Before Buying “Tampering with Nature” for the Classroom, Know the Truth about John Stossel
As unsuspecting teachers look to enlighten their students this fall, they just might pay the $29.95 for Tampering with Nature, from the collection of John Stossel Videos. The question for teachers is: do they know that John Stossel is playing them as chumps Look at how Tampering with Nature was deceitfully made and maybe instead of writing that check, teachers and parents will email ABC and John Stossel with indignation and contempt.
While in St. Louis in March of 2001, at a National Science Teachers? Convention, I stumbled upon Michael Sanera peddling a book titled Facts Not Fear. For those of you who don't know, Sanera is the anti-eco-education point-person for the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), a think-tank funded by the likes of Dow Chemical, General Motors, Texaco, and those true friends of education and moral values, Philip Morris. Sanera has a forum in major newspapers from Seattle to New York from which he denounces the environmental movement. Amongst all those teachers of our children, Sanera was like a carnival hack. His manifesto was heavy on fear, and Rush Limbaugh-like on facts. Jeering at everything from ozone loss to species extinction, his was a transparent attack on ecological and environmental education for our nation?s children.
Intrigued, I looked up CEI on the net. There I found a reference to SaveJohnStossel.org. Stossel is a reporter with ABC news and the 20/20 news program. He is also a known critic of environmental regulations. CEI was dismayed at the tongue-lashing Stossel received when, incredibly, he reported that organic foods are no safer than foods sprayed with pesticide. As evidence for his claims, Stossel referred to test results, which an independent inquiry found not to exist! In defense of Stossel, CEI claims in their web page that he is entitled to his ?right to free speech?. They warn supporters that politically correct causes and special interests? are prepared to place that freedom in jeopardy. Excuse me, but what freedom are they referring to Are these charlatans discussing the freedom to lie when youre supposed to be telling the truth on national TV In my world, investigative reporters are held accountable to verifiable sources and factual reporting. Stossel neglected these.
As an environmental science teacher and concerned citizen, I try to stay current with what industry and government groups have in store for us. Early in 2001 I was forwarded an urgent email from RISE (Responsible Industry for a Sound Environment) beckoning its members to support Mr. Stossel and Mr. Saneras jihad against eco-education. RISE is affiliated with the American Crop Protection Institute, a trade group founded to defend urban usage of pesticides. The urgent email explained that Michael Sanera who was working with John Stossels 20/20 producers on a program to expose the ?evils? of environmental education had contacted RISE. In the email RISE beckons its members to find parents and their children who have been ?scared green? and are willing to be interviewed. The last line of the email is telling: Lets try to help Mr. Stossel. He treats industry fairly in his programs.
Just to see what would happen, my wife responded to the RISE email using her maiden name, stating that she is not sure about the environmental data our daughters are receiving in school. Soon we received an email back, giving us Michael Sanera?s phone number and urging us to contact him.
I was pondering all of this on April 9th, 2001 when, incredibly, producer Ted Balaker of ABC News called me out of the blue. He told me that ABC respected my editorials on environmentalism and they wanted to ask me questions about ecological issues. Point-blank I asked if there was a Sanera connection He told me he'd never spoken to Sanera. I asked did ABC call me to entrap me in a Scared Green environmental education piece, where Stossel could manipulate the truth? He said no, there was no such project.
Suspicious, I called Michael Sanera as soon as I was off the phone with Balaker, following up on my wifes email exchange with RISE. I told him my children brought home environmental education information from school and what should I do about it. Sanera was very enthusiastic, asking me if I would speak about this with ABC. He assured me that John Stossels producer from ABC would call me. The producer? name? None other than a Mr. Ted Balaker.?Balaker had lied to me and I had to find out why.
Corporate Web of Deceit: The Big Picture
The last several years have seen corporate America attempt to manufacture consent by flooding schools with dubious environmental materials. From MTV style videos to ?mono-syllabic fill-in sheets and activities that disparage everything from global warming to deforestation. These passive educational materials are a subterfuge designed to keep our youngest citizens comfortably numb. With critical thinking dulled, how could any warning about impending environmental woes be taken seriously, when children have been assured by the timber, chemical and tobacco industries that its all good
Games People Play
Those who procure children as pawns, which exploit their innocence for profit, and pervert truth for self-serving gain, are usually met with repulsion from society. Such abuse of children is at its worst when the victimizer is a supposed friend. But there is one class of citizens in our society that is apparently exempt from this community standard: corporate citizens.
Case in point: Media titan Disney Corporation, using its television outlet, ABC, is seeking to drive a stake through the collective heart of environmental education. Their strategy is simple: get some of the most notorious polluters to fund think-tanks to produce data and promote it as good science. Then stage events that show kids scared green by doomsday education. Let John Stossel, popular investigative reporter for 20/20, manipulate the kids, creating a prime time illusion, a proverbial TV moment.
by John F. Borowski - the complete article at the link. Since this article was published it has become well established that Stossel is a far right libertarian extremist.He says he is a crusader against bad science, but in fact peddles junk science paid for by corporations and right-wing think tanks.
