John Stossel has become the latest fearmonger at Fox News.
His journalistic debut there focused on "Free Golf Carts." But in the face of Fox News' tradition of being "Fair and Balanced," the vehicles in question actually turn out to be neither free nor golf carts.
Let's poke John's report to see what hackneyed tactics he's using to bash the government and progressive energy ideas that would actually help most of his ill-informed viewers.
Stossel Trades Lies for Ratings
Stossel is now the newest member of the Fox News team, having sold out after a long run with ABC's 20/20. Apparently, viewers of Fox more readily accept steadfast resistance to progress passed off as news.
At any rate, his big inaugural piece at the network focused on government (he refers to them as "venal cretins" — but that's a news term, right?) tax credits for neighborhood electric vehicles (NEVs).
Of course, it wasn't an in-depth, detailed report on the pros and cons of incenting people to buy electric vehicles. Instead, his report was more a personal tea party against "free golf carts."
Here's the first line of Stossel's take on the matter: "After money from the "stimulus" bill was spent on destroying perfectly good cars and building an Airport for Nobody, the WSJ reports that government has found an even more ridiculous way to spend your money: free golf carts."
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Do you see what he does there? Quotations around the word "stimulus" serve to dismiss the effort that many economists now say helped pull us out of the Great Recession.
And regarding his line about "destroying perfectly good cars: "those cars weren't "perfectly good," were they?
They had been traded in for more efficient models, and their destruction ensured the tax credit wasn't for naught. Oh yeah, and the automakers hailed that idea as great for business.
Then there's the "more ridiculous way to spend your money" line.
Where were these headlines when the Minerals Management Service was doling out billion-dollar land leases to oil companies that had furnished them with cocaine and sex under the Bush administration?
That's a ridiculous way to spend money, not offering tax breaks for the adoption of clean vehicles.
But this is the stuff that's broadcast as news every single day.
All Headline, No Substance
Of course, Stossel's piece was all for shock value. He was even quoted as saying, "It's my first show on Fox Business, and I had to go big."
You don't "go big" when you're a journalist. You report the news.
But we are talking about the same news organization that ran a 12-page pictorial last week featuring "Celebrities Who Go Bra-Free."
(By the way, my colleague Chris Nelder did a good job explaining why such large herds of people chew this cud every single day in last Friday's Energy & Capital.)
What I'm getting at here is that Stossel's diatribe was all about the headline, so some Joe Shmoe could tell a few buddies about big gummit's latest crazy idea. Pure propaganda in the form of a headline.
All Stossel need do is close the report with some subjective vitriol about how stupid this idea is and the herd is hooked. He went with a generic Foxism, saying the "government shouldn't be in the business of taking money and giving it back. That just gives the venal cretins more power over our lives."
He completely disregards any benefits the NEVs and the associated tax breaks have to offer.
Let's see what happens when a journalist with more than a speck of integrity reports on the same story...
The Un-Fox Version of NEVs
I remember reading an article in Wired back in September that showed the not-so-scary side of NEVs. Listen to how terrible this sounds:
It's a brutally hot morning here at the Villages, one of the biggest retirement communities on the planet. But the saunalike central Florida weather doesn't slow down the 77,000 seniors who call this place home.
On the nine softball fields around the development, smack-talking eightysomethings try to leg out a base hit. Graceful swimmers slice through the water in glittering pools. Near the Bait Shop bar in one of the immaculate town squares, line dancers shimmy in unison.
Villagers play hard. And they drive... well, they drive kinda slow. Because the ride of choice at the Villages isn't a Lincoln or a Cadillac.
You guessed it... it's a neighborhood electric vehicle. And the seniors in the community love them.
Just in this one community — there are many more in Florida and elsewhere — there are 87 miles of trails that can only be traveled in an NEV. The trails even take residents right to the doorstep of major chains like Target, Staples, Starbucks, and Wal-Mart.
The entire community is centered around the NEVs. And they help not only to gives hundreds of thousands of seniors a happy and active retirement, but also to perpetuate the American dichotomy of consumerism and community.
It's no wonder the use of NEVs — and the amount of communities centered around them — are on the rise.
Oh, and by the way, Wired reports that "The US government's recent stimulus package offers NEV buyers a $2,500 tax credit (a third to half the cost of the vehicle)."
Stossel's "Free Golf Carts" are based on dealership incentive schemes.
Wired takes a different approach to the conclusion than Stossel's "venal cretins" route:
The Villages embodies what environmentalists have been waiting decades for - a glossy future powered by electric vehicles.
But the lesson of the Villages isn't just about the vehicles we're driving-it's about where we're driving them. The future of transportation should be focused on the quick jaunts that make up most of our day-to-day driving.
The Villages is for people who've lived long enough to know that what they want now is a warm breeze in a quiet, open ride-going fast enough to hit both the golf course and the Walmart in the same afternoon but slow enough to take in the scenery along the way.
As my octogenarian opponent deftly whacks the pickleball past my reach, I look up to catch a glimpse of the future on the horizon. It's a gray-haired guy with a backward cap, cruising in his cart past a brand-new community center. A golden retriever stands on the passenger seat, tail wagging, and an American flag is displayed proudly right where the gas tank should be.
You can decide for yourself by reading Stossel's article here and the Wired piece here.
But it shouldn't be hard to conclude that a tax break for buying a vehicle with no emissions, one that is mostly used by seniors, and one that helps create a sense of community while fostering American consumerism isn't a bad idea.
The green future is here. You can, like Stossel, whine and stomp your feet. Or you can embrace it, leverage it to save money on your utility and transportation bills, encourage it to create a prosperous and energy-secure America, and perhaps maybe even make a little profit for yourself.
Doing the latter is the opposite of venal. It's doing the right things for the right reasons.
Call it like you see it,
Nick
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IMHO tax credits are a very inefficient way to create jobs. Lower tax rates and less regulation will produce more jobs and more GDP growth.
If the gov't wants to subsidize and encourage green industries, it should do so by funding R&D, not by using tax credits to support immature and inefficient technologies.
How about you investigate GE and their ties to Obama? GE is in bed with White House. Stay out of politics! Give your readers stock advice pertaining to energy...that's what you are good at doing. Thanks.
Is due to people who want to feel important
They dont mean to do harm
But the harm does not interest them.
Or they do not see it, or they justify it
Because they are absorbed in the endless struggle
To think well of themselves.
T. S. Eliot
All to make the electric cart go forward. Here's a clue if you want the Government to support this kind of huey - give them your money not mine.
Soon the image for the next election should resemble a large broom.....Many should be swept out of office, almost anyone could do as well as what we have now!!
"You don't "go big" when you're a journalist. You report the news."
Report the news? How long has the left sided news been doing the same and I wonder if you have been as vocal about that. If not, then you are worse than Stossel.
The comment about you greenies not being able to take criticism is too accurate. It's like this "your opinion is fine as long as it agrees with mine."
I have always liked his Libertarian take on the issues.
I will gladly take Stossel over any of the Kool-Aid drinking liberals at CNN any day of the week.
If electric golf carts are good for seniors and the invironment, then let the seniors buy them. Why should it be the goverment who supply them?
By the way, I am 71 years old and am more worried about Obama taking $500 billion from Medicare, than receiving a free golf cart. I realize that "let the old guys limp" is part of the President's health care plan.
Obama should forget the golf carts, and let me have a hip replacement.
"The government exists only to become larger and to take away individual liberties."
-Thomas Jefferson
You lefties need to give us consumers some credit. We're intelligent enough to make up our own minds. Really, we are. We don't always agree with Fox, but we're not always going to agree with you either.
Just because someone has a different opinion doesn't mean he deserves to be trashed.
Right now as an investor we are trying to wade through all these financial gyrations to try and find the best value argument.
I didn't find merit in your argument against one reporter from one network.
Right now as an investor we are trying to wade through all these financial gyrations to try and find the best value argument.
I didn't find merit in your argument against one reporter from one network.
The wonder is that if the present regime is going to wantonly throw money around that virtually no effort has been focussed on restoring the dangerously declining infrastructure (originally paid for by tax dollars) rather than funding superficial and irrelevant pet projects earmarked by the dominant criminal culture hanging out in DC.
John Stoessel doesn't trust government. Neither did most of the Founders, and for the same reasons, so presumably you regard them as nutters also. The alternative explanation is that you are.
The wonder is that if the present regime is going to wantonly throw money around that virtually no effort has been focussed on restoring the dangerously declining infrastructure (originally paid for by tax dollars) rather than funding superficial and irrelevant pet projects earmarked by the dominant criminal culture hanging out in DC.
John Stoessel doesn't trust government. Neither did most of the Founders, and for the same reasons, so presumably you regard them as nutters also. The alternative explanation is that you are.
Well, I can call you an idiot and just leave it there.
1. Electric vehicles get their power from polluting power plants.
2. The purpose of the piece was simply to show how the government can and will screw up anything and everything they get involved with. (sorry you missed that)
Now I dont have the time to teach you everything, but Ill add just two more things to add some reality to this.
The bailouts have only put us more in debt. Period.
1. Ive been in the automotive industry for 40 years (man, that makes me old) I sell to new and used car dealers and most will tell you they worked the cash for clunkers program just like Stossels dealer did with the golf cart, while laughing their butt off AT the government.
2. How much money did the government (thats you and me) (borrow) and then give to GM and Chrysler? And how long was it before the filed bankruptcy anyway?
PLEASE lock your TV onto FOX.
And may I suggest you read Glenn Becks book Arguing With Idiots. The facts it shows will make you mad, but at least youll then be mad at the right people.
You just apparently don't get it.
I don't think it is wise at all to borrow money from the Chinese to pay for anyone's NEV.
And I have to agree with the overall conclusion of the show that the greeny agenda does not even begin to consider the overall picture of cost benefits analysis and unintended consequenses.
I should watch Fox more often - thanks for bringing this to my attention.
You just apparently don't get it.
I don't think it is wise at all to borrow money from the Chinese to pay for anyone's NEV.
And I have to agree with the overall conclusion of the show that the greeny agenda does not even begin to consider the overall picture of cost benefits analysis and unintended consequenses.
I should watch Fox more often - thanks for bringing this to my attention.
Stossel's issue, and those such as myself who happen to agree with him, is not whether it is good, bad, or indifferent to substitute golf carts (oh, excuse me, NEVs, let's obfuscate with jargon) for cars. It is the use of public dollars to promote them we object to.
Plenty of people in the community where I live get about on golf carts (in fact, one just went by) and no one helped them buy them with my or your tax dollars. No one helped me with public money to buy my car, either. Nor my bicycle, which I use to ride around on using no power source (let's conveniently forget that electric vehicles require polluting and expensive central power-plant-generated electricity to operate).
If people see a benefit in buying a golf cart, or a new car, or a bike, or a broom, or a magic carpet, that is their business. Let them spend their money on it and not mine. And they obviously will do so when they feel so motivated.
And somehow comparing subsidies for greenie stuff to subsidies to the oil industry is equally absurd and offensive and a red herring. I think all such subsidies are offensive and a misuse of public funds and governmental taxing and spending power. It is not mutually exclusive to say one is wrong. Both represent abuses.
Were it not for reporters such as Stossel and some of the other reporters and commentators on Fox we would be wallowing in a sea of pro-Obama/pro-leftist/pro-fiscal irresponsibity propaganda. It is bad enough as it is, but people are clearly voting with their feet and abandoning the biased media on the left by the millions. Meanwhile we must suffer through this fiscal insanity we currently are going through and which will burden us for generations to come.
As someone else said, tax reductions, small business tax credits, and other incentives that put both money and power back in the hands of ordinary people and business is the most effective means both to turn around the economy (the so-called "stimulus" has done nothing to do that and in the next year is going to have a disastrous effect on the economy) and to enable people to make their own choices about how and how much in the direction of "green" they desire to go.
But the people advocating public spending to promote their own views don't want people to be empowered. They want government to control the strings and our lives and to enrich themselves in the process. They have a deep distrust of people's judgment and sense of their own well-being, preferring instead to invest government, the most untrustworthy and abusive of all institutions, to tell us what should we do, how we should live our lives, and even what vehicles we should move our unworthy butts around on.
Dangerous, self-serving craptrap.
You miss the point when you state "that a tax break for buying a vehicle with no emissions, one that is mostly used by seniors, and one that helps create a sense of community while fostering American consumerism isn't a bad idea." Of course it is not, but that is your opionion. As an American taxpaying senior with a graduate degree in economics, I do not want to finance your opinions. I can choose to pay market price after I judge the utility of my purchases. And be more assured that American consumerism is defined by Americans not by ignorant statists who currently run our nanny state.
1) Those NEV's not only save oil, they also save lives. How many times have you seen tragic stories about the lives taken when a very old widow could no longer control the huge car her late husband had bought many years earlier. Since most communities (even in Florida) are still set up for long drives in cars wherever people need to go, and since door-to-door bus service is always one of the first victims of budget cutbacks, the communities designed for NEV's are a godsend.
2) It happened too long ago for most people to know about it, but what turned Stossel into an angry little pencil-neck was the humiliation dealt to him on national tv by Hulk Hogan, who boxed Stossel's ear after a series of insulting questions. That open-handed blow took out Stossel's eardrum. Whether it also caused brain damage is a question I will leave up to your readers.
The best things are to open up more drilling, which will boost the whole economy. Also good broad tax cuts, on working, saving, investing, and growing businesses.
Second, the cash for clunkers program was patently unfair as is the free golf cart. Both of these redistributes money directly.
You can argue the stimulus point, but neither of the above programs stimulated anything other than putting money in the pockets of 1 golf cart distributor and selling a few new cars. I really love the fact that my tax dollars go directly to pay for my neighbors new Hyundai (when I could not take advantage of the program at all).
The is pure government waste. If you want to stimulate the economy and actually produce jobs, do what has always been done. Reduce or eliminate capital gains on businesses who actually hire employees.
Frankly, the free golf cart idea is great, but doesn't come close to addressing the real issues.
IMO, Stossel is not off-base at all. There need never be a tax-credit (or even deductions) for a worthhwile product; maybe for your tax dollars that is OK, not mine. If it's that good, it'll pay its' own way, much as you (and I) are paid. Get over it: There are NO free lunches!
ima_nemisis
The best things are to open up more drilling, which will boost the whole economy. Also good broad tax cuts, on working, saving, investing, and growing businesses.
Fox news are a bunch of conservative idiots who just cannot let go of the past. They do alot of damage because people believe their "news". If only the business community could see there is a very bright future for America if they can ditch this obsession with Oil. Electric cars are faster than your big V8 by a considerable margin - why dont Fox report that?
I used to like the guy when he was at 20-20. I sure don't know how he became such an assh..-right winger along with other set of characters at Fox.
In few years, when I am ready for Villages, I look forward to getting one myself.
Keep up the good work.
By the way, Stossel is a Libertarian, which means he wants very minimal gov't. and maximum personal freedom. Both those seem like great things to me!
If the well-off retirees are already using NEVs then why subsidize them? Like Clunkers,to buy votes? Oh, no........not possible nowadays when Washington is so dedicated to the American people.
However, I would love a vehicle that could do the things we need and be inexpensive to operate, and didn't cost so much to buy, that you will never recoup your investment.
I find you are too politically extreme to be objective. Not everything "green" is a winner. Not everything of comfort is evil.
I'm glad we have Fox News, so at least someone is setting the record straight.
Has he ever wondered why it is that Germany is the world's biggest export nation - in absolute terms - and not the US. Why Siemens achieved a turnover of 19 billion with environmental technologies, which makes it the largest green infrastructure supplier in the world.
The MSM's pro-OBAMA, pro-leftist propaganda is sickening. Don't you understand our freedoms are at stake when the government has too much power? Green is good, but individual freedom based on the Constitution is better. Get the government's hand our of our pockets and you'll see a far more prosperous nation.
Same with the cash for clunkers - people who can afford to buy new cars don't need subsidies. Plus destroying the trade-ins was the antithesis of green. They should have been given to people who needed a car but couldn't afford one.
fray with a target like Stossel.
Tagging the Bush admistration with the MMS scandal is disingenuous.
I'm no fan of the Bush years. Ethics has no party affiliation.The
MMS scandal is sympotatic of the
state of country today.
Stossel points out how crazy it is to take from one person and redistribute it to another. It makes no since and is simply a form of slavery, my labor for your enjoyment. Welcome to the USSA, United Socialist States of America.
The new technology will win and make our lives better when it can stand on its own without a government subsidity. I can't believe one would want to trust Congress to pick the best industries to subsidize. They will usually pick and choose based on some factor that benefits their home district or state or a deal they make with another member of Congress. In that regard they actually might not choose to subsidize the really great new idea. That just sets back progress.
So my advice: End all government subsidies; let the market place of new ideas work and win and stick to informing us about how we can make money with the new technologies that can supplant the existing without needing a subsidy.
How do the old folks charge the batteries.... Florida Power and Light? And where does FPL electricity come from ... Green coal? And where does the aluminum that goes into building their cart come from? Oh more green electricity? And wouldn't the majority of old folks (Like Me) be better off walking anyhow? It is time this Country learned you don't get energy without some disruption to the enviornment!
In addition to the credit for purchasing, and redistributing wealth what did I gain.
Well not much. The money could have been spent on research at small businesses. More PV panels for small businesses, or wind turbines for communities or anything that would have helped small business flourish.
But now we have lost the money. Its forever gone. We squandered our legacy as a nation. That's the tragedy that will haunt my children and their children for 100 years.
- NO, "ClimateGate" did NOT have "thousands of scientists disagree with Al Gore" - in fact it changed nothing about scientific opinion on human global warming.
- NO, Communism is not when you have a govt sponsored health option
- NO the purpose of Cash For Clunkers was not to create jobs but to raise average fleet mileage which it has done.
- NO, electricity does NOT have to come from a coal fired plant. France gets 80% of it from nuclear, and Germany 60% from renewable
OK, I give up. There's just too much idiocy here to be dealt with. One thing is clear to me: Its sad that people are willing to believe any piece of drivel that they read in the blogosphere or on FOX news. Clearly propaganda machines like FOX are working.
My read of the tax law is that he was right.
Additionally, the Minerals Management Service scandal was isolated to 17 employees in one office in Colorado. These people were long-time bureaucrats not appointees of the Bush administration. This just proves the ineptness and corruption of the federal bureaucracy.
While the actions of these morons are reprehensible, you fail to mention that the federal government also receives billions in royalties from those same billions in leases. This generates revenue to the federal treasury unlike the budget busting drain that the tax credits afforded to alternative energy sources creates.
Let the free market decide.
For your sake, let's hope your investment advice is better than this hit piece.