With the Catholic Church up on arms over the proposed mandate to hospitals regarding contraception, Bill O’Reilly spent a second tonight parsing out the problems the Church has with the policy. To discuss the current disagreements between the Obama administration and the Catholic Church, O’Reilly set up a full-clergy panel with Fox News’ Father Jonathan Morris and Executive Director of the Religious Institute Debra Haffner that began in a friendly tone, but ended with Rev. Haffner calling for the Catholic Church to “deal with its own sexuality problems,” which led to O’Reilly calling her “way off base.”

While addressing the One Million Mom controversy Wednesday, Ellen DeGeneres took time out to thank a somewhat unlikely defender of her role as spokesperson for JCPenney: Fox News host Bill O’Reilly. On Monday, O’Reilly slammed One Million Moms for their call to remove DeGeneres as spokesperson, deeming their actions not in “the spirit of America.” DeGeneres took exception to O’Reilly’s defense.

In a discussion Tuesday with conservative commentator Charles Krauthammer over conservative voter disenchantment with the current GOP presidential field, Bill O’Reilly observed that the era of conservative political influence was on the wane. “The world is changing,” O’Reilly acknowledged. “In the Nevada vote, most people who describe themselves as conservative voted for Mitt Romney. I don’t know if really, hard core conservative Americans are wielding the influence that they once did.”

Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly lashed out against the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals decision to overturn California’s Proposition 8. “California voters, basically just two judges said, ‘you know what?’ We don’t really care about you!” O’Reilly exclaimed. “What do you want really doesn’t matter because we say this is unconstitutional to deny gays the right to marry.”

After a heated segment on the calls by conservative groups to have Ellen Degeneres removed from a JC Penney ad campaign, Bill O’Reilly invited regular Bernie Goldberg on to talk about the fight between Planned Parenthood and the Susan G. Komen Foundation, to showcase “the other side of intolerance.” But Goldberg had a few words to say about Degeneres, too– namely, that “there is a strain of bigotry running through conservative America” that he was just “sick of.”

Bill O’Reilly had a particularly pro-Hollywood night tonight, as far as The Factor is typically concerned. After a segment in which he defended Clint Eastwood from claims that his Super Bowl ad was subliminal Obama campaign propaganda, O’Reilly had on Sandy Rios of Family-Pac Federal to explain the call from conservative group Million Moms to get Ellen Degeneres fired as JC Penney spokeswoman, and he was not happy with their argument. “I don’t think that’s the spirit of America,” he objected to Rios, who argued that Degeneres represented immorality.

In a wide-ranging interview with MultiChannel News’ Mike Reynolds, Fox News host Bill O’Reilly accused MSNBC of not dealing in facts, compared himself to Howard Cosell, and explained how he single-handedly saved Inside Edition.

While the Occupy movement is mostly subdued in the various places it awoke in the rest of the country, the protesters at Occupy Oakland, partially motivated by historic local tensions with police there, are clashing with police in the streets, and on The O’Reilly Factor last night, host Bill O’Reilly discussed the potential good that can come from these protests with guests, who did not manage to convince him to embrace the movement.

One thing that remains clear from this discussion on The O’Reilly Factor: Bill O’Reilly and Geraldo Rivera do not agree on solutions to help the poor. The two began a conversation prompted by Mitt Romney “misspeaking” about his concern about the poor, and took a turn towards solutions for them, before O’Reilly and Rivera began to disagree on requirements for birth certificates.

Sarah Palin has been increasingly vocal as the Republican process has gone on in telling Republican primary candidates to refrain from vicious attacks on each other and keep their criticism strictly on the President. On The O’Reilly Factor tonight, the former Vice Presidential candidate told Bill O’Reilly that she wanted to see the candidates stay away from vicious attacks, saying her experiences on a presidential ticket made her understand why voters appear more “disenchanted” now than ever.

Last Tuesday was not a good election for Newt Gingrich. After sweeping South Carolina, he presumptive frontrunner lost Florida to Mitt Romney, badly. And he didn’t even call Romney to congratulate him. Despite his private failing, though, Charles Krauthammer told Bill O’Reilly tonight that Gingrich’s speech this time around had significantly less “whining,” and that could bode well for the former Speaker all the way to the convention.

No matter what you think of Fox News, there is one indisputable fact: they dominate the cable news ratings. When midnight strikes on Tuesday, they will have won the ratings every month for an entire decade. The network first surpassed CNN for the ratings title in January 2002.

Earlier today, yet another unlikely character parachuted into the news cycle by making an incendiary political comment– this time, the legendary Miss Piggy blasted Fox News, joking that accusing the Muppets of being anti-corporation was “like accusing Fox News of being, you know, news.” This slight did not go unnoticed by Bill O’Reilly, who called Miss Piggy out on the Factor‘s “Reality Check” segment earlier today.

A few years ago, Newt Gingrich advocated for making English the official language of the nation to prevent people from speaking “the language of the ghetto.” In the context of his proposal, many, including Geraldo Rivera, think it is indisputable that he meant Spanish, and on The Factor last night, Bill O’Reilly countered that he could just as easily have meant Farsi.

Bill O’Reilly and Bernie Goldberg aren’t usually the ones first in line to heap praise upon their competitors over at CNN, but last night they had nothing but good words for Wolf Blitzer‘s performance as moderator of CNN’s latest Republican debate, particularly in shutting down Newt Gingrich. Unlike John King, who Goldberg suggested was trying to “start a food fight” with his question on Gingrich’s marriages, both host and guest agreed that Blitzer was attacked for asking a legitimate question, and that the audience at home was on his side.

The Factor‘s Bill O’Reilly looked into the lawsuit filed against TV host Jay Leno for a joke he’d made about GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney.

Thursday night, The Factor‘s Bill O’Reilly reported on how “the very liberal MSNBC network” has taken Pat Buchanan off the air because of opinions espoused of his book, Suicide of a Superpower, particularly where the issues of religion and immigration are concerned. Buchanan had previously denied being suspended from the network, explaining his absence as a medical leave.

On tonight’s O’Reilly Factor, Bernie Goldberg took a stab at analyzing the new presidential race landscape since the game-changing Newt Gingrich win on Saturday, and what it means for Gingrich’s media-attack-focused campaigning. Goldberg noted that there was a consensus among voters that the media was talking sides, but that well could easily be depleted– but even if it were, Mitt Romney had an uphill battle to generate similar enthusiasm for himself.

Ann Coulter is getting pretty tired of Newt Gingrich. Coulter appeared on The O’Reilly Factor tonight to discuss Gingrich’s rise (and her candidate, Mitt Romney‘s, decline) and went straight for the strategy that has been most successful for the former Speaker: attacking the media. Calling it “abusing a real issue,” Coulter provided a fiery defense to the reporters Gingrich had attacked and likened his frivolous attacks on the liberal media to Jesse Jackson talking about racism.

Since ABC News followed up Thursday night’s explosive CNN debate with an interview of Newt Gingrich‘s second wife, Marianne, the ethics of having brought the claim that Gingrich was interested in an open marriage into public debate has been in contention, and last night on The O’Reilly Factor, Bernie Goldberg fell squarely in the camp against putting the interview out there. Bill O’Reilly agreed: “reasonable people may disagree,” Goldberg noted, but neither felt comfortable with the information.

On Thursday night’s O’Reilly Factor, Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly excoriated Miami Herald writer Joy-Ann Reid for criticizing Mitt Romney over giving an impoverished black woman a wad of cash on the campaign trail. “The governor helps a woman out. The woman appreciates it very much and there you have this pinhead from the Miami Herald saying that it’s a racial stereotype.”

Glenn Beck has taken his GBTV operation to Texas, but just because he isn’t near his friend Bill O’Reilly doesn’t mean he will neglect to visit the Factor. O’Reilly returned to Fox News tonight to discuss Monday’s debate and give every candidate reviews, and Rep. Ron Paul got by far the worst of it as Beck shushed the candidate and told him he sounded like Osama Bin Laden.

Juan Williams received some of the most visceral reaction of anyone during Monday’s Fox News Republican debate when asking Newt Gingrich to explain his comments on child janitors. On tonight’s O’Reilly Factor, he reacted to some of the fallout: namely, Chris Matthews claiming that Gingrich had pronounced his name in a “racially charged” way. Williams didn’t touch the race issue, but did say that he believed the audience looked at him during that as a “strange character.”

Conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer sat down with Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly and opined that Newt Gingrich won last night’s debate — in fact, he “won big.” Krauthammer criticized Mitt Romney‘s mediocre debate performance and was incredulous at how the former Massachusetts Governor wasn’t prepared for a question on his tax returns.

Bernard Goldberg‘s semi-weekly segment on The O’Reilly Factor today focused on the New York Times calling Mitt Romney one of the “whitest” candidates to ever run. Bill O’Reilly began the segment with a joking tease that Goldberg was, in fact, the whitest guy he knew– one that Goldberg took as a challenge, and disputed by brandishing a photo of himself with rapper Ice Cube. “See, here I am with Ice T,” he said, unfortunately. Happy Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day!