Bill O'Reilly criticized the MTV show Skins for losing advertisers due to controversial subject matter. The show, O'Reilly said, was “going down the drain” and suffering from advertisers responding to advertisers saying “we want out of there.” Television shows, O'Reilly said, “won't stay on the air if nobody would sponsor it.”
You know who else has been losing advertisers due to controversial matter? Bill O'Reilly's Fox News colleague, Glenn Beck.
According to The New York Times, as of September 2010, 296 advertisers had asked that their commercials not be shown during Beck's show.
Fox News' Juliet Huddy told O'Reilly that MTV “lost Taco Bell, Wrigley's, Subway, Foot Locker, L'Oreal, Schick, Red Bull, and Zeno Hot Spot, which is basically, like, a pimple-clearing thing.” For a much, much, much longer list of advertisers refusing to sponsor Glenn Beck's content, drop by the StopBeck effort.
In September 2009, ColorOfChange.org reported that the advertising boycott of Beck's show cost Fox News almost $600,000 per week. This rapidly shrinking list of advertisers has caused concern among Fox News shareholders, concern that they brought up to chairman Rupert Murdoch, only to have it brushed off.
Perhaps O'Reilly should be more concerned about the shows that nobody would sponsor in his own backyard.