ABC's 20/20 co-anchor to give free lecture

ABC News correspondent John Stossel, co-anchor of the program 20/20, will give a free lecture at UNT Oct. 26.

The lecture, "Freedom and its Enemies," begins at 7 p.m. in the Silver Eagle Suite of the University Union. During the lecture, Stossel, who helped to create a new category of television news when he became a consumer advocate reporter, will discuss the benefits of individual freedom and free markets and how what he has learned about liberty contributed to his 30-year career.

 After the lecture, he will sign copies of his book, Give Me a Break: How I Exposed Hucksters, Cheats and Scam Artists and Became the Scourge of the Liberal Media. In the book, Stossel shows how the problems that government tries and fails to fix can be solved better by the power of the free market. The book uses material from his weekly commentary segment at 20/20, "Give Me a Break." 

The recipient of 19 Emmy awards, Stossel has been honored five times for excellence in consumer reporting by the National Press Club. His other awards include the George Polk Award for Outstanding Local Reporting and the George Foster Peabody Award.

The event is sponsored by UNT's Texas Academy of Mathematics and Science, the University Program Council, UNT Housing, Wells Fargo and the Young American Foundation.

A graduate of Princeton University, Stossel began his career as a researcher for KGW-TV in Portland, Oregon and as a consumer reporter at WCBS-TV in New York City.

He joined ABC News as a consumer editor at Good Morning America before becoming a correspondent for 20/20 in 1981. He regularly reports on parenting issues in his "Family Fix" segments in addition to focusing on topics ranging from bogus scientific claims and the science of happiness to free speech and censorship.

In 1994, Stossel began a series of one-hour primetime specials for ABC, producing three or four a year. The first program, "Are We Scaring Ourselves to Death?" examined Americans' exaggerated fears of chemicals, crime and other topics. Other specials include "The Blame Game," "Tampering With Nature," "The Trouble With Lawyers" and "John Stossel Goes to Washington."

BY NANCY KOLSTI nkolsti@unt.edu

Other featured articles in this issue

• Students approve fee to fund new Student Health and Wellness Center
• Homecoming event celebrates UNT desegregation anniversary
• Still time to participate in State Employee Charitable Campaign
• UNT professor of physics to deliver Regents Faculty Lecture Nov. 3
• General Election Day is less than two weeks away
• Campus events planned for Halloween
• Growth trend continues at UNT Dallas Campus
• Technology competition coming to Denton
• Latest UNT crime statistics available
• November is Native American Month

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