Arianna Huffington squared off against John Stossel on "20/20" this past Friday to promote and discuss the main theme of her new book, Right is Wrong: How the Lunatic Fringe Hijacked America, Shredded the Constitution, and Made Us All Less Safe.
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Huffington's politics lean left, but that wasn't the case in the mid-'90s when she was a friend to Newt Gingrich and a card-carrying member of the Republican Party.
Now she's written a new book called "Right Is Wrong," in which she argues that the "lunatic fringe" of American conservatives have "hijacked" the country.
You can read an excerpt from the book here.
John Amato: The book is really, really good. There are so many outrageous stories constantly coming our way that I almost forgot about the Utah mining disaster. She covers it in detail.
God, she is so hot.
[Deleted. Off topic-Sitemonitor]
why don't you have such intelligent friends, mr. stossel?
stossel is an absolute pure douche bag. he ambushes people with stats they would have no way of verifying in an interview to make a point, but when those facts are checked, they are always preconceptualized, ideologically cherry picked from conservative sources, incomplete, and spun.
He would have made a great Bush press secretary or perhaps intelligence analyst for Cheney.
Hate to bring this up but Arianna was an influential voice for the lunatic fringe in 2000.
Stossel is insufferable. Why does ABC still write him checks?
Old Billy Hussein @ 6:
You answered your own question, right before you asked it.
Lunatics are found on both sides of the aisle, and it would be easier to take Arianna more seriously if she culled some loony contributors from the HuffPo herd. David Kirby, the journalist manqué comes to mind - he writes, without a shred of real evidence, that vaccines cause autism. It's bad enough that the Bush Administration has been waging war on science for the past eight years. Is it really necessary for Democrats to accommodate the same idiocy?
I guess nobody at ABC could imagine someone leaving that marvelous republic party.
Hey Arianna ; I got "news" for you.....
Newt Imabitch is one of the top dogs in that "lunatic fringe".
Left&Left @ 5:
She most definitely was right wing. She credits her about face to Al Franken. At least, that is what I thought I remember her saying one time. Actually, I think Arianna is looking for the best side for Arianna, but we'll take her.
Stossel's hit piece was journalistic joke. I like seeing those who are at the heart of real injustice put on the spot by the media. Mike Wallace was the king at making slimy people squirm. But Stossel showed himself to be the hack that he is by pulling out charts to 'gotcha' someone's personal political views.
"Hate to bring this up but Arianna was an influential voice for the lunatic fringe in 2000."
Precisely.
I can't believe that anyone takes this woman seriously, after being an enormously influential public voice and face of the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy that attacked Bill Clinton and "the liberals" at any chance she could. She spent the entire 90s attacking us, and now she's attacking them?
WTF? Am I through the looking glass?
i really despise stossel
income disparity has increased since welfare reform
unemployment may be low, but that is because the gov has changed the way they count the unemployed....it is at least double the numbers given
not that it matters....income levels have remained flat the past 10 years
ya...we dont need workplace oversight....look at the graph...a graph he pulled out of his ass
come on john, do another story on wrestling....you need to get pummled again
[Deleted. Not really germane to the topic at hand-Sitemonitor]
Stossel is an asshole.
He makes good points from time to time but that doesn't change the fact that he's an asshole.
Like a Republican 3-day old kitten that was 'converted' to Democrat after it opened its eyes for the first time, Arianna has SEEN THE LIGHT.
Remember her and Al Franken on Politically Incorrect's 'Strange Bedfellows' segment ? Her and Al in bed together discussing politics.
Huffington is a bandwagon jumper whos website is so clearly bias it hurts me.
Sorry...I think Arianna is a follower. Her "change of heart" is because that's where the wind is now blowing. I would have respected her more if she had stood up to this administration when it would have made a difference, when it wasn't popular...something so few members of the MSM had the balls to do. Frankly, it's too late now.
My, what a big chart you've got Mr. Stossel.
once again, i cant play either the wmp or qt version of the video. why does this happen so often at this site?
sigh........
I saw that interview and I thought she could have done a better jb defending the left's position. For example, when he took out those charts to show her the stats about OSHA, she could have told the blow hard Stossel that all these stats don't mean anything because the numbers are provided by the corrupt Bush administration which constantly fudges the numbers to make it look like they are doing a good job. But it was good to see her get some exposure.
John Stossel is such a puke! Jesus, that son of a bitch makes me sick.
I imagine Newt wasting time on a blowjob turned a lot of Republicans into lefties and/or libertarians. Thanks, Big Guy.
Too bad she still hates the Clintons and her blog divides the party.
[Deleted. Off topic-Sitemonitor]
How can I watch 20-20 with host John Stossel
When I don't watch 20-20 because John Stossel's host?
ETHIOLIB @ 22:
Arianna popped her top?
I have no use for her. I have some experience on her website - and can tell you that comments are censured for purposes (my opinion) of blogger image enhancement and protection of advertisers.
I have confirmed this with bloggers. I have emails from persons in charge at HP that also confirm this.
People familiar with my posts should generally agree that I dont indulge in language of ad hominem attacks. My posts were censored to protect the egos of the bloggers.
She was and still is an opportunist in my opinion.
after all is said and done there needs to be documented proof of the lunacy that occurred, lest future generations will not believe and would possibly allow a re occurrence. i have not yet read arriana's book, but it certainly sounds as though it is a book that documents what has happened in this country. There have been so many scandals and so many breaches of the constitution that i have forgotten many. The book had to be written.
AutismNewsBeat @ 8:
So what your saying is that the thousands of paid political right wing talking heads that denies global warming, evolution, endangered species, most any real science that doesn't go along with the corporate bottom line is equal to the controversy surrounding autism and vaccines? Typical flat earth thinking, everyone know that the earth is not flat but a small percentage are willing to say it is to the media needs to give them equal time and make it look like they have 50% weight.
Stossel's whole opening was a kind of "look at how the liberal media give her so much air time" and "look at how liberal Hollywood loves her"... Christ, Stossel is so lame.
RayC @ 30:
Thousands? I want a list - names or it didnt happen.
I believe his comment was balanced.
In case you hadnt noticed, one of the more prominent areas on HP is the tabloid area. She is familiar with the lunatic fringe.
Jesus Hussein Christ @ 13:
You are not looking through a looking glass. The Reagan Revolution failed and now they are jumping ship.
Deregulation was all fun and games, until things like the housing market or healthcare quit working.
Now they are finally starting to realize that regulations were not put into place not to restrict business; they were put into place to make sure that business prospered.
Reagan was wrong.
34 I like Pie
Right was wrong.
uncle joe hussein mccarthy @ 14:
That's what I can't stand about him. He has to know how those figures were gathered, and that his argument is total bullshit, but he doesn't care. He only wants to sell his lie.
The problem with Huffington is the same problem with all who view things in terms of left and right. Crooks and Liars is a prime example. I do visit regularly because there are interesting topics. But in the end, it is geared toward proving itself correct and the 'other side' wrong.
It's all unconscious projected guilt.
So, yes, it's easy to take pot shots and Bush, Cheney, etc. But that in and of itself doesn't enlighten.
Arianna does a terrible job of defending her own policies!
She's absolutely horrible. It would be better to have no-one advocating these positions, than to have someone do it so poorly. seriously.
OSEA:
Work safety had been improving because of law suits and the threat of congressional intervention snapped the industry into shape. When OSEA became official safety issues continued to get better, and most importantly, they stayed that way. OSEA can claim success for not allowing another emergency ... that's what regulation does ... like financial lending regulations.
Income and employment statistics among the poor :
Overall household income among the poor is up, but drastically behind increases in production. More importantly, the primary reason total household income among the poor is up is because both men and women are working, in many cases two jobs and laboring 50 - 60 hour weeks.
Welfare:
There's an important difference between just handing money out to the poor, and using money to improve to improve the schools, provide health care, food stamps, and adult training programs to the poor. There's not a prominent liberal left that suggests that we should go back to simply handing out money to able bodied people without expecting those people to use their time to work to improve themselves and their situation.
Shorter John Stossel: "I'm simply astonished that people would think I'm right wing, just because I like Reagan welfare reform, defend Rush Limbaugh and Bill O'Reilly, think income disparity is not a problem and want to shrink government down to a microscopic size. What's so right wing about that?"
AutismNewsBeat @ 8:
The medical community said the same thing about smoking not causing cancer for decades. A lot of our medical and scientific knowledge gets tampered with by corporate interests.
roger @ 37:
Bullshit. The last eight years haven't been a left or right issue...it's a right or wrong issue. Right or wrong NEVER changes.
Left&Left @ 5:
==============
I agree, she's as fake as Lee Press-On Nails.
Stossel didn't even try to be unbiased for this piece. Instead, he stated his bias, and then whined about his critics on Ariana's blog. I think the piece was more about John Stossel and less about Ariana Huffington. I'm glad I don't watch his program.
Stossel is a paid stooge from way back. For those who care to look for it their is a video around from a few years back in which stossel pops his mouth off to some big wrestler, who then bitch slaps stossel right off his feet, I think stossel starts to cry, but Iam not sure as its been a while since I've seen it.
I remember Arianna in the 90's - she used to make me sick. But she says that she has had a change of heart; I choose to take her at her word. Remember a fellow named David Brock? Meanwhile, Carville is a shill for the right. Real people change. Bush and Cheney are ****ing unreal.
John @ 44:
Yeah, wasn't that unbearably self-indulgent of him? What a self-centered jerk.
Left&Left @ 19:
Huffington's conversion from right to left began in the late 1990s and was well underway when Bush came into office.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arianna_Huffington
Here are all of her 2001 archived articles (from the first year of Bush in office). She was criticizing him pretty much from the get-go.
http://ariannaonline.huffingtonpost.com/columns/archives.php?year=2001
Here she is in 2002 going after him for hyping the case for war in Iraq.
http://ariannaonline.huffingtonpost.com/columns/column.php?id=65
There's room to criticize Huffington, but let's keep the timeline straight.
I'm glad Huffs is putting good effort into our side, but even happier to see a lot of commenters haven't forgotten her history.
Basically, the Right Wing ditched her. She attempted to install her husband as GOP puppet-governor of California, at the time blogging about slamming the gate on immigrants (not just undocumented workers, mind you--ALL immigrants...now that she and her "nana" were over the border). After the campaign failed, her husband came out of the closet (uh oh), and abruptly her usefulness to the GOP was over.
Following a brief period off the radar, she came back repackaged as a Lefty.
...If she does good work, fine. Don't snuggle too close, though.
John Stossel really tried here to pull off a hatchet job on Arianna.
Astro @ 48:
I don't have access to sites right now but if you're suggesting Arianna supported Gore over Bush in 2000, maybe you need to check out your timelines. She constantly slammed Gore all year in 2000.
Left&Left @ 5:
Ah yes Left, but because of that she truly knows of what she speaks when she talks about the wrongs to the country aided and abetted by the "lunatic fringe" of the right wing.
Most people of intelligence, who for whatever reason became part of the repuke party, eventually see the damage that the right wing "lunatic fringe" has caused our country over the years that have passed since reagan was installed into the presidency by the nascent (at the time) neocon crazies. Those who don't see this, are likely benefiting financially from the criminal things that are going on in right wing America at this time - wars, rampant xenophobia, tax breaks for the rich, neofascism, lawlessness in our current administration, etc. - or they are too faith-based to have even a minimal perception of reality.
Huffington is just one who saw the damage caused by bush et al., and who also happens to have created a means of getting her views out to the public via "the internets". And I applaud her for the changes that she has made in her points of view. She has become a much more caring human being as a result.
CEO,citizens,eyes,open @ 45:
I would pay good money to see that live.
Otay @ 53:
Check out YouTube. I saw it there once - and it is awesome to see that bitch get bitch-slapped.
DMS @ 40:
You summarized exactly what I was thinking when I heard him say that. I guess the Lunatic Fringe has no idea they are members of the Lunatic Fringe.
Ex-Canuck @ 54:
Found it! God, what a little pussy Stossel is. A slap tosses him to the floor, so he gets up and gets it again. And then watching him run away was the icing on the cake...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C35wyVQxXUA
Too bad Stossel's head didn't explode.
stossel is as clever as a pig with a pocketwatch.
klyde @ 58:
Mush is not combustible.
Arianna was NOT a right wing lunatic fringe nut. She was conservative back in the last throes of when people could differ in opinion and still have a conversation. Those days are sadly long gone and I fear for what is next on the horizon.
to otay@53 I believe he smacked him twice, his name should be john Sissie, the look on his face was worth money to see...he was ...shocked to say the least. Tears welling up, looking for the safety of his mommys arms and hey how come that little shits not serving in Iraq? Oh yea,4f due to lack of guts and integrity.
did she address her answers to Stossel's good ear?
As for me, i think the best thing anyone could do to rescue the man from obscurity is to keep David Schultz on paid retainer just to occasionally remind Stossel when he's crossed that fine line into wingnut douchebaggery.
It's hard to believe that Arianna was once a card carrying member of the right wing fringe. Those clips of her on Crossfire debating Dem strategists are downright surreal.
Glad Arianna gave it to Stossel. He's an annoying little putz.
I wished that professional wrestler that slapped him around years ago would come back and do it again. For those who haven't seen it, here's the clip...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C35wyVQxXUA
Arianna rocks....
I didn't mention Gore. Your original quote, to which I was replying, was...
"I would have respected her more if she had stood up to this administration when it would have made a difference, when it wasn't popular...something so few members of the MSM had the balls to do. Frankly, it's too late now."
The links I posted demonstrate that she was being highly critical of Bush early on in his administration, including shortly after 9-11 when the collective MSM was busy kissing his butt, and during the run up to the invasion of Iraq when most of the press was busy pretending that Saddam Hussein and OBL were the same person.
Stossel could have done a more thorough job instead of rehashing old history. He spent more time on introducing her than actually showing their discussion, which I bet went on longer than the few seconds they showed on the boob tube.
He's an operator that should be on Faux News.
No, that's not what I'm saying. Scientific ignorance is more rampant on the right, as far as I can tell. But that's no excuse for Arianna to enable flat earthers on HuffPo. All I'm saying is that I'd take her more seriously if she showed more skepticism with regards to the anti-scientific rants of a few HuffPo columnists. She obviously has at least one blind spot.
Its all about the MSM getting a chunk of the Faux followers.
BTW, Crooks and Liars, your site is really messing up. I cant download videos or get a lot of your pages up
John Stroddle is stupid. He doesn't complain about government welfare that goes to Christian non-profit groups, the millitary, oil companies, etc. Of course the working poor make more money, but that doesn't mean they are any better off. The cost of living has skyrocketed due to the bilking of the American people by the likes of Enron, Halliburton, Black Water, etc.
Arianna Huffington has cut my democratic candidate's legs off. She attacks Hillary as badly as she attacked Gore when he was running. She not only sucked up to Newt and his contract with America, she, like Kos, voted for George W.
Intelligent and beautiful!
If david brock can see the light why can't Huffington?
Agh. Why do all political writers seem to drone on with "to be" after "to be" after "to be"?
Her excerpt is killing me, as did Bob Woodwards book (which killed off any interest after the first chapter).
jmac @ 71:
huffington was an airhead when she was a repig shes an airhead now!
getalife @ 25:
I too was excited at the chance of Hillary becoming president. Until two things happened.
1) She opened her mouth
2) Obama decided to run.
The only party being split is the Bush-Clinton Executuve Dynasty. And believe me, that was one heck of a party!
anon @ 28:
===========
Exactly! It's all glitz and glamor over at the Huff, ran by a opportunistic vulture of a woman who changes her stripes with the prevailing wind. I do not care for this woman at all. Try going and posting a dissenting opinion; it will never see the light of day.
I'm not going to comment because it seems every time I do so anymore it just feeds more fuel into the inferno of negativity and narcissism that is destroying this country.
I'm going back and reviewing the basics. I'll let you know what I find.
Wow, this interview reveal more about John Stossel than Arianna! I think the right winger have a way of Hijacking everything.
I love how he uses stats way back before the 30's and sort of gloss over who was president and majority in the house in the between years.
Sort of the same way I seen stats on Bush popularity when they cut off the the top 30% on the charts in the paper. So yes income have risen steadily, but how high have cost of living raise along with the income????? Stossel ??Stossel??? Yeah, I thought so, Cherry picking stats.
AutismNewsBeat @ 68:
Maybe she's friends with Jenny McCarthy?
She forgot to add John Stossel to the list of lunatic fringe personalities on the right.
She is a brilliant person who does a lot of good. I wish she wouldn't walk into so many ambushes by right wing media though. I have seen her set up on Fox too many times, but she keeps coming back for more.
One of my favorite people. Elegant, sophisticated, genuine.
When Stossel appears on my TV screen that is my cue to hit the mute button. He's too blind to even know that he is part of the lunatic fringe. He is your typical Neolib/Libertarian, free market can solve everything zealot, and another tax cut for rich pigs and the corporations butt boy water carrier.
The only comment I will make is she should have had this figured out a long time ago. This is nothing new unless you were born in 1980.
But does the book have celebrity gossip steaming from the pages with links to softcore naked celebs like Arianna's site?
Sorry, Arianna is a pompous flip flopper who licks finger and sticks in air to see which way wind is blowing. She's famous for? Oh ya, marrying rich.
Sorry, I have mucho trouble getting past the tone that Stossel uses. Whether he has good points or not, the belittling, snide tone that he affects undercuts anything he has to say. Why would anyone serious about what they do or believe agree to be interviewed by him knowing he would behave that way?
Yeesh. It took about two seconds for Stossel to insert himself into the story, which about two seconds longer than usual.
If ever a snide, sneering face begged for a shovel....
MILF
jmac @ 67:
And did you see her on Bill Maher....she was a walking talking ad for obama. And if she is worried about the lunatic fringe, she should address all that is lunatic on HuffPost. Some of her commenters need to be dealt with severely for all the ugliness, nastiness and vile spew they spout against anyone not for obama. Makes DKos look tame.
John Stossel is the biggest idiot ever to walk the face of the earth.
Stossel kept her mostly on the defensive. The strongest part of the segment for Huff was, ironically, the part where he paraded the usual right-wing suspects. He kept things shallow, he kept things moving and Huffington was not able to come up with a compelling rebuttal.
See how the liberal/left controls the media?
I know she was promoting her book,but she's smart enough to know not to ever do an interview with that weasel Stossel.He is notorious for editing his interviews to promote his own smug and radical POV.
I find his patented "incredulous" delivery stomach churning in the extreme.
Stossel talks of fewer on welfare. They've been dropped from the rolls, it's not that they don't need it anymore. He talks of poor people's income being up 3.2 percent since welfare "reform" was implemented, that doesn't account for all those years of 3+ percent inflation. The poor actually lost ground.. The richest Americans had income increases in double digits. Stossel talks of workplace deaths dropping. He can thank the loss of industry to NAFTA and asia, not that we are doing a better job of not dying on the job. As usual, he is so full of crap, it's coming out his nose.
At the heart of the debate is the public infrastructure and the right's blindness to it.
the uncontested repetition only possible on the talk radio monopoly does the groundwork for the GOP and if she doesn't give it top billing she is making the same mistake just about all progressive media critics and strategists have made, and why this bush disaster came so far.
Regardless of where she was at before , Arianna has wrote a book about the obvious , # 79 LA , completely agree , in fact there are many books already out there about this very thing . It is in every sense an all out assault on the low AND middle class by the rich and powerful and the privileged , like the silver spoon fed soulless conscienceless imbecile Bush who never actually earned a thing in his miserable life . Greed , the only " virtue " they know .
I know this is beside the point but....I'm so in love with her. I completely agree with Arianna's politics and think she's one of the most astute observers of politics these day...but......she's gorgeous.
god she is a clean piece!
I won't watch anything that includes Stoessel. The absolute worst of the worst of the worst. When you've scraped the bottom of the barrel he's still down there somewhere.
I suppose if I really, really needed an emetic, a few seconds of Stoessel would do the trick. I'm just afraid the regurgitation would be so violent I'd throw up my entire stomach and intestines. I might even turn my entire body inside out. Complete avoidance seems wiser.
I'd love to personally hold Stossel down and feed him his own moustache.
I couldn't help but notice Stossel's charts. First, the one that graphed the income of poor people had a noticable dips in the income of the poor during the last few years.
Second, the on the job deaths chart showed a peak in 1933, about the time that unions really began to gain power in the workplace. OSHA was created, and began to take effect around when unions were losing their effectiveness in many industries. At the end of the chart, around 1995, the amount of workplace deaths level off, with much less change in the number of deaths than in previous years. This was about the time that Republicans got control of the House.
So, who's points are supported by Stossel's charts?
I can only handle watching John Stossel when he gets slapped around by professional wrestlers.
I think the employment of Mr. Stossel by ABC was at least 98% a business decision. Sadly an astute one.
As a card carrying member of the lunatic fringe of her own party, Arianna knows of what she speaks.
Deport the dumb opportunistic bitch back to her communist roots, she will switch to any side she can exploit for $$$.
John Stossel's little charts trying to trivialize the issues she has written about overlook a number of important factors, inflation and the devaluation of the dollar. The poverty line hasn't moved, but the dollar's value certainly has, downward. John do we need to remind you of the cost of gas and food? What a dolt.
OK, when do we get the video tour of the Amato mansion?? ;)
How do we know that chart wasn't his kid's homework, he brought is as a prop, to sell lies. "Here's an official chart. See." ...Next question. Lame shit dude.
no offense,
but smart women, no matter what the age,
are sexy
did i say that
or,
chris matthews??
Stossel is a patronizing smug a**hole.
That video of Stossel getting slapped down twice by that steroid saturated Pro wrestler is the funniest thing I have ever seen on tape. Every time I watch it, I laugh. A classic.
Whatever Stossel does in his life he will forever be remembered as the guy who got slapped around like a "jail house bitch" by a big dumb wrestler on a national television show.
Jesus Hussein Christ @ 13:
Yes we all are. On the bright side, she recognized her idiocy and came around. On the down side, she bears some of the responsibility for what has been allowed to happen for the last 8 years. In a sense, her penance is not yet done.
Aaron @ 108:
I quite agree that Arianna was a nauseating supporter of the right wing moral brigade in the late '90s, especially during the revolting impeachment charade. I then equated her with the rest of the malicious and vile gang- Ann Coulter, Bob Barr, the white-haired grandpa/pervert, Henry Hyde, and so many others. Sadly, and ironically, both Bill and Hillary Clinton have proven themselves subsequently to be made of the same cloth as their former tormentors. This explains why they are such good buddies now.
In some ways, these individuals have actually made the current criminal gang terrorizing and destroying human civilization, and the murderous neo-cons possible. Thus, they share in the death and destruction brought upon human beings in Iraq, for example.
Yet- if one believes in redemption, I must say that Arianna has come a long way since the advent of the criminal rogues occupying the WH and the terror-reins of "government" today. As such, virtually no so-called "journalist" exists today that I have any respect for- in any of the MSM or even such previously well-regarded outfits as NPR or PBS. They are all, to quote Arianna herself- "pigs at the trough." Somehow, it includes Arianna herself. I suspect she only half-way cured of the malignancy.
Other than a vanishing few, such as Amy Goodman, Bill Moyers, Greg Palast, and Naomi Klein- the rest of the political flesh trade is pure garbage, their actions amounting, in a fairer and saner world, to treason.
He is most definitely a blowhard :)
Where's a steroid crazed wrestler when you need one?
I really get sick of Stossel's cherry-picking and selective, deceptive presentation of data, particularly in the case of welfare reform and the poor here. He doesn't use real dollars and doesn't address quality of life. Yeah, and a "welfare reform program" that eliminates welfare will indeed cut people from welfare. Duh. What a specious argument.
Here's the video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C35wyVQxXUA
Just wonderful that she made him look like a total fool on his own show. :)
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