John Stossel

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John Stossel
John Stossel speaking at the Free State Project's New Hampshire Liberty Forum.
Born	March 6, 1947 (1947-03-06) (age 61) Chicago Heights, Illinois, United States
Education	B.A. in Psychology, Princeton University (1969)
Occupation	Journalist, author

John F. Stossel (born 6 March 1947) is a consumer reporter, author, libertarian columnist, and co-anchor for the ABC News show 20/20.^[1] Stossel began his journalism career as a researcher for KGW-TV and 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. Stossel went on to be an ABC News correspondent, joining the weekly news magazine program 20/20. In his decades as a reporter, Stossel has received numerous honors and awards. Stossel has also written two books entitled Give Me a Break and Myths, Lies, and Downright Stupidity.

Stossel practices advocacy journalism where he often challenges "conventional wisdom".^[2] His reports, a blend of commentary and reporting, reflect a roughly libertarian political philosophy and his views on economics are largely supportive of the free market.^[3] ABC is reported to believe "his reporting goes against the grain of the established media and offers the network something fresh and different...[but] makes him a target of the powerful groups he offends."^[4]

Contents 1 Biography and work 1.1 Education and Early career 1.2 Personal life 1.3 20/20 1.4 Publications 1.5 Public appearances 2 Philosophical influences 2.1 Contrarianism 2.2 Libertarianism 3 Awards, praise, and controversies 3.1 Awards 3.2 Praise 3.3 Controversies 3.3.1 Organic Vegetables 3.3.2 Televangelist Lifestyle 3.3.3 "Sick Sob Stories" 3.4 The Schultz incident 4 Notes 5 Further reading 6 External links 6.1 Biographies of, and articles about, Stossel 6.2 Articles by Stossel 6.3 Stossel Supporters and Critics

[edit] Biography and work

[edit] Education and Early career

John Stossel was born in Chicago Heights, Illinois, the second of two boys.^[5] He overcame a stuttering problem so he could become a reporter, and is now a supporter and advocate for The Stuttering Foundation. 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.

[edit] Personal life

Stossel is Jewish. He lives in New York City with his wife and their two children.^[6] His son is named Max and his daughter is named Lauren. Max is attending Haverford College near Philadelphia.^[7] John's older brother, Tom, is a doctor.^[5]

[edit] 20/20

Stossel was named co-anchor of ABC News' 20/20 in May 2003. He joined the weekly news magazine program in 1981, initially as correspondent. His "Give Me a Break" segments featured a skeptical look at subjects from government regulations and pop culture to censorship and unfounded fear. The series was spun off into a series of one-hour specials, beginning 1994, with titles including "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", and "Sick in America".

[edit] Publications

Stossel has written two books. Give Me a Break: How I Exposed Hucksters, Cheats, and Scam Artists and Became the Scourge of the Liberal Media is an autobiography documenting his career and philosophical transition from liberalism to libertarianism. It describes his opposition to government regulation, his belief in free market and private enterprise, support for tort reform, and advocacy for shifting social services from the government to private charities. It was a New York Times bestseller for 11 weeks.^[2] Myths, Lies, and Downright Stupidity: Get Out the Shovel — Why Everything You Know Is Wrong questions the validity of various conventional wisdoms, and argues that the belief he is conservative is untrue.

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 entitled "Stossel in the Classroom".^[8] In 2006, Stossel and ABC released Teaching Tools for Economics, a video series based on the National Council of Economics Education standards.^[9]

[edit] Public appearances

Stossel often makes public appearances and speeches, advocating his brand of free-thinking, libertarian-esque thought.[1]

[edit] Philosophical influences

[edit] Contrarianism

Stossel's news reports and writings attempt to debunk popular beliefs. His Myths and Lies series of 20/20 specials challenges a range of widely held beliefs. He also hosted The Power of Belief (October 6, 1998), an ABC News Special that focused on the claims of the paranormal and people's desire to believe. Another report outlined why opposition to DDT is misplaced and that the ban on DDT has resulted in the death of millions of children,^[10] mostly in poor nations.^[11]

Stossel agrees that global warming exists, but he is skeptical of definitive claims that it is caused by human activity. He asserts the science is not settled regarding the cause, and has argued that there is not a scientific consensus. He also challenges the notion that man-made climate change would have net negative consequences, pointing to warmer periods in human history.^[12] Central to his argument, he argues that groups and individuals get much more public attention, donations, and government funding when they proclaim "this will be terrible" than groups that say "this is nothing to worry about." He points to groups like the World Wildlife Fund, Greenpeace, Rachel Carson, the Environmental Defense Fund, the Natural Resources Defense Council, and former U.S. Vice President Al Gore as examples of environmental scaremongers.^[13] At Live Earth New York, Stossel was one of a handful of media personalities named by environmentalist Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. as "these Flat Earthers, these corporate toadies, lying to you, lying to the American public, and telling you that global warming doesn't exist...."^[14]

[edit] Libertarianism

As a libertarian, Stossel believes in both personal freedom ^[15] and the free market. He frequently uses television airtime to advance these views and challenge viewers' distrust of free market capitalism and economic competition. He told The Oregonian, on 26 October 1994:

I started out by viewing the marketplace as a cruel place, where you need intervention by government and lawyers to protect people. But after watching the regulators work, I have come to believe that markets are magical and the best protectors of the consumer. It is my job to explain the beauties of the free market.^[16]

I'm a little embarrassed about how long it took me to see the folly of most government intervention. It was probably 15 years before I really woke up to the fact that almost everything government attempts to do, it makes worse.^[17]

Stossel argues that personal greed creates an incentive to work and to innovate.^[18] 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.^[19] Referring to educational tests that rank American students lower than others 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.^[20]

He has also criticized government programs as inefficient, wasteful, and harmful.^[21]

[edit] Awards, praise, and controversies

[edit] Awards

Stossel has won 19 Emmy Awards. He was 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. 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'".^[22] According to Stossel, when he was in favor of government intervention and skeptical of business he was deluged with awards, but in 2006 he joked, "They like me less... Once I started applying the same skepticism to government, I stopped winning awards."^[17]

[edit] Praise

“John Stossel is the most consistently thought-provoking TV reporter of our time," said the Dallas Morning News.^[23] Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman lauded John Stossel saying, "Stossel is that rare creature, a TV commentator who understands economics, in all its subtlety."^[23] P. J. O'Rourke, best-selling author of Eat the Rich and Parliament of Whores praised Stossel saying, "... about John Stossel’s fact-finding. He seeks the truths that destroy truisms, wields reason against all that’s unreasonable, and ... puncture(s) sanctimonious idealism. ... He makes the maddening mad. And Stossel’s tales of the outrageous are outrageously amusing.”^[23] Steve Forbes, the editor of Forbes Magazine, described Stossel as riveting and "one of America’s ablest and most courageous journalists."^[23] An article published by the libertarian group Advocates for Self Government notes praise for Stossel.^[24] Anthony Gregor, writing on the libertarian blog, LewRockwell.com, described Stossel as a "heroic rogue... a media maverick and proponent of freedom in an otherwise statist, conformist mass media."^[25] Libertarian investment analyst Mark Skousen said Stossel is "a true libertarian hero."^[26]

[edit] Controversies

Liberal economist James K. Galbraith said that Stossel, in a story on laissez-faire economics in September 1999, used an out of context clip of Galbraith to make it seem that Galbraith had said nearly the opposite of what he meant. Stossel denied that Galbraith's views had been misrepresented and changed the words with which he introduced the Galbraith clip in rebroadcasts of the program.^[27][28][29]

[edit] Organic Vegetables

A February 2000 story about organic vegetables on 20/20 included statements by Stossel that tests had shown that neither organic nor conventional produce samples contained any pesticide residue, and that organic food was more likely to be contaminated by E. coli bacteria. The Environmental Working Group objected to his report, mainly questioning his statements about bacteria, but also managed to determine that the produce had never been tested for pesticides. They communicated this to Stossel, but after the story's producer backed Stossel's recollection that the test results had been as described, the story was rebroadcast months later, uncorrected, and with a postscript in which Stossel reiterated his claim. Later, after a report in the New York Times confirmed the Environmental Working Group's claims, ABC News suspended the producer of the segment for a month and reprimanded Stossel. Stossel apologized, saying that he had thought the tests had been conducted as reported. However, he asserted that the gist of his report had been accurate.^{[30][31][32][33][34]}

[edit] Televangelist Lifestyle

In a March 2007 segment about finances and lifestyles of televangelists, 20/20 aired a clip of a TV minister originally broadcast by the Lifetime Network in 1997. The clip made it seem that the minister was describing his wealth in extravagant terms, when actually, he was telling a parable about a rich man. ABC News twice aired a retraction and apologized for the error. The minister filed a lawsuit against Stossel, his source for the clip, 20/20, and ABC for defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress.^[35][36]

[edit] "Sick Sob Stories"

In an opinion piece published in The Wall Street Journal in September 2007 called "Sick Sob Stories", Stossel described the case of Tracy and Julie Pierce that was explored in Michael Moore's film, Sicko.^[37] Julie criticized Stossel, saying her husband would have been saved by the Canadian health care system, and she thought Stossel should have interviewed her and her doctor before writing about them.^[38] Stossel expressed sympathy, but said she had been misled to believe the treatment was routinely available in Canada. He said that the treatment is also considered "experimental" in Canada, and is provided there even more rarely than in the U.S.^[39]

Some organizations from the left side of the political spectrum, such as Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting (FAIR) and Media Matters for America (MMfA), have criticized Stossel's work,^[40][41] for an ostensible lack of balance of coverage and distortion of facts.^[42] For his position on climate change, Stossel was criticized in 2001 by FAIR for using "highly selective...information" in his Tampering with Nature documentary: "Instead of reporting the increasingly strong scientific consensus on global warming, Stossel chose to highlight the views of so-called "skeptics," giving center stage to three dissenters from among the 2,000 members of the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which recently released a report stating that global temperatures are rising almost twice as fast as previously thought."^[43]

David Mastio of Salon.com wrote in February 2000 that Stossel has a conflict of interest in donating profits from his public speaking engagements to, among others, a non-profit called "Stossel in the Classroom" which includes material for use in schools, some of which uses material made by Stossel.^[44][45] Stossel claims in his books that he also receives criticism from the political right, because of his libertarian stance on such issues as drug legalization.

[edit] The Schultz incident

On December 28, 1984, during an interview for 20/20 on professional wrestling, wrestler David Schultz struck Stossel after Stossel asked whether professional wrestling was fake. Stossel stated that he still suffered from pain and buzzing in his ears eight weeks after the assault.^[46] Stossel sued and obtained a settlement of $425,000 from the WWF, at which point "the pain slowly went away."^[47][48] Schultz maintains that he attacked Stossel on orders from Vince McMahon, the head of the WWF.^[49]

[edit] Notes

[edit] Further reading

• John, Stossel (2007). Myths, Lies and Downright Stupidity: Get Out the Shovel - Why Everything You Know is Wrong, Paperback, Hyperion. ISBN 0-78689-393-1. 
• John, Stossel (2005). Give Me a Break: How I Exposed Hucksters, Cheats, and Scam Artists and Became the Scourge of the Liberal Media..., Paperback, Harper Paperbacks. ISBN 0-06-052915-6. 

[edit] External links

• John Stossel at the Internet Movie Database
• Harper Collins (Publisher) - Biography at Publisher's website
• John Stossel at TV.com
• Stossel interviewed by Steve Hantler (biography, tort reform) (MP3 audio)^[1]

[edit] Biographies of, and articles about, Stossel

• ABC News Biography
• "Laissez-Faire TV", An article about John Stossel from Brill's Content.
• "Stossel's evolution from activist to contrarian angers some of his fans", USA Today
• "John Stossel: Myth-Buster", FrontPageMag.com
• "John Stossel: Not Afraid to Tell the Truth", NewsMax.com
• "John Stossel - Libertarian", TheAdvocates.org
• Sullum, Jacob. "Risky Journalism: ABC's John Stossel bucks a fearful establishment" Reason, April 1997.

[edit] Articles by Stossel

• John Stossel's 20/20 Web Page
• John Stossel's Newspaper Columns
• "Confessions of a Welfare Queen: How rich bastards like me rip off taxpayers for millions of dollars" is an excerpt from his first book.

[edit] Stossel Supporters and Critics

• Support John Stossel by Competitive Enterprise Institute
• John Stossel profiled by Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting
• John Stossel profiled by Media Matters for America

v • d • e Co-Anchors of 20/20 Hayes • Hughes • Downs • Walters • Miller • Stossel • Vargas

Persondata
NAME	Stossel, John
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION	John Stossel is a consumer reporter, author and co-anchor for the ABC News show 20/20.
DATE OF BIRTH	1947
PLACE OF BIRTH	Chicago Heights, IL
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH