During the May 24 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show, Bill O'Reilly touted an unscientific Internet poll to claim that “the majority of the students on the University of Oregon campus agree with” O'Reilly's opinion that university president Dave Frohnmayer should be fired over his reaction to a student-run newspaper's publication of controversial cartoon images of Jesus. O'Reilly stated, "[T]he majority of students on the University of Oregon campus agree with me." He continued: “I prayed for a miracle that one newspaper would support my stance [on firing Frohnmayer]. ... I didn't quite get that miracle, but I got another one.”

But the poll O'Reilly touted as a “miracle” is actually an unscientific poll on the website of the university's student-run, independent campus newspaper, the Oregon Daily Emerald. The poll clearly notes: “This Daily Emerald poll is not scientific and reflects the opinions of only those Internet users who have chosen to participate. The results cannot be assumed to represent the opinions of Internet users in general, nor the public as a whole.”

Further, O'Reilly's position did not even garner a majority in the unscientific poll. The Daily Emerald's poll asked respondents: “What should be done about The Insurgent?” -- the student publication that published the Jesus cartoons. The poll offered four responses to the question, including, “The administration is doing the right thing by staying out of student business” and “Bill O'Reilly is right. Fire Frohnmayer!” At the time of his radio show, the poll results, according to O'Reilly, indicated that 38 percent of respondents felt Frohnmayer should lose his job because of the publication. In order to claim that a majority supported him, O'Reilly apparently added the 22 percent of students who felt "The Insurgent can't be shut down, but the administration should condemn its actions" to the 38 percent who actually agreed with him, although he erroneously claimed that this totaled “50 percent of the students.” O'Reilly concluded: "[T]he majority of students on the University of Oregon campus agree with me, " ignoring his own repeated insistence that condemnation of the cartoons' publication was not enough. For instance, on the May 22 broadcast of Westwood One's The Radio Factor, as Media Matters for America noted, O'Reilly quoted a Eugene Register-Guard editorial that “praise[d] Frohnmayer ... for his appropriate, balanced effort to condemn deliberately offensive cartoons published in the campus newspaper while trying to help the public understand the important free speech principles involved in the debate.” O'Reilly pronounced the editorial “garbage. It's just garbage, it's just garbage.”

In previous broadcasts, O'Reilly baselessly claimed that the University of Oregon had allowed its students to “attack Christianity” but not “minorities,” and repeatedly called for Frohnmayer to be “fired” for allegedly allowing the images of Jesus to be published. Additionally, despite O'Reilly's insistence that Frohnmayer has the authority to refuse funding to The Insurgent, Frohnmayer has stated that Supreme Court precedent would prohibit him from doing so.

From the May 24 broadcast of Westwood One's The Radio Factor with Bill O'Reilly, with co-host Lis Wiehl:

O'REILLY: So anyway, the faculty and staff at the University of Oregon can't come to any conclusions about this. But the actual student body has. All right. In the Emerald, which is a newspaper on campus -- a legitimate newspaper -- they asked the question, “What should be done about this newspaper?” Ready for this? Ready for this? This is the, this is the best. Ready, Lis Wiehl?

WIEHL: Yes. What did the students say?

O'REILLY: “Bill O'Reilly is right. Fire president Frohnmayer” -- 38 percent. “The administration is doing the right thing by staying out of it” -- 33 percent. "The Insurgent can't be shut down, but the administration should condemn its actions" -- 22 percent. That's 50 percent [sic] of the students wanting to condemn the publication. Seven percent: “What's The Insurgent?” Those are the, those are the potheads.

WIEHL: That's good.

O'REILLY: So, but the majority of students on the University of Oregon campus agree with me, agree with me.

[...]

O'REILLY: All right. So 1-877-9NOSPIN. Look, I, the other night on TV, I prayed for a miracle that one newspaper would support my stance in this University of Oregon. I didn't quite get that miracle, but I got another one. Most of the students in this poll at the University of Oregon support me. That, I think, is a miracle. It's a liberal campus, it's in Oregon, which is the lowest churchgoing state in the union. The university's in Eugene, which is the lowest city in the country of churchgoers. And 38 percent of the kids, the Ducks -- it's the University of Oregon Ducks -- they say I'm right. Not only should the funds be pulled from this, but Frohnmayer should be fired, which he should.

[...]

O'REILLY: Well they are. At the University of Oregon tonight, there's a Senate meeting, the Student Senate, and we're gonna have a report tomorrow about what they do.

CALLER: OK.

O'REILLY: You know. And, and listen, right now, the kids are leading out there in Oregon. The kids are doing it. It's a miracle. I prayed for a miracle. Wasn't the miracle exactly that I played [sic] for, but I'll take any miracle here that's good.