By John K. Wilson

John Stossel is arguably the most influential TV reporter in the world. That's not because Stossel is a great journalist. His reports on 20/20 and his hour-long specials on ABC mix simplistic libertarianism with gross factual errors in repetitive and often incoherent rants against any liberally minded ideas.

But Stossel is television's most enthusiastic cheerleader for corporate America. His stances against regulation, equality, and government involvement in anything make him valuable to corporate America, and Disney has rewarded its top free marketeer with a position of enormous authority. No other person on American television has the power to produce his own hour-long documentaries for airing (and erroring) on a prime-time network.

Stossel has powerful supporters in the corporate world who enthusiastically defend his relentless praise for the free market. A year ago, Stossel came under attack for falsifying Center for Disease Control tests and making up claims that organic produce has more E.coli contamination than conventionally grown types. The Competitive Enterprise Institute responded by creating Support-JohnStossel.org and launched a PR campaign to help save his job.

While news networks typically fire journalists who commit missteps, even when they have confirmation of their reports (as CNN did with the Sarin gas story), Stossel repeatedly lies and distorts and yet remains one of the most influential news reporters in the business. In July, ABC News forced Stossel to remove interviews with children about environmental education because his producers had deceived parents by concealing Stossel's involvement. As FAIR has noted, "John Stossel plays by a different set of rules than other journalists."

The right-wing Palmer R. Chitester (PRC) Fund is raising $310,000 this year to finance the "Stossel in the Classroom" project (intheclassroom.org), noting that "the principle [sic] goal of the project is to expand the audience for John Stossel's work." Perhaps that's why Stossel was willing to give well-paid speeches to corporate groups and avoid ABC conflict-of-interest restrictions by having his speaking fee donated to this "charity" which seems aimed mostly at increasing Stossel's ratings.

"In the Classroom" is not a serious intellectual appraisal of Stossel's ideas. It is pure propaganda. The Teacher's Guide for "Greed" advises educators to ask students these obviously loaded questions: "Why do you think richer countries tend to have better environments, with less pollution?" and "If government raises taxes to fund welfare programs for people who have been unsuccessful in the marketplace, will there be more or fewer inventions?"

The Teacher's Guide for "Are We Scaring Ourselves to Death?" declares, "John Stossel's discussion with Ralph Nader confirms that some people are preoccupied with risks anywhere and everywhere – food, beverages, even rugs."

The website lists 46 schools in Illinois alone that have used "Stossel in the Classroom." At many of these schools, Stossel's misinformed opinions appear to be taught uncritically.

Mary Lou McLaughlin, the Social Studies Department Chair at Rock Island High School, wrote: "The students are impressed when they can see for themselves the differences between countries. They are especially impressed because you don't shy away from the problems and faults of the U.S. That gives you great credibility as far as the students are concerned."

Pam Labunsky of Hononegah High School in Rockton, IL, wrote: "I am a business education teacher and I have used "Greed" in my intro to Business and Entrepreneurship classes...I think it's great that your organization keeps up with the teachers and individuals who are buying their product....you don't see this kind of customer contact very often."

Stossel declared earlier this year, "When I started 30 years ago as a consumer reporter, I took the approach that most young reporters take today. My attitude was that capitalism is essentially cruel and unfair, and that the job of the government, with the help of lawyers and the press, is to protect people from it."

Today, Stossel sees his job as protecting capitalism from the people: "It is my job to explain the beauties of the free market." In one speech, Stossel even compared the effects of regulation by the EPA to the "dead-eyed look in the people" of Moscow before the fall of the Soviet Union. When Stossel compares the lackluster record of the EPA to Soviet totalitarianism, it indicates how far out of touch with reality his ideas are.

In the world of ABC News, where Barbara Walters led product placement singing for Campbell's Soup, George Will on This Week praised Ronald Reagan for a speech Will advised him on, David Brinkley sold his credibility for ADM commercials, and Cokie Roberts was regularly paid by corporate groups to give speeches, Stossel is only the latest and most extreme PR flack for corporations to take the guise of a journalist.

Stossel claims, "Market forces protect us even where we tend most to think we need government. Consider the greedy, profit-driven companies that have employed me. CBS, NBC, and ABC make their money from advertisers, and they've paid me for 20 years to bite the hand that feeds them."

Stossel's profitable evolution from consumer reporter to corporate defender reflects the changes in the nature of the media over the last two decades. He told a Federalist Society audience in 1996, "I got sick of it. I also now make so much money I just lost interest in saving a buck on a can of peas". Stossel pushes his extreme brand of pro-corporate libertarianism and is rewarded for his inability to tell the truth. He is paid to kiss the hand that feeds his corporate employers, and bite the hand of anyone who questions corporate power.