John Stossel

John Stossel has an excellent web site that’s well worth bookmarking or linking. Contributing to the discussion threads is especially worthwhile; I watch John’s specials typically while at the gym (I saw him tonight) and I always learn something interesting.

I was one of the people interviewed for his ABC special “Is America Number 1?,” which was a remarkably interesting experience. (My comments on France — a delightful country for which I have much affecton, but whose government has done a great deal to stifle actual creativity — earned me some quite hot hate mail from the French Embassy.)

12 Responses to “John Stossel”

  1. Nacim Bouchtia

    I really want to see that video but I wouldn’t want to spend $30 on something I’m only going to watch once or twice (maybe thrice). I could sell it on ebay afterwards but the market for the tape is nonexistant.

    January 30, 2005 at 1:12 am
  2. Tom G. Palmer

    Well, it’s not as enlightening as “The Wealth of Nations” or “Human Action,” but it’s a fun treatment of some of the same issues. Drop me a note and I may be able to get you a copy to watch and return. TGP

    January 30, 2005 at 1:17 am
  4. Tom G. Palmer

    Thanks for that Adam. It’s an opportunity to bring up the way in which Stossel has been slandered, libeled, and maligned by a very (very) well funded lobby of professional “environmentalists.” Let’s start with the only substantive claim in the article, that,

    “ABC News reprimanded Stossel and suspended his producer last year after he said in a “20/20″ report that tests conducted for the network had found no pesticide residue on either regular or organically grown produce. No such tests had been done, and Stossel later apologized.”

    In fact, a producer did make a mistake, but not one of substance concerning the tests. The question was whether ABC had itself commissioned tests for pesticides and bacteria on organic foods. ABC had commissioned tests for bacteria, not for pesticides, but other organizations (e.g., Consumer Reports and the US Dept. of Agriculture) had run lab tests that showed pesticide residues on organic foods. So the mistake was not in the report that lab tests showed pesticide residues on organic foods, but only whether the ABC-commissioned test showed that, as the ABC-commissioned test did not test for pesticides. Stossel corrected the claim when the show was rebroadcast. In response to a quite minor error (that he corrected) the “Environmental Working Group” (run by a fellow who was a friend of a friend — now deceased — and with whom I socialized years ago; he is not a scientist, but a commimtted political hit man who knows how to go for the jugular to destroy his opponents) organized a major campaign to have Stossel fired. They paid a fortune to major public relations organizations to orchestrate letter writing campaigns, calling campaigns, and the like. The error amounted to little more than a clerical mistake, for which you don’t fire major reporters with track records of successful work. (As Stossel points out, he got no grief when he was an environmentalist/consumer reporter reporting on bad behavior by businesses; now that he reports on bad behavior by governments, too, he’s a major target of campaigns to have him fired.) IMHO, Stossel is one of the most honest journalists in the business, who checks and double checks his sources and asks hard questions of his interviewees, regardless of their own orientation. More people should be both tuning in to Stossel’s broadcasts and writing letters to ABC in support of his serious journalism — and writing on his web site (see the location above) to join the debate when the organized lobbies flood his site with well orchestrated letter writing.

    On the issue of the parents, the Washington Post story makes it sound like they had no problem until after the interviews were over, when they were recruited to the anti-Stossel campaign. As the article reports,

    “In a statement, ABC spokesman Jeffrey Schneider said: ‘The parents of these children and their teacher consented to the interview. Indeed, several of the parents were present as the interview was conducted. At no time during the interview, or in the weeks and months after the interview, were any concerns or issues raised by any of the parents or children involved.'”

    Sounds like an organized hit campaign against an independent journalist who tells people things that the established and well funded “enviro” lobby doesn’t think people should be allowed to hear.

    January 30, 2005 at 10:47 am
  5. Ross Levatter

    TGP commented that his not exactly Francophobic comments on Stossel’s special “Is America #1?”:

    “earned me some quite hot hate mail from the French Embassy”

    If it’s not overly personal, I’m sure many of us would find that quite amusing. Care to share?

    January 30, 2005 at 10:36 pm
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  12. K.C.

    Ross L (and Nacim B): I found an online copy of the show’s transcript — it was and remains one of my favorite Stossel stories — and clearly indicates the following…

    Tom Palmer: [French bureaucrats] “actually come to businesses, and stop people from working.
    …

    What they’re doing is turning the whole country into a big theme park. You go to Franceland. You have the cheese, you have the wine, you look at some castles, it’s a lovely place to visit.

    But does much new come out of France anymore, is it dynamic? No.”

    Click on my name for the link =)

    July 13, 2006 at 6:17 am