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Media
When bad shows become truly abominable
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[02/23/00]

Media
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Brand X
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Alt
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[01/14/00]

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So, it's unfortunate that while ABC News has been looking the other way, Stossel has been transformed from a right-leaning bomb-thrower of prime-time news into a full-fledged propagandist in the classroom. The transformation was fostered by an affiliation among ABC News, Stossel and the conservative Palmer R. Chitester Fund, which sells educational materials based on Stossel's ABC reporting. The arrangement touches on the fundamental ethical question of whether or not journalists and the news organizations they work for should align themselves with ideologically driven organizations.

To untangle the snarl of conflicts Stossel has created would take a graduate level journalism seminar, but here are the Cliffs Notes:

"Stossel in the Classroom" is a series of study aids that includes Stossel's popular ABC News special reports, accompanied by study guides written by two conservative economics instructors at George Mason University. The study guides are emblazoned with a big blue ABC News logo and Stossel's face. ABC News and Stossel had almost nothing to do with the development of "Stossel in the Classroom," but the product is deceptively packaged to look like an ABC product.

According to the Chitester Fund Web site, the program is sold to more than 200 public and private schools across the country, who pay about $300 for the series. "Stossel in the Classroom" is advertised in School Reform News, a publication of the conservative Heartland Institute.

One contributor to the "Stossel in the Classroom" series is the John M. Olin Foundation, an organization that popped up regularly in stories detailing Hillary Clinton's "vast right-wing conspiracy" during the investigation and impeachment of President Clinton. For three decades, the Olin Foundation has funded many of the most influential institutions and individuals on the right. Board member and conservative columnist Walter Williams' professorship at George Mason University is also underwritten by Olin.

Chitester Fund is a conservative foundation, sporting John Fund of the Wall Street Journal editorial page, actor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Williams among others on its boards. Text on the Chitester Fund Web site describes the organization's mission: "We are particularly interested in illuminating the prerequisites of a free society -- (with an) emphasis on projects that examine the role of government and explain the interrelationship of economic, personal and political freedom," code for a closeted conservative group.

Though Stossel's special reports for ABC News are conservative, they're also good journalism. He doesn't pull any punches against Republican sacred cows from big business lobbyists to B-2 bombers. But "Stossel in the Classroom" crosses the line between edgy journalism and pure propaganda.

The study guide section on robber barons, for example, (based on Stossel's "Greed" special) doesn't mention the word monopoly. In a "case study" on John D. Rockefeller, the word does pop up, but only to argue that oil tycoon Rockefeller wasn't a monopolist. But at least Stossel takes the time to explain that, often, monopolies come to be not because of market failure, but because of government favors for business.

Another guide (accompanying Stossel's "Scaring Ourselves to Death") snidely attacks the government for changing dietary recommendations to emphasize fruits and vegetables over meat and dairy products. Ironically, most of the critics of the health scares Stossel debunks in his special are big believers in just those health recommendations. People like Bruce Ames, an internationally reknowned scientist and vocal critic of the Environmental Protection Agency believe that lower fat, higher fruit and vegetable diets fight cancer and other health problems, just like the government does. Here's the last sentence of that guide: "Will headline hysteria and federal regulatory agencies continue to divorce public policy from reality?"

Many, if not most, of the 35 to 40 footnotes accompanying each guide cite predictably conservative sources like the Heritage Foundation, the CATO Institute, the Hoover Institution, the Young Americas Foundation and the Wall Street Journal op-ed pages. They're not exactly the sources a skeptical reader would find convincing.

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