Bill O’Reilly’s No Spin News and Analysis - Empire State O'Reilly: Generosity

Episode Date: December 12, 2023

Bill examines the case of Forest Hills, Queens and their charitable giving. Originally only available in the New York City area, Bill’s Empire State O’Reilly commentary addresses local New York issues, but those issues have implications, impact the country, and mirror problems in other states. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I learned today, this morning, the most generous place in the country as far as giving to charity is in Queens, New York. Let's see if you can guess off the top of your head. Forest Hills is the most generous giving place in the United States of America. according to Charity Navigator, which tracks all kinds of donations. So I'm going to do this in a national show, but not as extensive as I'm going to do it now. So Forest Hills is a very mixed neighborhood now, okay? But it's a nice neighborhood. But you've got Catholics and Jews and Protestants and people of all colors living side by side.

And it's safe relatively. Cops do a good job. Glendale, Forest Hills, under control. Okay? And the people in Forest Hills tend to be there for a long time. The nice place to live, easy into Manhattan, easy out to Long Island, lots of restaurants and, you know, good energy in the neighborhood. So they're giving back in a very substantial way. And I'll give you the stats, as I said later on in the national program.

But when I saw it, I wasn't surprised. I thought maybe it would be a neighborhood in Manhattan where people have so much money. Real estate is not cheap in Forest Hills, but it's not crazy like it is on the Upper East Side of Manhattan or down. In, what is it, so ma, no ma, you know, Chelsea, all these places, nuts with their paying for apartments down there. And, you know, wealthy people have a tendency not to be as generous. We do hear of very wealthy people giving a lot of money. I mean, Warren Buffett gives a lot of money away. But there's a song, Possession, Obsession by Holland.

Oates, great song. I know Holland Oates are yelling at each other now, but it's a great song, possession obsession. The more that you take, the less you give back is a refrain. And the song, it's true. In my own life, I had no money coming out of Boston University with a master's degree in broadcast journalism. Broke. Because BU was expensive even back then. And I got a job in Scranton, Pennsylvania. I actually had to borrow money from my friends in Boston. and to gas up the car and drive out there. That's how bust it I was. And I went into the station, they hired me, Channel 16, WNEP, Scram, PA.

And the GM, I said, look, I needed advance on my very paltry salary because I can't even put down a deposit on a place to live. I'm going to have to be living under a bridge here. And we worked it out. Okay, it was a saga. I wrote the script to Uncle Ted's Gould School, the Saturday night, horror fest, and extra money there, here and there. I made it, but I just made it barely, okay?

I had zero funds, but even at that point, I wasn't miserable. I was happy, and my career was just beginning, and I was working hard, and I knew I would move up. I believed in the system that the harder you work, the better you are, the better you are, the better you are the more money you get on and on and on and on so then when I became wealthy in my 40s I kind of crossed that line early 40s where I was wealthy and again I never took money from anyone so when my father died he left his estate not much when they still lived in Levittown to my mother and my

there was enough money to keep my mother comfortable until she died in her 90s I never took a dime ever and I when my mother died sold a house and I gave the funds to other family members I never wanted anything from anybody that's just me I just never took or borrowed or did anything like that but once I got to be fairly affluent then I up my charitable giving because I said you know I'm lucky and I'm going to and now we have a foundation named after my parents the William and Winiford O'Reilly Foundation we give away millions of dollars and I'm happy to do it but I study who I'm going to give the money to and I've made some mistakes I've given money to people

who I should not have given money to I'm not going to get into that now but someday I will but anyway congratulations Forest Hills I hope everybody is generous with Hanukkah and Christmas donations.