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Set Your DVR
Monday, March 9th, 2009This Friday at 10pm ET, ABC’s 20/20 will air a John Stossel special called “Bailouts, Big Spending, and Bull.”
The special will consist of several videos my colleagues have been producing over at Reason.tv.
14 Responses to “Set Your DVR”
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I wish you godspeed in your quest to have logic prevail.
This touches on something that I feel a little guilty about. Maybe mentioning it here will help. I know that Stossel is the most vocal (only?) libertarian voice among the mainstream news media. I also know that ratings are king. So the right thing is to watch 20/20 on a regular basis, to do my part to help ensure his voice is still heard. And yet I’ve rarely watched the program. I can’t sit through any MSM news program anymore; even if the topic is agreeable to my tastes, the presentation usually puts me off.
Anyone else feel this way?
However I will Tivo the program for Friday, if I remember when I get home.
Somehow, Stossel convinced my wife that government is mostly bad while I had been trying to convince her of that for nearly 20 years. I fear it’s “Husband Is Always Wrong” syndrome. She read two of his books in a week and now she wants me to grow a mustache. However, instead of John Stossel, I would look like Ron Burgandy. Should I still watch his special?
@ #3: Yes, and a Burgandy stache is a great way to start conversation at parties.
If Stossel is involved in it, it won’t be worth watching. He’s a conservative commentator not a journalist no matter what ABC says. I would point to his regular contributions to Townhall.com (http://townhall.com/columnists/JohnStossel)
as evidence.
Here’s just one example of the kind of bias Stossel regularly engages in:
http://www.mydd.com/story/2008/10/9/141825/318
as a “reporter”.
That kind of crap is a hallmark of Stossel’s career. He has a long history of distorting the facts to fit his personal (conservative) bias.
Liberal media my ass.
You stay classy, Ohio Dale.
Idahovic,
I interned for John one summer and did a lot of work for his first book and the “Give Me a Break” segments. John was very, very careful about the facts, and simply wouldn’t consider anything that even remotely didn’t check out from multiple sources. He’s a stand-up guy, and a good journalist.
He’s also thoroughly intellectually honest. His office is packed with Emmys that stopped coming his way when he started reporting on markets and turning his “consumer reporting” onto government targets. He could have continued covering the same stuff as his earlier stories, and been the darling of the media for a long, long time. Instead, he followed where the evidence led him, and while he’s still been successful, it was a huge risk (he’d probably cringe at putting it that way).
utter BS. Stossel is ideolog who only ever reports one-side and even then can’t get it right. Here are some of his gross errors:
Reported in “15 years factory wages were up 70%” when in actuality they were down 6% after adjusting for inflation.
Reported the public school graduation rate was 49%, when in fact no state reports a graduation rate that low (DC’s, the lowest is in the 50’s, other states range up to 90%)
Reported in 2001 the US spends $40,000 in aid to each low income family, which is false.
In 93 Stossel reported CA homeowners were prevented from clearing brush around their home by the endangered species act – this is false.
The list goes on and on, i would be embarrased to do anything associated with stossel.
While I agree with a lot of what Stossel has to say, he is as guilty as most pundits of cherry-picking his data to help make a point.
I really used to enjoy watching his shows 15 years ago, but I figured out he was being just as deceptive as those he was accusing of deception and it turned me off.
He would do much better to present all the facts but still keep the same editorial.
It really shows the sad state of journalism when Stossel is held up as some standard bearer of libertarianism and free markets.
I once saw John Stossel wearing socks clearly marked “bobzbob”, so I guess he has made at least one enemy.
If someone is calling Stossel a “conservative”, then why isn’t he in support of blowing up Iraq, Iran, North Korea, and Afghanistan? And why doesn’t he support TARP? And why doesn’t he support increasing the role of government and the powers of the Executive Office? And…all the other big government policies that have now been defined as part of the “conservative” agenda?
Yes, Lee, journalism is in a sad state. And, squirrels like nuts.
Besides all this, John Stossel is doing more to advance libertarianism and free markets (and the moustache) than anyone reading this post.
HEY! Stossel does have contributions on the conservative Town Hall website, but they are standard small government, libertarian articles…not conservative war mongering, I-want-to-kill-them-all articles. No one could point to those as evidence that Stossel is a big government, bomb-the-world-let-Jesus-sort-them-out conservative.
So THIS is the type of misleading posting idahovic does! Deceiver! Shame of 1,000 abortions upon you!
If the trolls jumped in here specifically to attack him, Stossel must be doing something right.
#3 However, instead of John Stossel, I would look like Ron Burgandy. Should I still watch his special?
Grow the ’stache, watch the special. Just don’t get your clothes from the toilet store.
If the trolls jumped in here specifically to attack him, Stossel must be doing something right.
Trolls? Maybe, maybe not.
Stossel is not some sort of libertarian litmus test.
There are plenty of reasons not to like him. He makes mistakes all the time and charges of cherry picking stats to prove a point are very persuasive. Whether you guys wanna admit it or not.
Sorry.
I don’t like Stossel one bit. And I’m as libertarian as they come.
I’ll watch the show on Friday to see what the reason.tv thingie is all about, but Stossel’s whiney, condescending tone annoys the fuck out of me.
Cheers.