Anatomy of a Viral Video

Earlier today, a clip of an irascible Bill O'Reilly from his pre-Factor days took ahold of the blogotron. While Billo will have you clinging to the pant leg of your own splenetic boss, whose rants will suddenly appear tame compared to O'Reilly's outburst, what is most surprising is the video's proliferation. Pop culture blogs were on it like flies on a dead hooker—and yes, in this analogy O'Reilly is the hooker. Let's follow the breadcrumbs.

I first entered the online media ring at Radaronline.com, which was sent to me as a link via IM. The poor schmucks at Radar magazine (who I would give my boyfriend's left nut to be) apparently don't have the gear (or perhaps the inclination) to edit out the College Humor logo in the lower-third, thus their source was clear. Skip to Gawker, where O'Reilly took the page view cake with 37,000-plus views by 7 p.m., a boon for Gawker night editor Ryan Tate who posted the video at 2:30 a.m. By 4:30, New York Magazine's Daily Intel blog, which sources all its gossip, had picked it up from Gawker and whirled it into a combo piece about curmudgeonly white men, leading with a clip of New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg erupting at the press.

Four mega gossip sites, one mortified television personality. Is this enough for O'Reilly to crawl under a rock and never reappear?