STOSSEL ASKS WHY NOT ON `CONSENTING ADULTS'.Byline: Scott Holleran Special to the Daily News ABC News
ABC News is a division of American television and radio network ABC, owned by The Walt Disney Company. Its current president is David Westin. reporter John Stossel John F. Stossel (born 6 March 1947) is a consumer reporter, author and co-anchor for the ABC News show 20/20.[1] Stossel practices advocacy journalism, which has resulted in frequent criticism from organizations that disagree with him. established himself as a unique voice in television reporting when he became a correspondent for ABC's ``20/20.'' The former consumer editor for ``Good Morning America'' began to anchor a series of popular TV specials in which he challenges widely accepted notions and sacred assumptions on both the right and the left. Stossel, 51, generally presents the relevant facts of an issue before he peppers the viewer with bold questions about work, science, love, sex, happiness and death. His special, ``Sex, Drugs and Consenting Adults'' is scheduled to air Tuesday. Stossel, who has won 19 Emmy Awards, was interviewed at ABC News in New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of , where he arrived slightly disheveled and more than a little curious A Little Curious is a children's television show which has aired on HBO Family since 1998. The 30-minute episodes are essentially anthologies of shorts centered on a common, easily digested theme such as "Up and Down" or "Slippery. - and skeptical - about the ideas shaping modern American culture. Q: What is the focus of your new special, ``Sex, Drugs and Consenting Adults''? A: Well, the program addresses the question: Who owns your body? I want government to protect me from robbers and murderers, but, beyond that, why can't I do what I want with my body as long as I don't hurt someone? The program addresses assisted suicide assisted suicide: see euthanasia. , prostitution, drugs, sodomy sodomy Noncoital carnal copulation. Sodomy is a crime in some jurisdictions. Some sodomy laws, particularly in Middle Eastern countries and those jurisdictions observing Shari'ah law, provide penalties as severe as life imprisonment for homosexual intercourse, even if the , ticket scalping and other issues. It's a basic freedom issue. I interviewed the head of the ACLU ACLU: see American Civil Liberties Union. , the DEA DEA - Data Encryption Algorithm , ``Mayflower Mayflower, ship Mayflower, ship that in 1620 brought the Pilgrims from England to New England. She set out from Southampton in company with the Speedwell, Madam'' Sydney Biddle Barrows Sydney Biddle Barrows (b. January 14, 1952), known as the Mayflower Madam, was a modern American madam. After her escort service was exposed and disbanded, she gained worldwide notoriety, in part because she was part of the upper-class Biddle family of Philadelphia and was a , and my 92-year old father, who discusses how he wants to die. Q: What is your philosophy of reporting the news? A: I believe that important news happens slowly. And that important news, generally, is not what my peers have covered - they have to cover what happened today. But important news, for example, is the invention of the birth control pill birth control pill n. See oral contraceptive. birth control pill Oral contraceptive, see there , the invention of the computer chip or the women's movement women's movement: see feminism; woman suffrage. women's movement Diverse social movement, largely based in the U.S., seeking equal rights and opportunities for women in their economic activities, personal lives, and politics. . Or attitudes about greed, love and raising children. Things that happen slowly. Q: You started your career as a consumer reporter. How has your viewpoint developed? A: Though I went to Princeton University Princeton University, at Princeton, N.J.; coeducational; chartered 1746, opened 1747, rechartered 1748, called the College of New Jersey until 1896. Schools and Research Facilities , I had very little intellectual development. I never thought of myself as a good student. I never thought of myself as an intellectual. Frankly, it took me embarrassingly long to become interested in ``free market'' ideas. I just knew that what the Republicans and the Democrats were saying rarely seemed like coherent philosophies. However, I do not apologize for my years as a consumer reporter; I think capitalism works best when there is a free press that is loud about pointing out companies that sell inferior products and about leading people to good products. But I went in with the assumption that there were problems that regulators had to solve. Watching them work, I saw that they rarely solved problems and they cost the rest of us money. I also saw that the producers suffered, having to jump through hoops, while the real sleazy businessmen kept getting away with selling breast enlargers, or ``burn-fat-while-you-sleep'' pills, and that they would hold off regulators with their own sleazy lawyers and, later, change the name of the product and move to a different state. Q: It seems you recognized the pitfalls of regulation and integrated that knowledge into an understanding of economics. How? A: Maybe I saw it more than other reporters because I was a consumer reporter - it was my full-time beat. I would be the one to hear from consumers when they went to regulators or to lawyers. I was becoming frustrated. I thought: What can be done to help consumers? Until I'd read Reason magazine, I just hadn't found an intellectual structure to explain how markets could protect us; it really was Reason that woke me up. Q: Recently, the pace of television news seems quicker than the days of Harry Reasoner Harry Reasoner (April 17, 1923 – August 6, 1991) was an American journalist known for his inventive use of language as a television commentator. Born in Dakota City, Iowa, Reasoner studied journalism at Stanford University and the University of Minnesota. and Walter Cronkite Walter Leland Cronkite, Jr. (born November 4 1916) is a retired iconic American broadcast journalist, best known as anchorman for The CBS Evening News for 19 years (1962–81). . What are your thoughts on this trend in broadcast news? A: It's hard to generalize. Stories are shorter but our attention spans are shorter, too. I don't know Don't know (DK, DKed) "Don't know the trade." A Street expression used whenever one party lacks knowledge of a trade or receives conflicting instructions from the other party. that it necessarily makes the news more or less distorted. Children grew up watchiAng ``Sesame Street'' and, as adults, they want faster explanations. Viewers have a remote control with which they can surf 50 stations, so you really don't have as much time to make your point. You're not allowed to bore people. If you bore the viewer for more than a second or two- they're gone. Is that dangerous? I don't know. Q: What are the best means for viewers to obtain information in today's culture? A: I wish people would read more. Reading more exposes you to more sides of the story - that's how I do it. That's all I can suggest. Q: Do you think there's any value in quasi-news tabloid TV programs? A: Well, it depends on what you call tabloid TV. I think the market will sort this out like everything else. If people don't trust the information, they'll get tired of it. It's good that we have chocolate, strawberry and vanilla - there's something for everybody. We've had that in print media. It's about time It's About Time may refer to:
There's so much criticism of programs like ``Oprah'' as tabloid TV and I disagree with that. I feel that people bleeding openly about being abused by their parents or screwing up their love lives helps people learn about those people and talk about those people - and maybe not mess up their own lives. Q: The success of tabloid TV programs and other types of programming has lead the president and some in Congress to propose regulation of TV programming. How do you think the television industry should respond to government's encouragement of voluntary TV ratings? A: I don't think it will work. There are too many variables. Maybe it attracts kids to violence or sexually rated programs. I don't feel strongly about it, but, I don't like this government pressure, with people saying, ``you'll lose your broadcasting license unless you do it our way,'' forcing a one-size-fits-all solution. On the other hand, there's a lot of nasty stuff on TV that parents ought to keep their kids from seeing. I'm just not sure guidelines will help. I wish parents would just be vAigilant. Q: What are your thoughts on NBC's refusal to use the government's TV ratings system? A: I think it's very gutsy. Q: Some professors of journalism, producers and editors say that every reporter has an automatic bias and that, therefore, objectivity is impossible in journalism. Do you agree? A: It depends on how you define objective. I think objective means open minded. All reporters should strive for that. I think it is a conceit of the dominant media that they maintain they are objective when clearly their life experiences ... color their judgment. Lately, in my stories and in my specials, I state that I have a point of view and I make it clear to the audience, and many people would describe that as being at variance from traditional objective reporting. But I would describe what many of those people call traditional objective reporting as wildly biased, so, it's hard to know where we draw the line. Reporters should strive to be open minded, and, in that sense, objectivity is possible in reporting. Q: Are most journalists objective? A: I think that they try to be. THE FACTS The show: ``Sex, Drugs and Consenting Adults.'' What: The program asks: ``Why can't we rethink the rules and let consenting adults do anything that's peaceful?'' Host: John Stossel. Where: KABC KABC Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children (Channel 7). When: 10 p.m. Tuesday. CAPTION(S): Photo Photo: John Stossel A look at love, sex and death |
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