A Thoughtful and Rational Journalist

This morning as I was getting ready for the day in my hotel room I heard some comments from a journalist that amazed me, and this time in a positive way.

John Stossel (of ABC's 20/20 fame) was asked what he thought about oil prices. He responded that energy policy is being dictated exactly as it should be -- from market signals. He answered several other questions that are normally not expressed as questions but rather as accusations hurled toward "big oil" that suggested a thoughtful view of what was behind rising oil prices. Over the years, I have been attracted to Mr. Stossel's practical and fair view of the world, his 20/20 series being typical. I'm sure I haven't always agreed with him, but I would say that he is a journalist that honestly tries to make sense of the world rather than finding extreme or rare cases which disprove that free people and free markets are generally rational.

To comment more on his appearance today, I would need to find a re-broadcast of the discussion online, which I may do sometime, but for now I can only tell you what my impressions were. In short, I believe he is a journalist that for the most part can be trusted to help us find at least some part of the truth among a cacaphony of misinformation.

Just one more quick comment: In my opinion economist and actor, Ben Stein (the "boring teacher" in Ferris Beuhler's Day Off), is another voice of reason on such issues.