation.
Bill was certainly fresh, and already bold, when he started his broadcasting career in Scranton, Pennsylvania before moving on to report and anchor in other places such as Dallas, Boston and New York. His national exposure began with CBS and ABC News, and as host of the first version of “Inside Edition.” It was in 1996 that O’Reilly landed at FOX News. Along the way, as Bill gained his considerable following, he has also accumulated more than his share of journalism awards, including three Emmys, with the latest being the special 2008 Governor’s Award in his old Boston stomping ground.
Bill was born in Manhattan and raised on Long Island. His bachelor’s degree is in history from Marist College, and he has a master’s in broadcast journalism from Boston University and another master’s Degree in public administration from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.
Asked about his proudest achievement on “The Factor,” Bill said, “The hundreds of thousands of dollars we are able to give to charity thanks to good folks buying stuff on BillOReilly.com.”
