John Stossel

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One of the

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John Stossel.

As of 10 December 2009, John Stossel (b. 6 March 1947) was the latest mouthpiece of the right-wing to out himself by jumping from the "mainstream media" to Fox News. He claims to be a libertarian[1] and not a right-winger. He claims that movie character Gordon Gekko's mantra "Greed is good" is a good philosophy for individuals and societies to follow.[2] He even made several specials for ABC-TV illustrating this belief.[3]

If you can believe it, Stossel was actually once an upstanding advocacy journalist in his early career on 20/20, exposing corruption and fraud in both the public and private sectors. In 1998, Stossel also hosted a primetime special, The Power of Belief, challenging quack, New Age, and supernatural claims. That special also featured interviews with magician-turned-skeptic James Randi.[4] Since his conversion to libertarianism, however, he mostly deals in Reaganism, global warming denialism, and general fact distortion.[5] Unfortunately, due to his frequent criticism of various forms of woo, he has suckered other skeptics into appearing with him to promote his laissez-faire bullshit and denialism.[6]

In 2000, one of his specials on organic food caused a stir, though at least he issued a correction on this one.[7]

[edit] Give us a break!

His catch phrase "Give me a break!" was coined from segments he did for ABC's 20/20 where he would find an issue and give a slanted take on it,[8] all the while pretending his take on the issue was the actual truth, and not an opinion. These reports also had a history of Stossel, himself, fabricating and distorting data which he then presented as "evidence" of his beliefs.[9]

[edit] Motivation

Conversions take place for different reasons. In Stossel's, case candidates for motivations include reflection, ambition and family ties. His older brother is Dr. Thomas P. Stossel of the Manhattan Institute.

Or perhaps his motivations were more base. In a 1996 address to the Federalist Society, Stossel was asked why he gave up being a consumer advocate in favor of being a corporatist/libertarian shill. His response:

I got sick of it. I also now make so much money I just lost interest in saving a buck on a can of peas.[10]

[edit] Footnotes

  1. But is he a Libertarian?
  2. Grove, Lloyd. "Fitting in at Fox", The Daily Beast website, 6 December 2009, accessed 7 December 2009.
  3. Example: archived ABCNews.com page from Apr. 1998. We should note, however, that he thinks that Gordon Gekko and George W. Bush are actually lefty socialists masquerading as conservatives.
  4. Transcript, Video part 1 of 6 (this Youtube user uploaded all 6 parts)
  5. Arm or Leg?
  6. Open letter to skeptics
  7. Stossel apology for organic food report.
  8. One of many examples of his bias
  9. Stossel Fabricated Data on Organics, Researchers Say
  10. "The Stossel Beat: Soundbite", Fairness and Accuracy in Media (FAIR.org) report "Extra!", November/December 1996.
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