movielib

ABC, 9:00pm CDT (Note: There are two episodes of 20/20 tonight; this is the second one, on at its regular time.)

John Stossel's new book, Myths, Lies, and Downright Stupidity : Get Out the Shovel--Why Everything You Know is Wrong was published Tuesday. Friday on 20/20, Stossel has a special based on the book.

I'm reading the book now and I am looking forward to the program.

Red Dog

Just ordered the book yesterday along with Freakonomics.

boredsilly

But will he be able to call these things "Bullshit!" like that other show?

I've always liked these Stossel specials...if only he would ditch that spooky mustache. Thanks for the heads up.

movielib

I thought it was a great show, the best he's done in a long time. Throwing away a few light ones like the mice and opposites, most of the topics were important, hard hitting and contrary to "what everybody knows."

Running out of oil, foreign aid, price gouging, radiation and secondhand smoke were particularly good and hit the nail on the head.

No doubt the Stossel haters will be up in arms over the program.

Red Dog

"The gougers should get medals."

You tell 'em, Uncle Miltie.


I found the Alberta oil report quite interesting. I had never heard about that source. Everything was good as to be expected, although rushed. I look forward to reading the book.

Red Dog

I expect the teachers to burn an effigy of Stossel after this one.

Dr_Evil

The price gouging segment was good. I wish they had spent some more time with Friedman discussing it though.

BigDan

It was interesting, though, because of the time constraints, a little simplistic in places.

I mean, you can point to people willing to take bigger risks because of higher profit motive in the aftermath of a crisis that directly affected a region; however, my experience with gougers have been things like gas station owners who, as the Twin Towers burned, immediately went outside to start changing their signs to raise the price of gasoline. As far as I know, the attack on the Twin Towers did not create a situation in which higher prices were needed in order to bring supply into Dallas, Texas.

It also ignored how the a lack of competition and large barriers to entry can allow some big players to manipulate markets. Enron convincing power suppliers to go offline in order to create an artificial shortage of electricity so they could drive up the price on the open market probably shouldn't be celebrated with a medal, for example.

But, like I said, there's only so much time they can devote to these topics on television.

movielib

You apparently need to read the environmental/energy threads more.

http://forum.dvdtalk.com/search.php?searchid=1390326

And don't forget about the shale on the western U.S. (much more oil than even the tar sands).

Tar sands are further along than shale. And both cost more than pumping oil out of the ground (as Stossel said) but with the price of oil going up and better and cheaper technologies being developed for extracting oil from tar sands and shale, they are gradually becoming price competitive.

movielib

Stossel's book is the #12 best selling book on Amazon today.

B.A.

Sounds like something I will have to look into.

Also, I will see what else he has written.

movieking

Just watched it and enjoyed it as well. I didn't buy all of the arguments, but they were entertaining nonetheless.

Wallet Boy

I just can't listen to this guy - his delivery is terrible. It's hard to even concentrate on what he is saying because he says everything like it's so unbelievable to him, with dripping sarcasm in his voice. No other respected magazine show does this - how did he get to the top with this kind of reporting style?

Spiderbite

He's been making a living of it the last 20+ years. I personally love his sarcastic style and find it refreshing compared to the usual talking heads of Dateline/Primetime Live/etc.

My personal favorite myth was the teacher's segment. This has been an bug in my butt for years. My brother-in-law is a teacher and constantly bitches about how he needs to be paid more. Yet he makes good money, has 3 months off in the summer, 3 weeks off at X-mas, a spring break and a winter break, plus everything freaking holiday you can think of and yet still gets paid a fair full-time wage with good benefits. Still he and others constantly cry how they are underpaid and overworked. Bullshit.

Red Dog

Absolutely.