Asshole of the Day, November 21, 2013: John Stossel

John Stossel is a regular figure on Fox News, so it's no surprise he's a rich asshole with no regard for the less fortunate. But every now and then he takes it even further:

Donning a fake beard, Stossel sat on a New York City sidewalk with a cardboard sign asking people for help. “I just begged for an hour but I did well,” he said. “If I did this for an eight-hour day I would’ve made 90 bucks. Twenty-three thou for a year. Tax-free.”

Elizabeth Hasselbeck, who recently purchased a $4 million home in Greenwich, gasped in horror at the prospect of poor people earning $23,000 a year. Some people asking for money “are actually scammers,” Hasselbeck warned, seemingly unaware of the irony that the only panhandling “scammer” Fox News identified was Stossel.

Because he was able to successfully convince good-hearted pedestrians that he was poor, Stossel went on to chastise people who gave the homeless money because, in his view, “most are not…for real.”

He implored viewers to stop giving money to poor people because if you do, “you’re an enabler.”

This is classic Fox News journalism-- dip your toe in the water on the beach and then make pronouncements about the whole ocean based on your toe's experience. And so John Stossel can spend one hour on the street and then automatically knows everything he needs to about what it's like for a panhandler in every case, all year long, and can begin moralizing about how giving them money makes you an enabler.

Of course in an hour he wasn't hassled by police, stolen from, spit on, subjected to freezing temperatures, or any of the other humiliations or hassles anyone who spends time on the street will endure.

And -- surprise! -- in this brief experience he comes to the conclusion that what he believed before is true! His stunt has reinforced his belief that poor people are entirely responsible for their tough circumstances just as he is entirely responsible for his success. It's just logic.

But, sorry, Mr. Stossel, we're not buying it. For your experiment to be real, you'd need to spend a month living off that $90 a day in New York City, without your savings, your job, or your friends or family for support. An hour won't cut it. You went out of your way to mock the poor and accuse them of being cheats and frauds and moochers, so your'e an asshole, and no amount of self-serving bullshit will change that.

It is John Stossel's first time as Asshole of the Day, but not his first time nominated:

Full story, which includes a refutation of many of the bogus claims made by Stossel: http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2013/11/21/2977711/john-stossel-poor-people/

#asshole of the day #John Stossel #Fox News #Fox & Friends #poor #panhandling #begging #class warfare

assholeofday

Is John Stossel Asshole of the Day?

Is John Stossel asshole of the day for saying people who give to the poor are "enablers"?

Donning a fake beard, Stossel sat on a New York City sidewalk with a cardboard sign asking people for help. “I just begged for an hour but I did well,” he said. “If I did this for an eight-hour day I would’ve made 90 bucks. Twenty-three thou for a year. Tax-free.”

Elizabeth Hasselbeck, who recently purchased a $4 million home in Greenwich, gasped in horror at the prospect of poor people earning $23,000 a year. Some people asking for money “are actually scammers,” Hasselbeck warned, seemingly unaware of the irony that the only panhandling “scammer” Fox News identified was Stossel.

Because he was able to successfully convince good-hearted pedestrians that he was poor, Stossel went on to chastise people who gave the homeless money because, in his view, “most are not…for real.”

He implored viewers to stop giving money to poor people because if you do, “you’re an enabler.”

http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2013/11/21/2977711/john-stossel-poor-people/

What Would Jesus Do? Well, he probably wouldn't be out there trying to prove that a poor beggar is a fraud. But there you go, John Stossel, using your fame to dump on the poor.

It takes a lot of arrogance and general disregard for statistical significance to do something for an hour and then generalize it out to a year. In an hour he wasn't hassled by police, stolen from, spit on, or any of the other humiliations or hassles anyone who spends time on the street will endure. Stossel was a journalist at one point, so we'd hope that he knows that sort of speculation is invalid. But he probably doesn't care because his stunt has reinforced his belief that poor people are entirely responsible for their tough circumstances just as he is entirely responsible for his success. In any event people who go out of their way to mock the poor and accuse them of being cheats and frauds and moochers is an asshole in our book.

Also he post does a pretty good job of refuting the specific claims, including Stossel's history of bogus claims regarding panhandling and is worth a read.

Photo source: Stossel's Google+ page: https://plus.google.com/112120854994509668900/posts

#asshole #John Stossel #Fox News #begging #panhandling #Fox & Friends #Fox And Friends #poor

assholeofday

Is John Stossel Asshole of the Day?

Is John Stossel asshole of the day for saying the poor should sell their kidneys?

And, yes, he really said this:

Stossel’s list of things that needed to be privatized included parks, libraries, law enforcement, military and “organ selling.”

“Organ selling!” Doocy exclaimed.

“This upsets people, but I’m upset it’s not legal,” Stossel insisted. “In the one country where it is legal, nobody waits for a kidney.”

“Where is that?” Doocy asked.

“I’m afraid to say it’s Iran,” Stossel shrugged. “But, still! There’s no waiting line. In America, lots of people die waiting for kidneys.”

“So you think it should be legal in this country to sell off an organ you’re not using,” Doocy pressed.

“Yes, we have two kidneys, we need one, people need them,” the Fox Business host declared. “It’s your body, it should be your choice. Why does the government limit what you can do what you can do with your body?”

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/11/07/fox-business-john-stossel-upset-poor-people-arent-selling-kidneys-for-1200/

I wonder if his assertion "Why does the government limit what you can do what you can do with your body?" would apply to women getting contraception or abortions, because I'm pretty sure that's not a position you're not allowed to take over at Fox News.

Photo: http://www.foxbusiness.com/watch/anchors-reporters/john-stossel-bio/

#asshole #John Stossel #Fox News #Fox & Friends #privatization #GOP

assholeofday

Is John Stossel Asshole of the Day?

by TeaPartyCat (Follow @TeaPartyCat)

Is John Stossell asshole of the day for saying women should be forced to pay more for health insurance?

Fox Business host John Stossel argued on Thursday women should be forced to pay more for health insurance because "maybe they're hypochondriacs" and use more services.

During an appearance on Fox & Friends, Stossel asserted to host Steve Doocy that President Barack Obama's health care reform law "just kills the market" by mandating that women can no longer be charged more than men for insurance.

"The competition of the market is the only thing that makes things better," he explained. "Yesterday, President Obama stood in front of a bunch of women in Massachusetts and said, 'No longer will those evil insurance companies be able to charge you women more.'"

Full story: http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/david/john-stossel-womens-insurance-should-cost-mo

No surprise that most libertarians are healthy men, huh?

And there's a good reason why insurance shouldn't be different for everyone depending on their exact circumstances-- because then it's not risk pooling; it's cherry picking. Because insurance companies will be able to price customers they don't want out of the market, and just keep the ones who don't need insurance all that much. How do I know this? Because that's what they were doing before Obamacare!

#asshole #John Stossel #Fox News #Obamacare #war on women