The Power of Independent Thinking

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Confessions of a Media Maverick
Exposing Hucksters, Cheats and Scam Artists
Friday, January 30, 2004

Held Friday, January 30, 2004
At The Independent Institute Conference Center

Featuring
John Stossel
John Stossel, author of Give Me a Break. is co-anchor of ABC’s “20/20.” He also hosts ABC’s “John Stossel Specials” for ABC television and radio, and ABCNews.com. In addition to having received 19 Emmy Awards, he has been honored five times for excellence in consumer reporting by the National Press Club. Among his other awards are the George Polk Award for Outstanding Local Reporting and the George Foster Peabody Award.
When pioneering television journalist John Stossel joined ABC-TV’s “20/20” in 1981, his peers and an admiring public hailed him as a crusading consumer reporter. His hard-hitting, in-your-face exposés of con artists and corporate liars and crooks won him 19 Emmys and an avid following. But, could the use of government power and the Nanny State be the biggest scam of all?

In his new book, Give Me a Break, Stossel takes on a herd of sacred cows and examines how in the name of the “public interest,” ambitious politicians and bureaucrats, intellectually lazy and opportunistic reporters, scaremongers, and predatory lawyers make life worse, especially for those most disadvantaged.

In this event John Stossel explained how his investigations of government waste, fraud and abuse; welfare for the rich; victimless crimes; self-serving interest groups; and sensationalist-media hyping (while ignoring real risks) reveal the crucial need to protect the civil and economic liberties of all people.

Give Me a Break

“Stossel is that rare creature, a TV commentator who understands economics, in all its subtlety. Read this fascinating book to learn -- by example after example, -- how the indirect, unseen effects of government policies often dominate the direct, seen effects. Again and again, policies have effects the opposite of those intended.”
-- MILTON FRIEDMAN, winner of the Nobel Prize in Economic Science

“John Stossel is the most consistently thought-provoking TV reporter of our time.”
-- DALLAS MORNING NEWS

“There’s nothing matter-of-fact about John Stossel’s fact-finding. He seeks the truths that destroy truisms, wields reason against all that’s unreasonable, and uses and upholds the ideals that puncture sanctimonious idealism. He loves liberty in a way that goes far beyond liberalism. He makes the maddening mad. And Stossel’s tales of the outrageous are outrageously amusing.”
-- P. J. O’ROURKE, best-selling author of Eat the Rich and Parliament of Whores

“John Stossel has the gift for entertaining while saying something profound.”
-- ORLANDO SENTINEL

“A riveting, enlightening read from one of America’s ablest and most courageous journalists. Stossel brilliantly practices what most in the media only preach.”
-- STEVE FORBES, editor of Forbes Magazine

“John Stossel is a breath of fresh air in a world of stodgy, conformist, knee-jerk journalism.”
-- BERNARD GOLDBERG, Emmy Award-winning CBS reporter and best-selling author of Bias and Arrogance

Buy Give Me a Break from Amazon.





  • Catalyst
  • Beyond Homeless
  • MyGovCost.org
  • FDAReview.org
  • OnPower.org
  • elindependent.org