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'''John F. Stossel''' (born [[6 March]] [[1947]]) is a [[consumer]] [[reporter]], [[author]] and [[news presenter|co-anchor]] for the [[ABC News]] show ''[[20/20]]''.<ref>{{cite news | url=http://abcnews.go.com/2020/Stossel/story?id=124326&page=1 | title=Excerpt: John Stossel's 'Give Me a Break | publisher=[[ABC News]] |date=2007 | first= | last= | accessdate =2007-04-13}}</ref> His reports, a blend of commentary and reporting, reflect his [[libertarian]] political philosophy, his views on [[economics]] (largely consistent with those of the [[Chicago school (economics)|Chicago school]]), and his skepticism of [[conventional wisdom]].
'''John F. Stossel''' (born [[6 March]] [[1947]]) is a [[consumer]] [[reporter]], [[author]] and [[news presenter|co-anchor]] for the [[ABC News]] show ''[[20/20]]''.<ref>{{cite news | url=http://abcnews.go.com/2020/Stossel/story?id=124326&page=1 | title=Excerpt: John Stossel's 'Give Me a Break | publisher=[[ABC News]] |date=2007 | first= | last= | accessdate =2007-04-13}}</ref> His reports, a blend of commentary and reporting, reflect his [[libertarian]] political philosophy, his views on [[economics]] (largely consistent with those of the [[Chicago school (economics)|Chicago school]]), and his skepticism of [[conventional wisdom]].{{fact|date=September 2007}}


In his decades as a reporter, Stossel has received 19 [[Emmy Awards]] and numerous other honors for his reports, as well as attracted criticism for his political views.
In his decades as a reporter, Stossel has received 19 [[Emmy Awards]] and numerous other honors for his reports, as well as attracted criticism for his political views.

Revision as of 22:44, 12 September 2007

John Stossel
John Stossel speaking at the Free State Project's New Hampshire Liberty Forum.
Born (1947-03-06) March 6, 1947 (age 77)
Chicago Heights, Illinois, United States
EducationB.A. in psychology, Princeton University (1969)
Occupation(s)Journalist, author

John F. Stossel (born 6 March 1947) is a consumer reporter, author and co-anchor for the ABC News show 20/20.[1] His reports, a blend of commentary and reporting, reflect his libertarian political philosophy, his views on economics (largely consistent with those of the Chicago school), and his skepticism of conventional wisdom.[citation needed]

In his decades as a reporter, Stossel has received 19 Emmy Awards and numerous other honors for his reports, as well as attracted criticism for his political views.

Work

Early career

Stossel graduated from Princeton University with a BA in Psychology in 1969 and was a member of Princeton Tower Club while there. He began his journalism career as a researcher for KGW-TV in Portland, Oregon. He later became a consumer reporter at WCBS-TV in New York City before joining ABC News as consumer editor and reporter on Good Morning America.

20/20

Stossel later became an ABC News correspondent, joining the weekly news magazine program 20/20 in 1981. He became its co-anchor in May 2003.

In 20/20's "Give Me a Break" segments, Stossel takes a skeptical look at subjects ranging from government regulations and pop culture to censorship and unfounded fear. "Give Me a Break" was so popular that in 1994 it was spun off into a series of one-hour specials. Topics of these specials include:

  • "Stupid in America"
  • "Are We Scaring Ourselves to Death?"
  • "Junk Science: What You Know That May Not Be So"
  • "Boys and Girls Are Different"
  • "Freeloaders"
  • "Greed"
  • "Is America #1?"
  • "You Can't Say That!"
  • "Stossel Goes to Washington"
  • "The Power of Belief"

Schults interview

On December 28, 1984, while filming a segment on professional wrestling, Stossel told wrestler David Schults that he thought wrestling was fake. Yelling "You think this is fake?", Schults assaulted Stossel, slapping him and knocking him to the ground twice. Stossel sued, claiming long-term hearing loss, and won a settlement. Schults maintains that he attacked Stossel because Vince McMahon, the head of the WWF, wanted him to.[2]

Books and educational materials

Stossel has written two books, the first being Give Me a Break: How I Exposed Hucksters, Cheats, and Scam Artists and Became the Scourge of the Liberal Media (ISBN 0-06-052914-8). This autobiography outlines Stossel's career, documenting his philosophical transition from a liberal political stance toward libertarianism. It summarizes his opinions concerning the disasters of excessive regulation and government control, and his strong belief in the power of the free market and private enterprise. In its conclusion he calls for a reform of lawsuits, decreased regulation, and shifting social services away from the government and encouraging private charity.

His second book, published by Hyperion in May 2006, is entitled Myths, Lies, and Downright Stupidity: Get Out the Shovel—Why Everything You Know Is Wrong (ISBN 1-4013-0254-8). In this book, Stossel questions the validity of various conventional wisdoms, including the myth that he is a conservative.

With financial support from the libertarian Palmer R. Chitester Fund, Stossel and ABC News launched a series of educational materials for public schools in 1999 titled "Stossel in the Classroom".[3]

In September 2006, ABC News and John Stossel released a DVD series titled "Teaching Tools for Economics" based on the National Council of Economics Education standards.[4]

Philosophical influences

Libertarianism

John Stossel is one of the few libertarians in mainstream media. As a libertarian, Stossel believes in both personal freedom and the free market. He frequently uses his television airtime to advance these views, and boldly challenges viewers' distrust of free market capitalism and economic competition.

Stossel's views have often been controversial. He has argued that greed is good, because it provides people with an incentive to work and to innovate.[5] He has promoted school choice as a way to improve American schools, because he believes that when people are given a choice they will choose the better schools for their children.[6] This, he feels, will force the worst schools to improve or shut down. Referring to international tests, which consistently show American students doing poorly compared to those in other countries, he says:

The people who run the international tests told us, "the biggest predictor of student success is choice." Nations that "attach the money to the kids" and thereby allow parents to choose between different public and private schools have higher test scores. This should be no surprise; competition makes us better.[7]

Over the years he has also criticized many government programs as inefficient, wasteful, and sometimes harmful.[8]

Skepticism

Many of John Stossel's news reports and writings come from his skepticism of conventional wisdom. His Myths and Lies series of 20/20 specials challenges a wide range of deeply-held beliefs. He also hosted The Power of Belief (October 6, 1998) an ABC News Special which focused on paranormal claims and people's desire to believe.

Stossel agrees with Steven Milloy that "43 years of eco-hysteria over DDT" has cost the lives of millions,[9] and as a global warming skeptic he has gained many opponents. Although he agrees that global warming exists,[10] he says that the science is not yet settled regarding whether the warming is caused by humans. He argues that the World Wildlife Fund, Greenpeace, Rachel Carson, the Environmental Defense Fund, the Natural Resources Defense Council and former U.S. Vice President Al Gore have done a disservice by engaging in environmental scaremongering.[11]

Praise and criticism

Awards

Stossel has won many awards, including 19 Emmy Awards. In one year, according to Stossel in his book Give Me A Break, "I got so many Emmys, another winner thanked me in his acceptance speech 'for not having an entry in this category'." Stossel has been honored five times for excellence in consumer reporting by the National Press Club, and has received the George Polk Award for Outstanding Local Reporting and the Peabody Award. However, since his economic views have swung towards libertarianism, the stream of awards has dried up. All of his Emmy wins antedate his groundbreaking special, Are We Scaring Ourselves to Death?[12]

Praise

Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman once described John Stossel by saying, "Stossel is that rare creature, a TV commentator who understands economics, in all its subtlety."[13] An article published by the libertarian group Advocates for Self Government notes praise for Stossel.[14] Anthony Gregor, writing on LewRockwell.com (January 11, 2005), described Stossel as a "heroic rogue... a media maverick and proponent of freedom in an otherwise statist, conformist mass media."[citation needed] The Republican Liberty Caucus hailed him for his "concise libertarian messages"[citation needed] and investment analyst Mark Skousen said Stossel is "a true libertarian hero."[citation needed]

Criticism

Progressive organizations Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting (FAIR) and Media Matters for America have criticized Stossel and several of his reports for a variety of reasons. Some criticism centers on political disagreement, while others involve allegations that Stossel has distorted facts, omitted pertinent information, or selected interview subjects designed to support his point of view despite conflicts of interest.[15][16][17]

Pesticides and organic food

On the 20/20 report "The Food You Eat" on 4 February 2000, Stossel said that ABC News had tested samples of organic and non-organic produce and found neither had any pesticide residue.[18] The Environmental Working Group (EWG) discovered that the researchers hired by ABC News had tested chicken for pesticides and had tested the produce for bacteria, but they had not actually tested the produce for pesticides. The July 7 rebroadcast of the program did not correct the error despite correspondence with EWG,[19] but it did include new commentary where Stossel reiterated the incorrect claim.[18] On 31 July 2000, the New York Times picked up EWG's story,[19] and ABC suspended 20/20 producer David Fitzpatrick for one month and reprimanded Stossel. According to an internal memo, the sanctions were less for the mistake, and rather "for the arrogance of ignoring complaint letters that followed".[20][21] On August 11, Stossel apologized for the error and for repeating the error. "The labs we used never tested the produce for pesticides," he said. "We thought they had, but they hadn’t. We misunderstood, and that was our fault." [22]

Global Warming

See also: Oregon Petition

In June 2001, Stossel presented a one-hour special titled "Tampering with Nature" in which he said, "You may have heard that 1,600 scientists signed a letter warning of 'devastating consequences.' But I bet you hadn't heard that 17,000 scientists signed a petition saying that there's 'no convincing evidence' that greenhouse gases will disrupt the Earth's climate." FAIR criticized Stossel for comparing only the number of signatures between the two petitions. They argued that while the smaller petition was signed by 104 of the 178 living Nobel Prize winners in the sciences and 60 U.S. National Medal of Science winners,[23] the larger petition was the Oregon Petition, which came under fire for failing to independently verify the identity or credentials of its signatories.[24]

Education

In January 2006, Stossel presented a 20/20 special titled "Stupid in America: How We Cheat Our Kids," in which he argued that the public school system is ineffective in teaching students and that the U.S. should instead move to a voucher system.[25] Stossel presented charter schools that were doing well and claimed that charter schools are generally better than public schools. The progressive media watchdog group Media Matters for America contends[26] that Stossel ignored research by the Department of Education which shows that public schools are actually outperforming charter schools on standardized tests[27] and that Stossel interviewed eight advocates of school choice but only two opponents. In response, Stossel points out that students in America still lag behind those in less developed countries that spend less money on education, and that this gap widens by 12th grade. He further notes that the Department of Education study, which was adjusted for demographics, itself admits that "to ascertain the difference between the two types of schools, an experiment would be conducted in which students are assigned [randomly] to either public or private schools".[28]

Televangelism

On March 23, 2007, Stossel hosted a one-hour 20/20 special titled "Enough!", a segment of which investigated the extravagant finances and lifestyles of certain televangelists. The segment opened with a clip of TV preacher Frederick Price seemingly boasting about his wealth by informing his congregation that he lived in a "25-room mansion, I have my own $6 million yacht, I have my own private jet and I have my own helicopter and I have seven luxury automobiles.” Following the report, Price said that his statement was about a hypothetical person who has great wealth but lives a spiritually unfulfilled life and sued ABC for defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress. ABC News has twice aired apologies for the misleading clip. [29][30]

Other criticism

Unlike most other ABC News reporters, John Stossel's contract allows him to make public speaking engagements with the proviso that he not profit from them. Stossel donates the proceeds from these engagements to several charities, including the Palmer R. Chitester Fund, which produces "Stossel in the Classroom". Critics argue that a percentage of the sales of "Stossel in the Classroom" go to ABC and see a conflict of interest in this arrangement.[31][32][33][34]

Notes

  1. ^ "Excerpt: John Stossel's 'Give Me a Break". ABC News. 2007. Retrieved 2007-04-13.
  2. ^ http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Wrestling/2006/10/08/1978747.html
  3. ^ http://www.mediatransparency.org/reprints/brill_stossel.htm
  4. ^ http://abcnews.go.com/2020/Stossel/story?id=1936941
  5. ^ Greed is good
  6. ^ Schools need competition now
  7. ^ Smearing Education Choice
  8. ^ Does Government Stupidity Know Any Bounds
  9. ^ Hooray for DDTS Lifesaving
  10. ^ http://www.abcnews.go.com/2020/story?id=3061015
  11. ^ A Convenient Lie
  12. ^ http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2006/6/2/91815.shtml?s=lh
  13. ^ http://www.nrbookservice.com/products/bookpage.asp?prod_cd=c6443
  14. ^ "John Stossel - Libertarian". Retrieved 2007-07-10.
  15. ^ http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=19&media_outlet_id=19
  16. ^ http://www.mediatransparency.org/personprofile.php?personID=92
  17. ^ http://mediamatters.org/issues_topics/search_results?qstring=john+stossel
  18. ^ a b Give me a Fake - Stossel
  19. ^ a b Rutenberg, Jim (2000-07-31). "Report on Organic Foods Is Challenged". The New York Times. Retrieved 2007-09-01.
  20. ^ Rutenberg, Jim (2000-08-14). "MEDIA; Apology Highlights ABC Reporter's Contrarian Image". The New York Times. Retrieved 2007-09-05. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  21. ^ http://www.lewrockwell.com/mcelroy/mcelroy21.html
  22. ^ http://abcnews.go.com/2020/story?id=124196&page=1
  23. ^ [1] "In Denial on Climate Change" By Peter Hart, FAIR May/June 2007
  24. ^ Stossel Tampering
  25. ^ http://www.reason.com/news/show/33014.html
  26. ^ http://mediamatters.org/items/200601200003
  27. ^ http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/nde/viewresults.asp
  28. ^ Smearing Education Choice
  29. ^ Price Strikes Back at ABC, Los Angeles Wave, August 2007
  30. ^ http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-price25jul25,1,2822577.story?ctrack=1&cset=true
  31. ^ http://archive.salon.com/media/feature/2000/02/25/stossel/
  32. ^ http://www.thenation.com/doc/20020107/dowie/3
  33. ^ http://www.thegreatboycott.net/John_Stossel.html
  34. ^ http://www.mediatransparency.org/recipientprofile.php?recipientID=761

Biographies of, and articles about, Stossel

Articles by Stossel

Stossel Critics

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