John Stossel
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John Stossel (born March 6 1947) is a journalist for ABC.
Early career
Stossel graduated from Princeton University with a BA in psychology in 1969, and was a member of Princeton Tower Club there. He began his journalism career as a researcher for KGW-TV in Portland, Oregon. His early years include jobs as consumer reporter at WCBS-TV in New York City and as consumer editor at ABC's Good Morning America.
20/20
Stossel later became an ABCNEWS correspondent, joining the weekly news magazine program 20/20 in 1981. He became its co-anchor in May, 2003.
In 1984, while filming a segment on professional wrestling, Stossel told wrestler David "Dr. D" Schultz on camera that he thought wrestling was fake. Yelling "You think it's fake?", Schultz physically assaulted Stossel, knocking him to the ground. Stossel sued and won a settlement, rumored to be in the neighborhood of $425,000, claiming long-term injury as a result of the assault. Schultz was fired by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), but he maintains that he was ordered to attack Stossel by representatives of the WWF.
In 20/20's "Give Me a Break" segment, 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" (January 13, 2006)
- "Family Fix: Help! I've Got Kids"
- "Are We Scaring Ourselves to Death?"
- "Is America Number 1?"
- "You Can't Say That!"
- "Love, Lust, and Marriage"
- "The Mystery of Happiness"
- "Junk Science: What You Know That May Not Be So"
- "The Blame Game"
- "Boys and Girls Are Different"
- "Freeloaders"
- "Greed"
- "Sex, Drugs and Consenting Adults".
Awards
Stossel has won many awards, including 19 Emmy Awards. One year, he won so many awards that another winner said in his acceptance speech, "I'd like to thank John Stossel for not having an entry in this category." Stossel has been honored five times for excellence in consumer reporting by the National Press Club. Among his other awards are the George Polk Award for Outstanding Local Reporting and the George Foster Peabody Award.
Criticisms of Stossel's Reporting
Since the late 1990s, however, Stossel's journalism has increasingly been accused of distorting or leaving out pertinent information, showing a lack of balance in his selection of interview subjects, and selecting interview subjects who have clear corporate ties which are not mentioned [link][link][link].
For example, in the February of 2000, Stossel ran a segment in which he stated that conventional produce has no more pesticide residue than organic produce. It turned out, however, that Stossel's assertion was based on research which was never actually carried out [link]. Later scientific research supported the opposite conclusion, which makes organic produce a more attractive option for consumers who are concerned about such residues [link][link][link]. As a result of this report, the segment producer, David Fitzpatrick, was suspended without pay for one month and ABC reprimanded Stossel[link][link].
In June of 2001, Stossel reported that America's public schools have become "environmental boot camp" in which children are made to believe that the environment is much worse off than it actually is. During this segment, a number of California grade-school students were interviewed, and gave answers which appeared to support Stossel's point. According to a number of later newspaper reports, however, the children's parents found Stossel's tactics during these interviews to be "disgusting," and saw Stossel as asking leading questions for the purpose of obtaining specific sound bites. Seven of the children's parents subsequently revoked permission for Stossel to use the interviews in his report [link][link].
In January 2006, Stossel aired a 20/20 segment titled "Stupid in America: How We Cheat Our Kids." In this segment, Stossel argued that the public school system is ineffective in teaching children and that we should instead move to a voucher system. Stossel presented a few charter schools which were doing well and used this as evidence that all charter schools are better than public schools. Stossel ignored research by the Department of Education which shows that public schools are actually outperforming charter schools on standardized tests[link][link]. Stossel also interviewed eight advocates of "school choice" and only two opponents--a clear case of stacking the deck [link].
John Stossel has also been criticized for his cavalier disregard for the scientific opinion on climate change (i.e., global warming)[link][link].In June of 2001, for example, Stossel aired a special one-hour segment titled "Tampering with Nature." In this report, he referred to a well-publicized letter from the Union of Concerned Scientists which warned of the "devastating consequences" of global warming: "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.[link]. What Stossel fails to mention is that signatories for the first letter he describes included 110 Nobel Prize winners and 60 U.S. National Medal of Science winners. The latter petition was the product of the George C. Marshall Institute, which is affiliated with a number of corporate-funded, far-right organizations known for global warming denialism [link][link][link]. Signatories for the Marshall Institute's petition included opthamologists, dentists, and engineers [link][link].
Books
Stossel has written two books, the first being, ' (ISBN 0060529148). This autobiography outlines Stossel's career, documenting his philosophical transition toward libertarianism and away from a liberal political stance. 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 the limitation of lawsuits, decreasing regulation, and shifting social services away from the government and into the private sector. His second book, published by Hyperion in May 2006, is entitled ' (ISBN 1401302548).
Legalize Organ selling
Stossell has claimed that the body organ transplant shortage in America could be solved if the parts were sold to the highest bidder. [link]
External links
- [John Stossel's Newspaper Columns]
- [ABC Biography]
- [Confessions of a Welfare Queen: How rich bastards like me rip off taxpayers for millions of dollars] is an excerpt from Give Me a Break: How I Exposed Hucksters, Cheats, and Scam Artists and Became the Scourge of the Liberal Media
- [FAIR's John Stossel Archive] - Critical responses to Stossel's reporting by the media watch group Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting
- [In praise of price gouging, by John Stossel]
- [Criticism of several of Stossel's reports by Media Matters for America]
- [Sirota to Stossel: Stop reciting these dishonest talking points!]
- [Prompted by Scarborough, Stossel attacked Gore with Myths, Lies, and Downright Stupidity]
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