John Stossel

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American journalist who virtually pioneered consumer reporting on television, garnering more than 19 Emmys. Stossle gained prominence as the consumer reporter for ABC's news magazine program, "20/20." In the 1980s, Stossel reported on corporate corruptions and worker safety. In the early 1990s, he did an about face by taking workers to task for worker compensation frauds, big government regulations, and bureaucratic inefficiencies. Corporate lawyers and the advertising division at ABC have not always been happy with his reports. Ralph Nader called him "lazy and dishonest," working for the rich and powerful. Stossle spent his career calling for government regulation before reversing his position to advocate that problems can be solved much better by the free market than government. Always tilting at some windmill and ticking off somebody, he has spent much of his career exposing a problem and demanding correction. After graduating Princeton in 1969, his querulous voice became an on-air staple as he worked his way from small outlets in Oregon to CBS's flagship station in New York. His intense manner and good looks were soon noticed by CBS headquarters in New York. He moved to New York and worked on the CBS evening news. He left CBS and joined the ABC's "20/20" with Hugh Downs and Barbara Walters. He prefers to keep his personal life quiet. He has been harassed by deranged women claiming intimate relationships with them and has been threatened by men who did not like his news reports. He met his wife when she worked as an assistant for David Hartman of ABC's "Good Morning, America" and they live with their family in the Upper West Side Manhattan. Notably perverse, he rides his bike to work and refuses to wear a safety helmet even while aware that it jeopardizes his life. He rides in unlicensed taxis to protest the "incompetent regulatory cab system" in NYC. Remarkably for a broadcaster, Stossel had the affliction of stuttering so badly that he had to go to a clinic to learn techniques of control. Formerly, his stuttering was edited out of his tapes until CBS sent him for treatment. Link to Wikipedia biography