I've always enjoyed John Stossel's reporting on ABC's 20/20. Here is part of a cyberalert from the Media Research Center where he talks about how most journalists thing that in journalism, "conservative" is the worst thing you could be called. Here is the piece, and my comments follow.
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> 3) During a stop on Washington to promote his new book with
a title which matches his weekly segment on 20/20. "Give Me a
Break," ABC's John Stossel asserted that "where I live in
Manhattan and where I work at ABC, people say 'conservative' the
way people say 'child molester.'" As reported Wednesday by Robert
Bluey of CNSNews.com, at the Cato Institute on Tuesday, Stossel
lamented how "leftist thinking is just the culture that I live in
and the culture the reporters who populate the mainstream media
live in."
An excerpt from Bluey's January 28 story, which FNC's Brit
Hume highlighted in his "Grapevine" segment on Wednesday night,
"ABC's Stossel Rips Network for Hostility to Conservatives,"
posted on CNSNews.com, a division of the MRC:
ABC News correspondent John Stossel, the co-anchor of 20/20, said
most mainstream journalists, including those at his network, are
leftists who view conservatives as "selfish and cruel" for
embracing capitalism.
Stossel was in the nation's capital Tuesday to promote his new
book, "Give Me a Break," at the libertarian Cato Institute.
Although he praised ABC News for letting him present free-market
viewpoints on 20/20, he criticized his peers for their hostility
toward those ideas.
"Where I live in Manhattan and where I work at ABC, people say
conservative the way people say child molester," he said.
"[Conservative] is the worst thing for a reporter to be called.
And I'm a little puzzled why they call me a conservative."
Stossel said, for instance, that he has libertarian views when it
comes to drug use, prostitution, homosexuality and flag burning.
Regardless, liberal media watchdogs like Fairness and Accuracy in
Reporting have attacked him for aligning with conservatives....
"Leftist thinking is just the culture that I live in and the
culture the reporters who populate the mainstream media live in,"
he said. "Everybody just agrees -- more safety regulation, gun
control, higher taxes. Who could not want that? Everybody around
here wants that. Anyone who disagrees is seen as not just wrong
but selfish and cruel. If I try to discuss this with my peers, I
get blank stares."
He added, "The press is so filled with hatred for capitalism that
someone who advocates for free markets rather than government
control is a conservative and a problem."
Stossel's book details some of the challenges he has encountered
because of his free-market perspective. He told the crowd of
libertarians that one of his "worst battles" with ABC News' legal
review department happened when he did a feature on rent control.
"Everything I do has to be read by two liberal ABC lawyers and at
least two liberal ABC producers," he said. "In this case, an
economically illiterate lawyer kept blocking it. He demanded we
interview more economists that would soften the piece and put it
more in perspective because he was convinced it would be a
disaster for poor people if rent control was abolished. Turned out
he lived in a rent-controlled apartment."...
"ABC, God bless them, they don't always agree with me," he said,
"but they let me do most of the things I want to do."...
When a member of the audience later asked Stossel why he had not
joined a network with "journalistic integrity," such as Fox, the
ABC newsman defended his employer.
"I'm going to stay with ABC," he said. "ABC has 10 million viewers
typically, Fox has 1 [million], so the three networks can say,
'Fox is not doing good journalism, and the proof is that nobody's
watching. We have 30 [million]; they have 1 [million]. Those are
all right-wing nuts.'"
Stossel also used the occasion to take a swipe at The New York
Times and The Washington Post. While the newspapers reach only a
fraction of people compared to the television networks, he said
radio and television producers rely heavily on their contents.
"The reason the Times, and to a lesser extent the Post, are so
important, and they are, is because the TV and radio -- all of the
media -- copy it sycophantically," he said. "That's how bias at
the Times becomes bias in other media."...
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Josh Bozeman:Now...Stossel really confuses me with his whole argument. He talks about a liberal bias in the media and then he goes on to call the people at Fox "right-wing nuts." Isn't that itself bias? It's not possible, no matter what you think, that everyone at Fox News is a right-wing nut. Not to mention, he says they get 1 million viewers, which is totally inaccurate for one...and two, you cannot say that they're not doing good journalism, and the proof is- no one is watching them. They're the highest rated cable news network on TV. Also, you can't compare network numbers to cable numbers...since many people don't have cable, and network TV always gets higher numbers! So, Stossel complains about bias, then he distorts the numbers and starts calling names...which totally kills his overall argument.