John Stossel's Biography

Award-winning news correspondent John Stossel is co-anchor of ABC News "20/20." Eight million to 10 million people watch his program weekly. Often, John Stossel ends "20/20" with a TV column called "Give Me a Break," which challenges conventional wisdom.

John Stossel's prime-time specials on myths, parenting issues, sex and trends in pop culture rate among the top news programs and have earned him uncommon praise: "The most consistently thought-provoking TV reporter of our time," said The Dallas Morning News. The Orlando Sentinel said John Stossel "has the gift for entertaining while saying something profound."

John Stossel takes this reporting expertise and applies it to his weekly newspaper column for Creators Syndicate. Ready to cover topics newspaper readers care about, John Stossel pokes fun at the ridiculous and lauds the excellent.

Newspaper editors may wonder whether Stossel's incredible TV ratings will translate from TV to print. The answer to that question is a resounding yes: Last year, HarperCollins published Stossel's book "Give Me a Break," and readers (the same ones who read newspapers) made it a New York Times bestseller for 11 weeks.

John Stossel's most recent special, "Lies, Myths, and Downright Stupidity," exposed myths about gun control, leisure time and the garbage "crisis." "John Stossel Goes to Washington" looked at how, under Democrats and Republicans, government keeps growing, while "Tampering with Nature" suggested that some environmentalists go overboard and most tampering is a good thing.

John Stossel's first special -- "Are We Scaring Ourselves to Death?" -- examined exaggerated fears of things like chemicals and crime. It was followed by "The Blame Game," which looked at Americans' tendency to blame their misfortunes on others. In "You Can't Say That!" John Stossel looked at the battle between free speech and censorship. John Stossel focused on bogus lawsuits in "The Trouble With Lawyers" and bogus scientific claims in "Junk Science: What You Know That May Not Be So."

John Stossel has received 19 Emmy Awards and has been honored five times for excellence in consumer reporting by the National Press Club. Among John Stossel's other awards are the George Polk Award for Outstanding Local Reporting and the George Foster Peabody Award.

John Stossel is a graduate of Princeton University, with a Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology.