The American Spectator

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And he's right. The intrusion of the law into every aspect of our lives has sown confusion about what is appropriate to say or not say and spread insecurity and victimhood among those to whom benign flirtations are directed. It is rapidly making life bland and joyless. Stossel relishes his opportunity to call such tendencies into question and, yes, make arguments against them.

Arguments? Is that what an objective reporter/anchor is supposed to be making? Forget for a moment that in TV news especially a human being cannot report the facts without inflection. The alternative would be monotonous, and Stossel rejects that kind of blandness as well. He has found a deeper and more authentic objectivity. He did it, paradoxically, by making his bias known. If you declare your bias in favor of freedom, that means you want the consumers of your reportage to possess all relevant information, the better to make decisions over their own lives.

Nor should journalists imagine themselves to be neutral conveyers of information between self-government and government control. Most of Stossel's colleagues have fooled themselves into believing they can be neutral. In so doing, they have conferred legitimacy on government control and placed themselves in an ethical dungeon they cannot comprehend.

Stossel has opted for the sunlight. He has made himself a national treasure, one who'd bring a smile to Thomas Jefferson's face. He no longer wins Emmys and is all the happier for it. He should be studied as the paradigmatic journalist for our time.

topics:
Environment, Law, Conservatism, Oil