Stossel Admits He Could've Had Breitbart's ACORN Scoop But Passed Due to ABC's Politics

June 26th, 2011 11:02 PM

Despite slipping mostly under the radar, John Stossel disclosed something on his FBN program last Thursday that should have garnered a lot more attention.

As he chatted with guest Andrew Breitbart, Stossel admitted that the conservative publisher had offered him the James O'Keefe/Hannah Giles/ACORN scoop, but the former ABC Newser declined due to politics at the network he used to work for (video follows with transcript and commentary):

JOHN STOSSEL, HOST: Speaking of the mainstream media, I am a little bit ashamed of this one, but I am revealing now for the first time publicly that when I worked at 20/20, you, who I didn't know at that time, pitched me with this story about ACORN and the sting. And I didn't cover it. And you remember that I assume?

ANDREW BREITBART: Oh, do I ever? I mean, I've referenced it in speeches that I went to ABC to a producer because I realized you can't just break a story on a blog. You have to get the mainstream media to cover it as well and so I thought what the hey.

I'll call up John Stossel. Seems like an honest guy. Seems like he'd think that the president's vaunted community organizing group -- treating a fake prostitute and a fake pimp with service with a smile in every office except for one, I thought maybe there is a story here.

STOSSEL: What did I tell you?

BREITBART: You said that it is a story and that you would probably commit a month to a story like this because it is so blatant, but you said that the politics within ABC were just, you know, that you couldn't do it.

STOSSEL: And that's true. I had all kinds of good stories I couldn't get on, but, well, I didn't. I could have had that scoop and I blew it. I'm so annoyed

Just imagine how much news organizations like ABC don't disclose to the public because the story's don't fit their liberal agenda.

Makes you proud to be an American, doesn't it?

(H/T Big Journalism)

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