Risky Journalism

ABC's John Stossel bucks a fearful establishment.

Jacob Sullum from the April 1997 issue

(Page 2 of 6)

Stossel: A combination. I saw that regulation rarely worked on even the most obvious of crooks, that the people selling breast enlargers and penis enlargers -- all those people would get away with it. They would hold off attorneys general for a couple of years, and then when the law enforcement machine finally came after them they would hire their own slick defense lawyers, who would hold the regulators off for another few years. And then they would just change the name of the product or sign a consent order (which is like saying, "I don't admit doing anything wrong, but I won't do it anymore"). Then they would do it again in a different state or under a different name. The rules didn't hurt the obvious bad guys, but the good companies would have to spend vast sums hiring squads of bureaucrats to obey the OSHA rules or equal opportunity rules, the FDA, EPA, CPSC -- and [paying for] the PACs. All the energy that used to be poured into making the product better and getting it to the customer sooner is now put into massaging the leviathan.

Reason: When did you start reading economics and political philosophy?

Stossel: It's embarrassing as a Princeton graduate how little serious economics reading I had done. As this was happening, when I was in New York City -- I started in Portland, Oregon -- I felt very alone. I would read The New York Times, Time, Newsweek, and nobody was saying any of these things. But then I found REASON, and read In Pursuit, by Charles Murray. I realized there were other people who were talking about these things, and there was an intellectual basis for what I was feeling.

Reason: You've said that you look back at some of your early work with regret. Give me some examples.

Stossel: I did a lot of alarmist reporting. I did an Alar story on Good Morning America. I did a story on exploding coffee pots that was probably alarmist. I did a story, because of a very passionate producer who dragged me in despite my reluctance, on a subject that is dear to your heart, passive smoke. I took a quote from [anti-smoking activist] Stanton Glantz, which if I looked at now would make me cringe a bit.

Reason: With your Alar story, was it full-blown hysteria, or did you say there were questions about the evidence?

Stossel: I felt I was reporting on breaking news. The EPA had just made an announcement. I think I was less hysterical than others, but I basically said the EPA said this chemical, daminozide, which is used to keep the apples fresh longer, has been shown to cause cancer in rats -- and just saying that will terrify some people. I wish I had the knowledge at the time to say the new testing mechanisms are finding possible carcinogens in most anything these days, and I certainly intend to keep eating apples. But at the time I just reported the breaking news.

Reason: Have you done anything on breast implants?

Stossel: I did a lot of stories on breast implants -- at WCBS, when I worked there, just on the cosmetic procedure, interviewing women while they were having it done. Taking the feminist point of view that it's a tragedy that people aren't comfortable with their own bodies, that women would do this even when the men in their lives didn't want them to do this, go through all this risk and pain just to look better. And yet they said they were happier because of it. A lot of them turned out to be doing it because their mothers used to make fun of them for being flat-chested.

But I'm not answering your question, because I guess you're asking about safety issues. I have a special on bad science, which is scheduled to be broadcast soon [it aired on January 9], which talks about breast implants in the light of what is known today. I did not do the alarmist number on breast implants.

Reason: In coming to see that health hazards were often exaggerated, what writers were influential?

Stossel: Aaron Wildavsky [the late political scientist and risk specialist]. Bernard Cohen, a physicist who was writing an obscure physics journal, came to my attention. Unfortunately, that was about it at the time. There may be others.

Reason: How have the ratings been for your specials?

Stossel: Most of them were top-20 programs, which even surprised ABC.

Reason: What about the reviews?

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