by Rich Noyes
Few in the media show as much disdain for big government as they do big corporations such as Microsoft or the tobacco companies. “My colleagues are quite comfortable with big government,” ABC’s John Stossel explained to a questioner in an online chat on January 29. “But to be fair,” he added, “they DO often report on government waste.”
Network correspondents sometimes do report on government waste, but not like Stossel. The maverick ABC reporter’s January 27 prime-time special, Mr. Stossel Goes to Washington, offered viewers a comprehensive look at the factual case against big government: workers who labor at tough jobs only to have the government take a third of their income in high taxes; gigantic agencies such as the Pentagon that can’t account for trillions of dollars; anecdotes of how private charities are thwarted by senseless government rule-making; and stories about how mismanagement by the Interior Department office that’s supposed to help Native Americans has wasted money and actually hurt tribes such as the Sioux in South Dakota.
The Lakota Sioux tribe has been under the control of the Bureau of Indian Affairs for more than 100 years, Stossel reported. “The result? This is now the poorest county in America. Unemployment’s about 80%. People live on government checks,” he stated. “With nothing to do, many just drink.” Under the government’s care, the average life expectancy for the Lakota Sioux has declined to below that of poor 3rd World nations such as Guatemala, Bolivia and Brazil, according to a Native American activist. But when Stossel arranged to interview then-Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt about the Bureau’s poor performance, including the misallocation of more than $2 billion, the Secretary stalked out of the room rather than defend his department.
“I’m gonna fire whoever scheduled this interview,” Babbitt told Stossel.
Taken together, the message of the Stossel special was plain: big government takes too much of your money, wastes an awful lot of it, and usually isn’t held accountable for mistakes or mismanagement. Although it was produced months ago, the show also contained an important message to consider as Congress begins contemplating a new federal entitlement for senior citizens’ prescription drugs: the private sector almost always produces better results — and private programs cost less.
For one example, Stossel went to Jersey City, New Jersey, where decaying water pipes were fouling the city’s water supply at the same time costs were rising. So Mayor Bret Schundler ended the city government’s monopolistic control of the water system, turning the system over to a private company. “For the first time in years,” Stossel reported, “the city’s water meets the highest standard and for less money. The private company saved taxpayers $35 million.” In another segment, Stossel showed how a decaying public housing project, once infested with drug dealers, was transformed into a neat, decent place to live when control was placed in the hands of a private developer.
Stossel’s is a lonely voice. On his ABC online chat, he admitted that he’s “been hassled and sneered at by some” of his colleagues, but he reminded fans that “it is the ABC network and its executives that allow me to put this program on the air. Many of them don’t agree with my point of view, but they believe it’s an argument that deserves to be heard.”
A fair and balanced media would, in its day-to-day reporting, disseminate the facts which undermine the cause of big government alongside the opinions of those who wish to expand it further. Kudos to ABC’s John Stossel for revealing the other side of the story.
(This report courtesy of the Media Research Center.)
