Gets it so wrong its hard to know what is real or what is fake. Unfortunately now there are alternatives to traditional motives. Breaking news and that is our show tonight. The longer you knew us. Sometimes i think there should be a question mark after that were. Because a lot of what the Mainstream Media reports is nonsense. Lisette missed the point, the news is broken. I began as a consumer reporter and then exposed fraud. I was in neutral, but i couldnt tell them or find them all. All i could do was embarrass them and i found that i tried really hard to do that. You are a crook. The way that you are putting it does appear to be a part of this. John i clearly had a point of view. It didnt seem wrong to me. Never heard the pompous lectures on objectivity. Weirdly sense consumer reporting is brandnew, media left me alone and cheered me on and called my work a Public Service and they gave me 19 of these emmy awards because of my obvious agenda, which was businesses are bad, government must watch and enjoy them. And businesses usually succeed by serving customers well and this can hurt consumers by limiting choice and raising prices. Strangely its not the same confrontational approach to government regulators. So you cant say that. And they became skeptical of government and i had to fight to get my stories on abc news. To be fair, i often one. But over time less and less often, 19 here when im free to report on what i think is important. They wont admit that they have any bias, more to the bosses at npr or others think that. Cheryl atkinson was allowed to criticize the government. She has the latest. She reported on benghazi. Someone needs to guide their viewpoint towards the youtube video. He she said that they did not tell the truth about the obamacare website. Nine in 10 people are able to create an account. However, i tried three times today and the system would not let me do it. As he saw, cbs letter to those reports for a while and eventually something changed. She is here to tell us why she left cbs. You for having me. John the newer management, in my view, do not want to government watchdog stories in general. There were times when they let us do those things and they encouraged us to do them in the light switch would go off in this avonlea wouldnt want them. But as time went on, it was harder and harder to get stories on television not just about the government but any powers that be and it was made very clear that cbs and as you know, lisa meyer and others have done a job but then they left for other network jobs. John they would never say that we dont criticize. Absolutely not. Things like that are never sent. Yes theres more of a signal. Its perfectly solid, vicky questioning and turning them around and they die the death of a thousand things. John thats what happened to me at abc. I have Great Stories on School Choice and Government Health care. I try to go back when it was in the news. Now theres a School Choice movement and they said youre just doing this predictable libertarian things and no one wants watch that. During sequestration, the highly successful government follow this which we have done for years primarily under president bush but not particularly because of him. The federal bureaucracy is an administration to administration. I argue that they were hugely popular and were talking about how money is spent and waste and fraud and abuse by the millions and billions. John you try to do stories on green energy. Green energy was another topic and i began a wellreceived story with cbs. At one point they said that we would love to have as many as we can get. John you reported not just on slender but beacon power pick about 43 million despite a terrible credit rating. There were so many. After the first report they said give it more and i was never able to do another one because the light switch went off and there was a lot of pushback from administration, which got theirs sure gets involved with controversial wising the recording. That stuff takes on a life of its own. John so you were not tired come you got frustrated and left . Exactly. If they dont want a story, thats fine, but then theres nothing i can do with it, you can just go to self publish something read these are very important stories with whistleblowers who had gone out on womens sometimes to expose something and i thought they deserved exposure. John thank you, sharyl attikisson. What is the truth . A big picture. Do reporters spin the news . Two new sponsors shall reporters . Lets hear from the man who has been americas most respected media reporter for many years at the Washington Post. Howard kurtz. Is there leftwing bias in media . Theres no doubt in my mind that most reporters are to the left of the general population on social issues and abortion and gay marriage and gun and you name it. On politics, maybe so, but i think it is their reporting less i do think the think the way that destroys our friends reflect liberal sensibility. John you have to cover both sides. When it comes to gun control or government regulation, of course there has to be more regulation that is common sense. Unlike those comments who spew opinions for living, most people who are working reporters covering politics to try to tell both sides. They wouldnt have gotten into that line of work if they wanted to be activists. Lets review the past. Before you can work at fox coming helped to create the first tv show that really covered media, cnns reliable sources very i give you credit that even though you worked for the Washington Post and cnn, and i consider you an activist, you try to be objective and grill journalists from left and right. And cnn invited me on and you gave me a hard time. Everyone else in the business, isnt there an antibusiness bias . May be at times. Im sure you understand during the long years of experience that as an interviewer, and i invited you on, it is my job to push and prod and test your arguments and thats what i was doing in the role of host. John fair enough. But the title of the show was objectivity in journalism, does john stossel practice either. He really said that i wasnt objective or journalist. I have to push back and say im not a leftist nor mind a rightwinger, and someone who tries to be down the middle. Critiquing whether thats true or not. But i actually admired some of what you did when you kind of evolved were merged as a full throated libertarian because you russia and the notion of should the fda always regulate something. And so im sure even when he read abc news, it wasnt always the best position. Whether right, left, skeptical, vegetarian, i threw that is my job. John your angry colleagues waited on pretty thick. If you call yourself a commentator, cant you stop this kind of ethical boundary problem all of you have an ethical boundary problem. Not me. I dont think i use that kind of tone and language. And finally the most noxious that it is the guy that objected to and sing this to. Nobody is perfectly objective. We all have opinions. You get big audiences and how abc lets you practice this partisanship is a triumph. It sounds so sleazy. I agree with what you said, we may strive for it and we are a product of our experiences and biases and those are on the reporting side of the business with mixed results to be fair. John thank you. Ensure about the media called media buzz now airing on fox on sunday. And you at home, what do you think . If he objective . And my . Sent us a tweet and uses hash tag, media. We can keep this conversation going. Coming up, sometimes news is so sensationalized its hard to tell whether what reporters say is real or fake. My next guest says all journalists are biased and we journalists are biased and we ought to our veterans need you. There are more than 8 million enrollees in health care at the department of veterans affairs. Thats more than 2 percent of the entire us population. This includes veterans from previous generations and veterans from todays wars. Challenging medical condition ever increasing Technological Breakthroughs and more returning women than ever before are redefining the type of care va professionals are providing. Serve those who serve our nation. Provide patient centered evidence based care. Bring your exceptional medical and Health Care Skills to the Veterans Health administration. Americas heroes need you. Join the conversation at workatva or visit vacareers. Va. Gov me whered you ever learn to fight without saying a word . Then waltz back into my life like its all gonna be all right dont you know how much it hurts . When we dont talk when we dont touch when it doesnt feel like were even in love it matters to me when i dont know what to say dont know what to do dont know if it really even matters to you how can i make you see it matters to me . The one i used to read variety and this is how i use to find out what going on in my business. I also read Electronic Media and no i dont ascribe to any of them. I scan a website that gives me a daily summary. There is plenty of what is stupid in todays media. Thank you for saving me money. You have recently written an article that says there is no such thing as an objective journalist, so get over it. Thats right, everyone has a point of view and they dont magically check it that they walk into the door. I think journalists would be better served if they just admitted their opinions and we judge reporting based upon the toughness of it and the accuracy and fairness and not whether this person has a point of view. John they do pretend to have no point of view. See were making choices is what you mention what you dont. Thats right, theres confirmation bias and theres all kinds of ways in which he may not think youre we are having a bias, but its unavoidable. Media points out who is left and right. And that made take this interview and tainted. And we will discuss that later. But people say cronkite, others, they were just down the middle. Thats right, we did misty i thinking about this. And i wasnt around for, i know. But there were two or three guys giving you the news on a nightly basis and its nice to have that authoritative voice and its better to have choice in the market responded and there was no governmental god, but the market responded and we have fox news and talk radio and there are problems with all of it. But the markets are creating new media. Having those overly conservative voices, after abc aired my report but had a more antigovernment point of view, Peter Jennings stopped speaking to me. When he saw some in the hall, he would do this. He was embarrassed that i was at abc. And around that time, Peter Jennings went on the jon stewart showed. The big accusation is the major press and the media elite have a liberal slant and do you think that that is an actual problem . I decided to try to tell the truth with a liberal instinct. Helping people is a high and mighty attitude. But if Peter Jennings just admitted on a liberal, i will try to report fairly and accurately, then everyone wouldve been fine with that. John even more than jennings was ted koppel, host of nightline. He wrote that the excess of box is a source of sadness for me and its not good for the republic. This is to journalism what he was to investing. He told his customers what he wanted to hear and by the time they learned the truth, their money was gone. And bill oreilly interviewed him about his concern. They corrupted the sanctity of their news coverage. I think its made it difficult if not impossible for decent men and women in congress on capitol hill to reach across the aisle and find compromise. Some may not say that that is a bad thing. We have differences in people think that this creates an echo chamber where you have lots of people only reading the news that they want to read. And that is a problem. But even in that compartmentalization, you can call it that can trust someone who is an out and out civil libertarians who makes his opinions known in his reporting won a pulitzer. He did tough reporting and he was accurate. We have a number that have accuracy and some are reluctant to admit that they have opinions. So here is Rachel Maddow denying that they express opinion. Make your point. You are not for romney care . All of you. What is going on. My job is to cover these things and not to tell you how i like them or not. John maybe she admits it now . No, she has this openly liberal, but she presented on her show as street talk. John coming up, new ways to get around the Mainstream Media. John that is canadian remy mnasifi complaining about politicians spending. His video went viral on youtube. Joining us now, thank you for being here. Im just trying to further my rap career. And it is just a way of poking fun at some bad ideas and spending habits and also its nice to just kind of jump around out there in a jumpsuit in 90degree weather. And commonly, in music, its unusual to worry about government running. So why are you one . Looking at that in deficit and saying that this doesnt work, it doesnt add up. John your father came here and he gave me respect for individual liberty . Yes. That is something that i started with pencil in college i got into reading economics and in Business Schools and Milton Friedman and it sort of role on from there. John if you havent read them, thats another great example is why you should. So in regards to getting your name out there. John during the 2000 president ial campaign, nn and the Democratic Candidates agreed to take youtube lessons and they took this one from remi this welcome a change of tack structure. John i dont think is going to solve anything. But he mustve been excited. I havent seen the clip and a wild. I forgot about him. I try to forget about him. His newest video highlights the scandal surrounding the va hospital john im glad you included that line that we cant be fired. What i was trying to do there is highlight the difference between government bureaucracy and the real world. You wouldnt see people dying on his witless and think that this would suggest fraudulently changing it. Because there is no consequence for doing so. The young people tell me that i should use more of your music and frankly a lot of it just goes over my head. I think thats a great idea and i like it. Im told that this is how young people learn about the world and more recently there was the poll about how much do you trust tv news sources. Fox came out on top and john stuart, apparently the young viewers watch it and they like it and they laughed, but they dont necessarily trust the information and maybe they dont trust you either. To speak for them, i dont know if i would necessarily say that its my most trusted source of information. We were talking about the need to pay everyone a living wage and we realize that they have unpaid internships at the daily show. And its not a secret. And we sue people are recognizing some of the inconsistent these. He said that this was being debated and if you like your plan, you can complete it and keep it i have my own channel on youtube and a lot of this that i have made in the past, so far so good. Includes fun stuff like that. Im glad that you do and thank you. And next, big stories that the media got utterly wrong. We have word of an explosion. There are certain ideas that there are certain ideas that people want to you may say im a dreamer but im not the only one i hope someday youll join us and the world will be as one imagine no possessions i wonder if you can no need for greed or hunger a brotherhood of man imagine all the people sharing all the world you you may say im a dreamer but im not the only one i hope someday youll join us and the world will live as one. John most reporters try very hard to get it right, and reporters good are telling us what happened today. What building burned down, what army invaded, the damage from a tornado. But when it come to news that happens slowly, the media often get it utterly wrong, and i suspect theyre getting it wrong about things like global warming, gun violence, gmo foods, anything related to science and statistics. Heck, basic math a threat to many reporter, combine that with the news proverb if it bleeds it leads and you get misreporting. They want to give us the facts but the people who bring reporters story ideas are alarmed and we get alarmed and eager to rush that news to you we know that the scarier and more bizarre a story, the more likely it is our bosses will give us air time or a front page slot. If the story turn out not to be true later, so what, everyone moved onto the next scary story. Thats why its good theres a Media Organization called retroreport that reveals media hype of the past. We have word now of an explosion in the United States this year at least 100,000 crack babies will be born. The tijuana brawley case abducted and raped by six men. Hard to get rid of those. John the executive producer of retroreport is kyra darnton, welcome. Why do do you this . We like to think that retroreport is a counterbalance to the 247 news cycle, as the pace of the news is so quick, you never get to see the end of the story. Did predictions pan out . Were promises kept . Were building an Online Living library of modern news events where can you come to the website and interact with the stories and really learn about, get new context and perspective both for what happened then and what they mean for us today. John the retroreport took a scare at a scare story that frightened everyone, crack babies. In the 1980s, the media sounded alarm that a new drug, crack cocaine was taking over American Cities and had devastating affect on pregnant women and newborns. Within days we were getting calls from media all over the country and started hearing the term crack babies. The number of babies born addicted has risen 500 . These children were the most expensive babies born in america are going to overwhelm every social service. Threatens to create an entirely new underclass of children unable to care for themselves. I had lots of people interviewing me. John yeah, he did. The scientist who promoted the research that created the alarm, and kyra, how many babies who have been exposed to crack did he study . Only 23, a limited study, and he saw the tremorring babies and the highpitched cries and thought this was a sign of major damage but turned out to be nothing of the sort. These babies developed in mostly normal ways. And yet. John fetal alcohol syndrome is much worse, alcohol is worse than crack . Much worse it turns out. There were real implications to. This the story was a phenomenon and laws were passed and women were incarcerated for having cocaine in the bloodstream and stigma babies were deemed unadoptable because they were shown to be crack babies. Power of the false narratives. John the false narratives sit the left and the right, the left wanted to demonize cocaine. The third bias is getting the story quickly, right . Not waiting and saying heres a limited story, wait six months and see if anything comes of it. But just the mispersisted. This is 30 years later. John people think crack babies were permanently damaged. And you are pretty early on as the new research was coming, did a terrific piece. John thank you, i will be selfserving. Glad you mentioned that, i exposed this in one of my specials on junk science. 15 years ago newspapers like Rolling Stone told us children born to crack addicted mothers were like no others. John they lacked part of the brain that made them human, that would make them wild, dangerous, oblivious to ofection. They were like no others. It was disgusting and thank goodness for claire coal, the scientist who blew the whistle. People hear something three times they think its true. Thats what were hopefully building at retroreport is a place to counteract those. John i hope so. Another scare story where the media went nuts. Superpredators. Who is so impulsive. So remorses that will he can kill, rape, maim without giving it a second thought. This country went into a moral panic over superpredators. They made it up. I did sound alarm and used Strong Language in terms of what might happen if we didnt react quickly. Superpredator originated from inmate. These kids are stone cold predator. Superpredator. Predator. Predator. John one throwaway line from an inmate and it was a theme. Once they latched onto superpredator, it exploded because its this evocative, terrifying word, superpredator, and we know that none of that happened, and the crime rates were starting to fall and continued to fall. John other things you covered, three mile island, the Tawana Brawley case, the preschool where teachers were accused of molesting the kids in bizarre ways. When Police Question them, lives were wrecked. Im glad youre setting the record straight. Thank you, kyra darnton. John real or fake, our game show which we give which bizarre media comments were real and which were made up by the staff over here . John now its time to play real or fake . Sometimes media people say things that are so bizarre that if you didnt hear or see it, you wouldnt believe someone actually said that. Now kennedy, host of the independents is here to test me and kate rogers of foxbusiness. Com, and Charles Payne of making money with Charles Payne. Which of us will figure out things my staff made up and we invite to you play at home. Kennedy, play away. Americas favorite new game show, real or fake. Started with quote number one, a host of a wellknown tv show recently said, quote, if you exclude murders, detroit has an extremely low crime rate. Is that real or fake . All three of you got that one, wrong i would have said it. [ laughter ] quote number two, talking about the irs scandal where the agency admitted to giving extra scrutiny to tea party and conservative groups. One news anchor had a different take. In my mind the irs are the once targeted in this investigation, is that real or fake . That is, in fact, real, Msnbc Alex Wagner said it, in my mind, the irs who is trying to get this out, theyre the once targeted in this whole investigation. [ laughter ] they were targeted after they did a wrong thing. Al capone said the same thing, what can i tell you. You targeted it. Real or fake, a tv show host talking about black friday shopping said in all seriousness, isnt it a little racist to call it black friday . Is that real or fake . Indeed, that is real everyones favorite economist joy behar said it on the view. Isnt it racist to call it black friday. People should know traditionally its which businesses went from the red into the black. The first day of the year they start making money. Quote number four, a young whippersnapper described his influences during first show. He said, quote, i grew up watching the greats of tv news, murrow, cronkite, colbert, is that real or fake. I think i know who said it. Who said it . Vernon pharaoh. I watched the greats of tv news, murrow, cronkite, colbert. I dont think thats so ridiculous, hes making a joke, too. With the dreamy lips. I think colbert is a great sometime. He cracks me up. The host of a talk show on another network broke out this nugget arguing in favor of strict gun control. Quote, every year we keep guns in the hands of civilians, 50 million americans lose their lives. Is that real or fake . [ laughter ]. That is, in fact, fake im sorry, did not get that one right. Lets go on with quote number six, Hurricane Sandy killed people, im so glad we had the storm, it brought impossibilities for good politics. Real or fake. Meaning worried about climate change. John stossel, that is why you are the master, thats real. A comment from msnbc chris matthews. Im so glad we had the storm last week, i think the storm was one of those things, politically. Not in terms of hurting people. The storm brought in possibilities for good politics. We can all go bankrupt pretend to prevent climate change. Real or fake, from a morning tv chat fest anchor basically saying were screwed. Quote humans will be instinct in 200 years because of overpopulation, is that real or fake . Its too stupid. It cant be real. It is too stupid. John, its fake did i show you these before the show . Im lodging the protest. I did not know the question. Here is the final quote in real or fake. Its a tv show host talking about global warming, and this host sad quote, im running in the park on saturday thinking this warm weather is great, but are we all going to die . Is that real or fake . That is, in fact, real. That was Meredith Viera on the today show. Im running in the park saying this is great but are we all going die . I cant figure this out. Good news, bad news, charles, third, kate, second, john stossel, you are the winner. John she is right, we are all going die. At some point we are. In true beautiful words. John thank you kennedy and kate and charles. Coming up, why the media gets it so wrong . John im john stossel, channel 2 consumer news editor, ill have a report in some of the chemicals theyre putting into our food. That hair was in style back then, and so was obsessing about chemicals put in food. Activists were certain the chemicals caused a cancer epidemic. It turned out there was no cancer epidemic. Still isnt one. Most cancer rates are flat or down. The media let us still think theres a cancer epidemic, and, of course, you would if you listen to me. Here are some of the cancer scares i reported on and believed in. And, of course, i believed. So would you if you were a young reporter, scientists we interviewed were alarmed. They it data that proved that coffee causes pancreatic cancer and cell phones cause brain cancer. Other scientists were skeptical but harder to interview. Whats in it for them . What do they gain by taking time to educate stupid reporter. Plus if they were quoted, theyd make enemies, easier to avoid the media. We talk to the activists and trusted them. They were like us, they wore blue jeans and wanted to protect people. There were some corporate scientists who were skeptical and wed interview them, but theyd be funded by business, they wore suits, why trust them . And they were boring. Lawyers told them be careful when talking to the media. Plus a scientist saying we dont really have good evidence that coffee causes cancer. Its just not as interesting as one saying coffee may kill you. I reported the scares, not just cancer scares, these others, too. If you hype things like that, people Pay Attention to you. Cbs ran this john stossel consumer reporter commercial that made me look like a hero. John stossel is like a Guardian Angel or something. I just have the feeling hes going to keep me from making great mistakes. John thats me, your Guardian Angel. Bunk. Guardian angel is a free and open society that allows the innovation that gives us longer lives that around the world has lifted a billion people out of poverty. But covering things like that is a problem for reporters, because the press is biased towards government action. Think about it. Your reporter is signed to cover a disasterment you go to a new town after tornado or flood. You record the damage, interview victims and then for the facts, the big picture where, do you go . To someone official, a police chief, a mayor, someone important. Its natural to turn to them but government officials have a bias toward government solutions. Its a closed loop. Press goes to government for information, and the information it gets implies government answer. A bad cycle. Finally one more reason we get it wrong, its hard to cover things that happen slowly. The plane crash. War. Thats easier, the reporter can see what hes reporting on, he knows where to go. Compare that to science that lengthens lives or innovation that lifts people out of poverty. That happens constantly all over the world, but i dont know where to point my camera recently president obama said this the world is less violent than it has ever been. It is healthier than it has ever been. More tolerant than it has ever been. John he was mocked for saying. That the president was absolutely right. Despite the violence in the middle east, the world today is less violent than it used to be. Heres a graph of deaths from war. Also people are healthier than ever and more tolerant. Lets not underestimate that. In just a few decades, life has improved dramatically for blacks, gays and women. Check out this newspaper story from last century. For and against wife beating. Votes for women put in background whether to beat your wife is the latest controversy. Dr. Wa says beat her she needs it. Mrs. Samuels explains its well known women love most the men who are cruel to them. We consider that absurd and harmful. Today in pittsburgh six people changed their opinion about wife beating. Thats crazy. The reporter wouldnt know who they were. If he did, the gradual changes are not considered news. The news is broken, not just because were politically bias but most good news and most Important News happens slowly. Thats our show. See you next week. It. Have a safe weekend everyone nerds are derided class bet has selfdescribed years have dominated technology they also figured out a way to use the syntax to go into other aspects of life nerds are not only here tuesday by taking over the world and by them, i mean you. Revenge of the nerds. This is the independents. Kennedy welcome to the end of another week. I m. Kennedy along