TV’s John Stossel speaks at NMU
By KIM HOYUM, Journal Staff WriterArticle Photos
Stossel — known for using the line “Give me a break!” to criticize the latest government antics — took a more personal tone at the event, explaining how he went from being a liberal consumer reporter to a libertarian critic of big government.
He related how he would investigate false advertising claims, concluding regulations were needed on business.
“But then, I watched the ‘policemen’ work. And I saw the damage they caused,” Stossel said.
Now he said he believes the less government regulation, the better. He focused much of the talk on how a free market protects consumers by its own nature without help from the government.
“For example, let’s look at the greedy profit-driven companies that have employed me,” Stossel said, getting a laugh from the audience.
He said networks such as ABC, CBS and NBC run on advertising, but they still turn ads down and encourage reporters to question advertisers because they attract more viewers by doing so.
“There are consumer reporters working on all kinds of stations and offending sponsors right and left. Why? Because the market protects consumers in unexpected ways,” Stossel said.
He’s come under fire from media groups — such as Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, and Media Matters — that accuse him of distortion and cherry-picking facts in his reports. In an interview before the speech, Stossel said he hasn’t changed his approach since winning 19 Emmys for consumer reporting, and pointed out he always has done activist reporting.
“I’m different from a regular journalist in that way. But I always have been,” he said, noting he did not go to journalism school. Stossel has a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Princeton University.
Now the difference is that the subject has changed, he said.
“When I was a consumer reporter, I had a point of view,” he said, explaining that his idea then was to question business practices.
“Now I’m doing the same thing with government regulation, and I’m getting criticized by left-wing media groups,” Stossel said. “They were fine when I was criticizing business.”
He told the audience he’s often criticized for being right-wing.
“But I’m a lousy conservative,” he said, pointing out his positions on drug laws, prostitution and the Iraq war are liberal. The hatred might come from his support of free markets and business, he said.
He’s also taken some criticism for his opinion that the global warming debate is not settled. He explained his position in an interview.
“I’m waiting to see if there is a problem. It certainly doesn’t look like a problem around here,” Stossel said, looking at the snowbanks in evidence locally. “If there proves to be a problem and if there’s evidence that man is possibly the cause, we should see what the problem is and adjust to it, rather than shut down the industry and technology now and make poor people suffer.”
One of the topics Stossel addressed in his book “Myths, Lies and Downright Stupidity,” was second-hand smoke. He said in the interview he found smoking bans such as the one currently proposed at NMU to be an infringement on individual rights, besides being based on uncertain science.
“The EPA looked at all these studies and were barely able to find a damaging effect from second-hand smoke,” Stossel said, adding slight effects have been proven for people who live with smokers, but transient second-hand smoke is probably not hurting the majority of citizens.
“I like these bans, because I’m selfish and I don’t smoke, but it really is totalitarian, these bans aimed at a small minority of people,” he said.
In Stossel’s speech, he also said he is both for legalization of illegal drugs and against over-regulation of legal drugs.
“Intuitively, I say, yeah, it’s a complicated world. I can’t be an expert on everything; I’m glad the FDA is out there checking drugs. But then I saw them work,” he said, noting the process of drug approval takes years and holds up lifesaving drugs.
His answer to many of the problems he addressed is privatization and letting the market take its course.
“As we should have learned from the fall of the Soviet Union, private groups can do everything better,” Stossel said.
