David Sirota kicks John Stossel's ass on CNBC

[Wetzelbill]

6.17.06
Debating a pathological liar on CNBC
Yesterday afternoon, I was asked to appear on CNBC's Kudlow & Cramer to debate ABC News "reporter" John Stossel. You remember him - he's known for being a pathological liar. And on the show yesterday, Stossel's disdain for the truth was on full display.
Check out the transcript of our exchange:


KUDLOW: All right. John Stossel, author of "Myths, Lies and Downright Stupidity" and Dave Sirota, author of "Hostile Takeover." We're going to look at the minimum wage. According to Mr. Stossel, the myth is: A higher minimum wage helps workers. The truth is: A higher minimum wage helps some workers but hurts others. John, your thought.
Mr. STOSSEL: We all want to raise people's wages, but assuming the government can just set the wage is--better than supply and demand--is such nonsense. It assumes every employer has a fixed number of workers. But we don't have people washing windshields in gas station anymore because the minimum wage makes it foolish to hire a kid, to give an entry level worker a shot.

KUDLOW: This thing's back in Congress. A lot of states are either passing it or discussing it. How many people get the minimum wage across the country? This is a data from your own book.

Mr. STOSSEL: Three percent.

KUDLOW: Bingo. Dave Sirota, 3 percent, and it hurts some people. What's your take?

http://www.workingforchange.com/blog/

[trotsky]

1. Smackdown.

You can bet Stossel will avoid having to appear with Sirota again.

[Wetzelbill]

3. oh yeah

I wish I would have known they were going to be on. His moustache probably stood on end when Sirota made that "cocktail party circuit" crack. :)

[TomClash]

2. Another libertarian bites the dust

Oh, what a shame.

[Wetzelbill]

4. nothing like having a religious fixation on the market

Hey I think we all like the free market, but being selfish and ignoring any problems in it is just completely stupid. Nothing is perfect, but these clowns seem to act like the magic of the market is infallible and beyond reproach. You would think we never had a Great Depression or something. :)

[TomClash]

13. They blame "the Government" for the Great Depression

but somehow "the Government" never gets credit for: the internet, the integrated circuit, the human genome, etc.

[SpiralHawk]

5. Stossel = Republicon propagandist

He's right up there with DRAFT dodger Limbaugh, and sex deviant Bill O'Reilly in the Hall of Jaundiced Propagandists.

What a blowhard...

[Wetzelbill]

6. oh but he's the scourge of the liberal media

I mean I'm so scared of the guy I can barely sleep at night! :scared:

:) :sarcasm:

[MADem]

7. Whine, whine, whine...I'm a smarmy-looking liar

Mr. SIROTA: You are.


EXCELLENT!!!!!!!

[Wetzelbill]

10. it was pretty awesome

No doubt. :)

[Marr]

8. Oh man, I want to see some video of this. John Stossel

drives me absolutely insane. He doesn't confine his propaganda to deceptive spin, like most of these right wing commentators. He simply lies- and he does it constantly.

[Wetzelbill]

9. I'll look around for some

hopefully YouTube or Crooks and Liars will get some.

[CatWoman]

14. all I could find was video of John with Stephen Colbert

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q23UqWF2eiw&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fatrios%2Eblogspot%2Ecom%2F

[Wetzelbill]

15. same here

no luck. :) I watched that one and posted it earlier today, it's a good interview.

[otohara]

11. Yeehaw

Sirota is better looking and smarter - why isn't he on ABC?

[Wetzelbill]

12. you don't get network posts when you challenge the

economic elites. :)

[leftchick]

16. I am in love with Dave!

<snip>

Mr. STOSSEL: Well, the study side, and I now realize who you are because you, on my Amazon page, he came on and said, `I'm a smarmy-looking liar.'

Mr. SIROTA: You are.


:rofl:

:loveya:

[Wetzelbill]

17. "you are"

oh that is too good. No doubt.

The women seem to dig Dave, the lucky jerk. :)

[leftchick]

18. he is sharp as a tack!

and not bad to look at either! :)

[Wetzelbill]

19. well, I, on the other hand,

have the tremendous ability to dislocate my left pinky at will!

Some guys have different talents to work with, that's all I'm saying. :P

[gratuitous]

20. Stossel's ABC contract says it's okay for him to lie

Well, maybe "okay to lie" is a little exaggerated, but it's in keeping with Stossel's style of "reporting," so I'm sure a license to lie come-on would be acceptable to him:

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20020107/dowie/3

A Teflon Correspondent
Mark Dowie

When Stossel's "reporting" becomes too incendiary or opinionated, the network simply flashes the subtitle "Commentary" under his face, as it did during his self-declared proudest achievement, a special on risk titled "Are We Scaring Ourselves to Death?" when he turned to the camera, clenched his lantern jaw and asked, "What if simply having so many regulations kills people?" Two producers working on that special were so disturbed by Stossel's writing and editing, and so frustrated by his unwillingness to air anyone who believed that lowering risk meant reducing injury, that they left ABC halfway through production.

Stossel acknowledges his political mutation but says there was no epiphany. Earlier, he had simply "bought into what was trendy," he told Reason magazine years after his transformation. Then he stopped himself. "Trendy is harsh--what was prevailing wisdom at the time, which was that capitalism is useful but evil," he said. He believed then "that markets are cruel and that we need aggressive consumer regulation...to protect the consumer from being victimized." He said he gradually came to realize "that regulation rarely worked on even the most obvious of crooks, that people selling breast enlargers and penis enlargers...would get away with it." From that observation Stossel drew the conclusion that "freedom works" and that regulation of business makes no sense whatsoever. (He declined repeated requests to be interviewed for this story.)

* * *

From the beginning, Stossel has had his detractors. Lowell Bergman, who left ABC in 1983 to join CBS's 60 Minutes, recalls, "I was Stossel's first producer at ABC. They sent him to me while I was working on a CIA story in Mexico. They parachuted him in to be my correspondent. He was a maniac, a know-nothing who wanted to impose himself on the story, without having a clue what it was about. When we got back to New York, I wouldn't let him into the editing room." Bergman is not alone. At least six ABC producers and editors have told management they refuse to work with Stossel. Others to whom I spoke said they hoped they would never be assigned to do so.

________________________

http://www.ewg.org/reports/givemeafake/fitzpatrickcanned.html

ABC News Fires the Wrong Man
Statement by Kenneth A. Cook, 10/31/2000

* * *

Earlier this month, Stossel told an Oklahoma reporter that organic food is 'a scam'. That was in direct contradiction to his 'apology' in August, when his job was on the line, and he said organic food is 'remarkably safe'.

"ABC News clearly has a double standard when it comes to John Stossel. Instead of firing Fitzpatrick for contract problems, ABC News should have fired Stossel for his continuing disregard of journalistic ethics and standards."

____________________________________

gratuitous again: These are just two examples. Do a search on "John Stossel ABC contract" and get a fuller picture of the 20/20 front man, who's made a very lucrative career out of lying and letting others take the fall for it. Meanwhile, he's set up his own personal cottage industry to get around his ABC contract that forbids him from pocketing fees for speaking appearances. "Smarmy" was probably the least objectionable adjective Sirota could have applied to John Stossel. Stossel should have thanked Sirota for his restraint.

[Terran1212]

21. I love how Stossel calls what he disagrees with "myths"

Always does it; but does get his ass handed to him too apparently.

[Wetzelbill]

22. a myth isn't a myth just because somebody says so

let alone John Stossel. He got beat down bad. That sort of beating would stick in my craw. He thought Sirota would back off of the smarmy-looking liar stuff and David didn't, haha. You know that is usually an effective tactic for dodging questions, making somebody get defensive about a supposedly uncivil remark. A lot of people would say: " I didn't say that" or "well, I'm not going to go that far." Sirota just says: "You are." haha. So now instead of avoiding the debate and not having to come up with facts, Stossel just was backed into a corner.

[daydreamer]

23. He has some valid points.

But if he also used the same passion to criticize the CEOs who rake millions while their companies getting government bailout (like airlines), I would have more respect for him. But overall he is not an asshole like Rush Limbaugh.

[Terran1212]

24. More of a know-it-all snarky type

Than the hatemongers Limbaugh or O'Reilly

[Hissyspit]

25. He spreads very damaging misinformation.

I could make the argument that he is worse because he comes across as authoritative and more in possession of the truth with his presentation and association with ABC News.

Yes, occassionally he gets a hold of ludicrous situations to make stories out of, but he usually blows them way out of proportion. The best thing about Stossel is that he is not on the air every day.

[EVDebs]

26. Nixon-era "We're All Keynsians Now" vs. current Supply-side BS

Marginal Propensity to Consume is the applicable economic rule, identified by Keynes.

The rich either offshore their largesse or spend it where it doesn't do 'the most good'. Those in the less than top 1 and 1/2 percent ("Bush's base") spend just about every extra dollar they get their hands on, hence today's current negative savings rate in the US.

BTW, foreign high 'savings rates' are government enforced, with low wages and the extra money used to build business parks, office complexes, etc., that the offshored money further reinforces along with offshored US jobs.

[kdpeters]

27. Stossel world

So in Stossel world, if it weren't for minimum wage, supply and demand would have us all paying full service prices to wait idly next to an automated pump until an attendent came over to operate it and subsequently pay at the pump that sits three feet from my face. In Stossel world, people wait longer and pay more for other people to perform simple tasks rather than put forth the minimal effort it requires.

As he is wont to say himself, "Give me a break!!"