Wanker of the day: John Stossel

[sheshe2]

John Stossel has said some pretty ridiculous crap over the years, but this might take the prize for the most insensitive, moronic thing that has ever come out of his piehole:

Fox Business host John Stossel on Thursday declared that government programs should be cut based on the false assertion that “no one” died of starvation in the Great Depression before the modern “welfare state.” [...]
“And when people are needy you want them [to get] help,” Stossel agreed. “But think about the [Great] Depression. That was before there was any welfare state at all. How many people starved? No one.” “Right, good point,” Doocy agreed.

http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2013/5/31/104238/031

I made a dumb statement about starvation on Fox & Friends yesterday AM,” he added in another post to Twitter.

“I was almost certainly wrong,” Stossel explained on his blog. “During the Depression, the governor of Pennsylvania wrote, ‘we know that starvation is widespread, but no one has enumerated the starving.’ However, all other governors who wrote to Congress, 43 of them, sent letters saying that they knew of no starvation in their states. Historians Steven Mintz and Sara McNeil wrote that there were hundreds of deaths in NYC alone.”

But at the same time, the Fox Business host also asserted that government welfare programs had “caused more problems by driving private charity out.”

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/05/30/fox-business-host-cut-government-because-no-one-died-of-starvation-before-welfare/

Photo Credit: Photograph of non-starving woman and children during the Great Depression, courtesy of blsciblogs.baruch.cuny.edu) and Dorothea Lange, documentary photographer employed by the Federal Resettlement Administration and the Farm Security Administration from 1935 - 1939)

[toddaa]

1. Just give him a lifetime achievement award and be done with it

Biggest corporate fluffer ever.

[Berlum]

7. America's #1 Corporate Fluffer Wanker: DA Stosseler (R)

[hootinholler]

37. Wanker Fluffer rolls off the tongue better.

[Gothmog]

2. Juanita Jean thinks Stossel is an idiot also

Last edited Mon Jun 3, 2013, 03:04 PM - Edit history (1)

http://juanitajean.com/2013/05/31/would-somebody-please-stand-in-front-of-john-stossel-and-holler-damfool-for-me/

[sheshe2]

5. Juanita, well said.

thanks for the link, Gothmog.

[Mike Nelson]

3. "...almost certainly wrong..."

lol...

[DirkGently]

4. He seemed so normal back in his 20/20 days.

It's like at some point he was devoured by a rogue copy of Atlas Shrugged, and this pseudo-Libertarian slime monster was spat out upon the world.

[fob]

6. Pleased to be the one to post the link to stossel v. Dr D David Schultz interview

Enjoy!

&feature=player_detailpage

[Rex]

11. Looks like he got slapped around hard.

You think he reported THAT on Sucksnews?

[sheshe2]

14. Thanks, fob.

[Frank Cannon]

16. That video never fails to cheer me.

Watching John Stossel getting his clock cleaned is like Ben & Jerry' s Cookie Dough Ice Cream for the soul.

[rhett o rick]

8. Of course he cant see any starvation from where his head is. nm

[Octafish]

9. Professional Liar

Works for Rupert WMD Murdoch.

[Rex]

10. Like anyone cares what the brain dead hosts of Sucknews

has to say. They are the dumbest creatures on the planet, right above their brain dead, zombie followers. Proven to be some of the dumbest people on the planet.

[scarletwoman]

12. "Wanker of the day" doesn't cover it. Stossel deserves a Lifetime Wanker Achievement award. (nt)

[booley]

13. It's like the refrigerator thing

when supposedly poor people were living it up because they had, you know, a refrigerator.

Never mind that most poor people rent and the frig typically comes with the apartment.

It's a combination of lack of empathy and cluelessness.

Anybody who knows anything about kids knows that they don't have to die to be damaged by lack of food.

Anybody who has been poor knows being hungry all the time leads to poor food choices.

But guys like Stossel dont' know that and probably don't care to know. even when these things are pointed out to them, it doesn't change their argument because to do that, they would have to acknowledge other human beings.

[classof56]

20. +1

Well and truly said. What sad creatures Stossel et al are, with their total lack of compassion. Shame!

[Skittles]

15. Stossel is such a fucking ASSHOLE

my dad did not starve to death during the Depression but I can tell you lack of knowing when his next meal was when he was a child affected him for the rest of his LIFE

[rppper]

17. My mother always kept a huge supply....

....of staples....flour, sugar, rice, various beans, pasta, dried beef(what you make SOS out of).....she made no qualms about it either...her father showed her....I keep a healthy supply(although mine is due more to living a mile from the Atlantic and 90 from the gulf).....

That slap Dave Schultz gave him years ago must have shaken something loose....

[HangOnKids]

27. My Father & Mother Suffered From Food Deprevation During The Depression

Long after my Father became very successful my Mother would not eat enough because she felt guilty. To the day she died she took rolls and leftovers home in her purse, even though her own fridge was fully stocked. They were both hurt quite horrifically, and Stossel is a fucking ASSHOLE.

[Skittles]

32. I heard this in a movie

Last edited Sun Jun 2, 2013, 08:03 PM - Edit history (1)

"I was raised by people who didn't just THINK bad things could happen - they KNEW they could" - people like our parents (dad a Depression survivor, mum a WWII survivor) have more character and class than that rat bastard Stossel EVERY will - JEEZ HE MAKES ME SICK

[HangOnKids]

34. We Make Them Proud Skit

We stand up for them.

[Baitball Blogger]

18. It must be so nice to be connected to tight social circles and feel free to share

the tidbits you hear over martinis when you get to work the next day.

I want that job.

[Skittles]

39. I have to tell you, Baitball Blogger

I think you NAIL it - I have often wondered how / where they come up with their simplistic garbage that seems to have no connection to the real world

[Baitball Blogger]

40. Over-simplistic bullshit. Aye.

Steven Colbert referred to it as Truthism. If you hang around them you can see how easily they accept a bad idea as it gets around a room. My old hippie teacher used to call it parroting.

[Skittles]

41. LOL.......BB

yo' old hippie teacher got it right

[Shankapotomus]

19. I'm sure many commited suicide

before they starved.

[hollysmom]

21. or died before their time like my grandmother from lasting effects of malnutrition.

[Shankapotomus]

36. That certainly qualifies as starvation related in my book

Sorry to hear your grandmother's time on this earth was so unnecessarily limited.

[hollysmom]

38. She died just before she turned 60,

not outrageously young, but she fed her family first during the depression and ate what ever scraps there were if any.
First the husband,then the boys, then her daughter and finally herself.
They said starving herself weakened her heart. My aunt is over 90 and the oldest relative I ever had but very very cheap.

[treestar]

22. I've always disliked that wanker

But that statement takes the cake. How cruel.

[arely staircase]

23. he's a wanker every day.

nt

[Initech]

24. Fox Business Channel is the single worst network on TV.

It only exists to promote Koch narratives and Heritage Foundation talking points, and talking heads like John Stossel are paid shills who only exist to regurgitate this incredibly toxic narrative.

[Wolf Frankula]

25. Time to Outsource Stossel's Job

Somebody in China can say things that stupid for a quarter of what they're paying Stossel.

Wolf

[LuvNewcastle]

30. ^^^

Great idea.

[hedgehog]

26. My mother cried when she watched Cinderella Man, because she

remembered people watering down the milk to make it last.

[HangOnKids]

28. My Mother watered down milk as well

Until my Father stepped in and said "Isabelle you can fart through silk now, please give the kids full milk."

[BeyondGeography]

29. Stossel rips Fed flood insurance and cashes in 3X

http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2012/11/01/1121831/stossel-flood-insurance-hypocrisy/?mobile=wp

[SummerSnow]

31. Heres to all thos right wing so called christians...

the next time you talk about how god fearing and christian you are and at the same time denying people sustenance here is few bible quotes for you...I mean its only right since you claim you're a Christian.

James 2:14 What does it profit, my brothers, though a man say he has faith, and have not works? can faith save him? 15If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, 16And one of you say to them, Depart in peace, be you warmed and filled; notwithstanding you give them not those things which are needful to the body; what does it profit? …

Luke 3:11 John answered, "Anyone who has two shirts should share with the one who has none, and anyone who has food should do the same."

1 john 3:17 But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him?

[proud2BlibKansan]

33. So I don't have to tell my family that our mother's baby cousin didn't really die in 1933?

Phew. Thanks John.

[DonViejo]

35. He's a Libertarian...

I'm a libertarian in part because I see a false choice offered by the political left and right: government control of the economy -- or government control of our personal lives.

People on both sides think of themselves as freedom lovers. The left thinks government can lessen income inequality. The right thinks government can make Americans more virtuous. I say we're best off if neither side attempts to advance its agenda via government.


Read more: http://www.foxbusiness.com/on-air/stossel/blog/2012/08/15/why-im-libertarian#ixzz2V6ciqZ7u