Rael
07-02-2009, 10:21 AM
By AMANDA MELILLO
July 2, 2009
JOHN Stossel is telling his own network "Give me a break!" after it pulled his health-case insurance segment off the air to give more time to the death of Michael Jackson.
"I am sick of the Michael Jackson coverage," the "20/20" co-host wrote on his blog page at abc.com. "I hate it that ABC didn't run my piece."
He was apparently upset after the network decided to hold his piece on Canada's health-care system -- set to air last Friday night, the day after Jackson died -- in favor of a memorial to the King of Pop.
"Free markets sometimes encourage pandering to the masses," Stossel wrote on his blog. But "I still say, bless the market. The good outweighs the bad."
Using the network's own Web site to complain about its news decisions is pretty unusual.
According to senior vice president of ABC News, Jeffrey Schneider, the piece in question was a five-minute segment that contained some new reporting, but was mainly a compilation of clips from previous specials.
"Of course, maybe my bosses made the wrong choice," the anchor wrote. "Maybe more viewers would have tuned in for my health care report. But the beauty of the market is that if they regularly choose wrong, they will go bankrupt."
"It's a very big moment in the culture," said Schnieder. "And it's a story that continues to develop hour by hour and day by day. There's enormous interest in it."
He stated that Stossel's health care piece will air sometime later this month.
July 2, 2009
JOHN Stossel is telling his own network "Give me a break!" after it pulled his health-case insurance segment off the air to give more time to the death of Michael Jackson.
"I am sick of the Michael Jackson coverage," the "20/20" co-host wrote on his blog page at abc.com. "I hate it that ABC didn't run my piece."
He was apparently upset after the network decided to hold his piece on Canada's health-care system -- set to air last Friday night, the day after Jackson died -- in favor of a memorial to the King of Pop.
"Free markets sometimes encourage pandering to the masses," Stossel wrote on his blog. But "I still say, bless the market. The good outweighs the bad."
Using the network's own Web site to complain about its news decisions is pretty unusual.
According to senior vice president of ABC News, Jeffrey Schneider, the piece in question was a five-minute segment that contained some new reporting, but was mainly a compilation of clips from previous specials.
"Of course, maybe my bosses made the wrong choice," the anchor wrote. "Maybe more viewers would have tuned in for my health care report. But the beauty of the market is that if they regularly choose wrong, they will go bankrupt."
"It's a very big moment in the culture," said Schnieder. "And it's a story that continues to develop hour by hour and day by day. There's enormous interest in it."
He stated that Stossel's health care piece will air sometime later this month.