Last night, ABC's 20/20 was a total Repuke marketing program!

[NVMojo]

John Stossel's "Myths, Lies and Nasty Behavior"

Check out the crap about the myths of the high price of gasoline, outsourcing jobs, urban sprawl, sharing for the common good. I felt like I was at a GOP convention.

snip:

No. 7 — MYTH — Gas Prices Are Higher Than Ever

"Record high gas prices," has been the refrain of many in the media this past year while talking about the price at the pump. Jay Leno even said, "They don't even put the price on the sign anymore — it just says, 'If you have to ask, you can't afford it.'"


Drivers I talked to at a New York gas station agreed. "Too high, it's scary," said one man. "It's going up and up and up and it's the most expensive it's ever been," said another woman.

But the reality is that the "record high gas prices" are a myth. The U.S. Department of Energy records show that when you adjust for inflation the price of gas is now lower than it's been for most of the twentieth century. Prices are lower now than they were 25 years ago. Yes, they price is up from the 1998 all time low of $1.19, but they are a dollar lower than they were in the early 1980s.

When I told this to people at the gas station they didn't believe me. And why should they? The media keep telling us about the record high prices — they're just not adjusting for inflation!

I asked people to compare the price of gas to bottled water or ice cream you can buy inside the gas station. Most people were sure the gas was more expensive. But they're wrong.

If you took the average price of a bottle of water, a gallon would cost nearly $7. A gallon of Haagen Dazs ice cream would set you back nearly $30 — 15 times the price of gas.

And think about how much harder it is to produce gasoline.

First, oil has to be sucked out of the ground … sometimes from deep beneath an ocean or underneath ice or from the Middle East where workers risk their lives. And just to get to the oil often means the drill may have to bend and dig sideways through as many five miles of earth. What oil companies find then has to be delivered through long pipelines or shipped in monstrously expensive ships, then converted into three different formulas of gasoline, trucked in trucks that cost more than $100,000 and then your local gas station has to spend a fortune on safety devices to make sure you don't blow yourself up.

Gas is actually a bargain, not that you'll hear that from most of the media.

more...

http://abcnews.go.com/2020/story?id=448934&page=1

[tanyev]

1. John Stossel. 'Nuff said.

He's always like that.

[Punkingal]

2. John Stossel is an idiot.

He did a piece once about the disabled that was so inaccurate and incomplete. At that time I was running a jobs program for disabled people. I emailed his stupid ass three times and didn't even get one response. He does not care if he reports accurately.

[bear425]

3. I was half listening to it from another room and I couldn't stand it.

He's such a puke. He made it sound as if people should be happy their jobs are going overseas.

[Kookaburra]

4. Saw a little of it

Didn't feel like vomiting, so decided to turn the channel. Numbers is a fun show to watch. Ever seen it?

[bear425]

8. Not yet, but I will suggest it next time. I don't like giving him

the ratings. You're right. The nice thing about TV's: the remote.

[vi5]

5. You see this bothers me more than a million Tweetys or O'Reilly's

Much like when this crap gets done on morning "news" shows like Today. 20/20 and Today and Nightly News shows have huge audiences of people, many of whom are not ideologues one way or another and who take what is reported on there seriously.

These are the shows we should be watching and complaining about. Not sending 8 million e-mails to MSNBC aor making 8 million posts about some idiotic comment by Chris Matthews whose show gets watched by .01% of the population, all of whom already have their minds made up how they feel and who are just looking to get riled up.

[NVMojo]

15. totally agree, it was very much a part of the education of the masses

[Bozita]

6. Stossel lived up to his rep as a RW megaphone but surprised with the Alask

... "bridge to nowhere" piece.

I'm shocked; shocked, I tell you.

[NVMojo]

11. oh, you are right, he did cover that piece about the proposed Ketchikan

bridge quiet well. I guess he must have felt he had to throw us a bone?

[MADem]

7. Stupid fucker, that Stossel--but he bullshits with such CONVICTION

...that stupid people buy into his shit.

I can grab some milk, eggs, cream and a bit of fruit, and make ice cream at home of higher quality and better taste than anything available in the stores. If I could make gasoline at home, I sure as hell would do it.

How he can compare water (when was the last time it RAINED gasoline, twit???) and ice cream to gasoline is totally beyond me.

He ignores the fact that gas companies have made RECORD PROFITS this year, too.

Gasoline, a bargain, Mr. Stossel? That is as absurd as saying Stossel is an intelligent life form.

When you hear his voice, for your own sanity, GRAB THE REMOTE, and CLICK!

[Lydia Leftcoast]

9. This is the guy who "proved" that America's poor are well off

because they have VCRs.

Hey, John, have you priced VCRs lately? They don't cost $400 anymore.

[IowaGuy]

10. Obviously a guy that would have never...

been able to pass a middle school algebra course....never able to balance an equation. Can only look at one aspect of an issue and then says, "see that proves what I thought all long, before I ever saw the problem".

This is kind of tinfoil hat stuff, but I've often thought that people like this are a perfect example of why the repukes keep cutting education, so that the masses will never develop the skills to able to critically analyze and address complex issues

[NVMojo]

12. TV makes the perfect medium of GOP idiot reforms

[Generator]

13. That show IS pure propaganda since Stossel took over

I've stopped watching it since sometime in 2004. I hear the promos-though-and now it's John Stossel's version of the truth over and over. He's misleading in extreme. That show actually used to have some relevant investigative reporting-that one guy did an actual interview with Bin Ladin in Afghanistan (Clinton years) and Hugh Downs was a real journalist. Barbara Walters pretended to be-she's all fluff.

And I think I remember the last show I watched-it was in the summer of 2004 after Edwards was announced as Kerry's VP choice. The lovely Stossel just happened to do a big piece on how rotten-oh you guessed it-trial lawyers are! How they are ruining America. Can we get a little more obvious with the timely propaganda??!!! Again with my solution-the same for CNN or any other show that is nothing more than propganda masquerading as being helpful to "ordinary" Americans-turn it off. Never watch it. It's the best you can do because they know exactly what they are doing and watching-no matter how angry you are at them is all they care about. I'm not suggesting turning off TV-as I admit-I am a TV junkie but no matter how much people complain about how inspid something like American Idol is-at least it's not open propaganda masquerading as NEWS. That's offensive.

[TomPainesBones]

14. There were a couple other things Stossel said that were

outrageous.

One of his points was about politicians supporting public schools but taking their children to private schools. Guess who they showed? You guessed it - Bill Clinton. At length. They also mentioned Al Gore and interviewed Jesse Jackson Jr. Making them all out to be hypocrites. But no screen time for Republicans. I have no problem with high-profile people like that putting their children in private schools. It's a safety issue.


Another of his points involved "sharing" and how bad it is for the public. Basically saying if it's not yours, no one will take care of it (they showed how much cleaner private land is compared to public land). And if you don't get what you can there won't be anything left over for you. It showed a school room where the teacher passed around cups of hershey kisses and said something like "These are fish, take as many as you want and pass the cup to the next person." Before the cups could be passed around completely they were empty. Some kids took way more than others. Then the teacher gave them each their own cup of hershey kisses and each kid had some candy. The teacher then basically said "SEE? This is why sharing is bad." Not gluttony and selfishness are bad, SHARING is bad. THAT'S WHAT THEY'RE TEACHING SCHOOL CHILDREN! The whole segment was a Libertarian commercial for privatization.

These types of shows are WAY more dangerous than Sean Hannity or Ann Coulter, because they present this air of impartiality, and a sense of "cracking through the bullshit," when it's really just mass programming by corporatists.

[FVZA_Colonel]

24. "Not gluttony and selfishness are bad"

Considering his messianic views on the free market system, I doubt he would ever call selfishness bad.

[otohara]

16. He Thrives on Nasty

and choosing subjects that divide this country even more. He's an asshole!

[OneTwentyoNine]

17. Saw it toward the end. John is all for "Pay to Piss"

Yup,even toilets in parks should be privatized and charge to let you in. He states that your experience in a paid pisser will be soooo much better because it will be kept clean from your money.

This shit passes for journalism?? Damn...bring back that wrestler that kicked his ass on his show--now thats something I'd PAY to see!!

[Skittles]

18. I DON'T GIVE A FLYING F*** WHAT GAS COST IN 1981

BACK THEN I DIDN'T HAVE BILLS FOR CELL AND INTERNET, HEALTH COSTS WERE FAIRLY CONTAINED, I RECEIVED REGULAR WAGE INCREASES AND MY JOB WAS NOT IN DANGER OF BEING SHIPPED OVERSEAS. GO FUCK YOURSELF STOSSEL YOU FUCKING REPUBLICAN WHORE

[AJH032]

19. "clothing prices have gone down"

That was, essentially, his proof for why outsourcing is good. But seriously, is the benefit of cheaper clothing enough to outweigh the loss of one's job?

[PBass]

21. There are some good John Stossel "debunking" websites out there.

Stossel is a dipshit. Isn't he the one who faked explosions on camera (with Ford cars)?

[DeaconBlues]

20. Stossel was being interviewed on the Colbert Report the other week

He basically said that all aspects of the airline industry should be deregulated. He said the wisdom of the marketplace would ensure safety and security. The sad thing about it was he wasn't joking.

[TheDonkey]

22. If you filled up your tank with pure platium it would cost $8M!!!

That is such a bullshit argument when I hear "well milk costs more a gallon than gas!" um' apples and oranges anyone? I don't usually drink 15 gallons of milk a week and I definetly don't need to drink it to go to work. Some people are real idiots.

[Libby2]

23. I didn't watch it

but thought that is sounded like a repeat.

[AX10]

25. It's asses like this who make the world more dangerous.

[BigYawn]

26. Stossel has bigger audience than All of the TV talk shows combined,

so he can't be taken lightly. He is very entertaining,
makes you think, and comes across as believable. We can
pooh-pooh him all we want, he is very effective. Which
makes him very dangerous.

[Digit]

27. Would it help if we said how much we disliked Stossel?

You know, an email campaign.
I certainly have not been able to stomach him for quite sometime, but I have never bothered to let the station know.

[montana500]

28. hahahhaha! Good ole Stossel, the angry jerk off.

nm

[snowbear]

29. With the Olympics on... they must've had about 15 viewers nationwide

[fujiyama]

30. John Stossel appealed to me

when I was like 10 years old.

Needless to Say, I grew up. He's a loony libertarian...belieeves corporations and the private sector can do no harm and we should all worship them.