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Stossel: Yeah, I'm Biased. So?

Every reporter is, latest Fox hire opines

By Kevin Spak, Newser Staff

Posted Sep 25, 2009 3:56 PM CDT

(Newser) – When John Stossel announced he was leaving ABC for Fox News, many complained he was “biased.” His response? “Every reporter has political beliefs,” he writes for Reason Online. “The difference is that I am upfront about mine.” For example, most media outlets call President Obama’s plan to overhaul health care “reform.” But the dictionary definition of “reform” is “improvement.” They’re already declaring the effort a success.

Stossel is a libertarian, and yes, it affects his reporting. “It prompts me to ask questions that others don’t ask,” he says. He rejects the title “conservative” because “the interventionist state has been the status quo for generations.” He notes that he doesn’t agree with most of his new co-workers on issues like immigration, nation building, or the war on drugs, but “I think they’ll tolerate me.”

[Images (3)]

[Quotes (1)]

ABC News correspondent John Stossel attends the Focus Features and Loreal premiere of 'Scoop' at the Museum of Modern Art July 26, 2006 in New York City. (Getty Images)

In this Oct. 5, 2007 file photo, ABC News correspondent John Stossel addresses the Americans for Prosperity Foundation in Washington. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak, File)

ABC News correspondent John Stossel attends the Focus Features and Loreal premiere of 'Scoop' at the Museum of Modern Art July 26, 2006 in New York City. (Getty Images)

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Some of my colleagues who write about business know nothing about economics. Many are comically hostile to profit—they dismiss it as "greed" (although they bargain for the highest salaries possible). - John Stossel

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COMMENTS

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Showing 3 of 37 comments

ronimaca

Sep 27, 2009 4:13 AM CDT

he is an a hole and he belongs on fox with the rest of the a holes

luluzz

Sep 26, 2009 12:20 PM CDT

Working in a newsroom for 30 years you see that all journalists or reporters are biased. They also feel their opinion on their story is the right one. Maybe 40 years ago they were unbiased, but that is not the case anymore. It's just that most journalists are so good at writing they can bury their opinions so well, readers don't even know they're reading a very biased piece. Stossel at least admits it up front, as do others on Fox news, if any of you fox haters actually watched it. It just cracks me up that so many think MSNBC or others are not biased. They really have you fooled.

I_hate_to_say

Sep 26, 2009 12:15 PM CDT

It seerns biased Stossel is declaring that no irnprovernent is needed in a healthcare systern that is the rnost expensive and inefficient on the planet, with outcornes that are poorer than rnost, and leaves tens of rnillions uninsured.

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Stossel: Yeah, I'm Biased. So?