I just sent the following letter to the New York Times' based on Frank Rich's op-ed piece, "When You Got It, Flaunt It".

Mr. Rich seems to imply that Bill O'Reilly cannot claim significant career achievement because he has commented that he hails from "lower middle class" Levittown when perhaps it was really "middle class" Westbury instead. In fact there is only a 10% difference in per capita income between those two places according to the Census Bureau. Regardless of his past address, by no stretch of the imagination did Bill O'Reilly come to his wealth and influence through a large inheritance or family connections.

In addition, I think there may a case of sloppy reporting. Mr Rich claims that O'Reilly "wrote that he had grown up in lower middle-class Levittown, N.Y. only to be corrected by Newsday, which reported that Mr. No Spin Zone grew up in Westbury, a middle-class suburb near Levittown". In fact a recent Newsday article just this week says that "O'Reilly claims Levittown; others say he lived closer to middle-class Westbury". Therefore it seems that Newsday is just reporting what others have said - Newsday did not, in fact, correct O'Reilly at all or do any research on either claim.