A hero of the cultural revolution

I don't know about you, but I watched some amazing television Saturday night.

"John Stossel Goes to Washington" was an ABC special that took my breath away.

You can be certain the long knives will soon be out for Stossel. In fact, even before the program, a full-scale frontal assault on the notion that government is the best way to solve problems, aired in prime time on the network, the Washington Post's hack television critic, Tom Shales, was maligning it and Stossel.

Right off the bat, Shales seems a little confused: "Boy, are we lucky to have John Stossel on the job. The ABC News reporter has just discovered -- hold on to your George W. Babushkas now -- that the federal government is too big and -- wait, there's more -- is rife with inefficiency!"

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Shales then goes on to explain why that simple and truthful premise is not really true. Well, which is it, Tom? Is it an obvious conclusion, or is it a preposterous one?

The truth is that Stossel has not made a recent discovery. Stossel has been producing unusually perceptive specials along these lines for ABC for several years. This one just happened to be the most penetrating -- the one that got right to the core issue.

It was a home run all the way.

It was worth the hour of viewing time just to watch Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt squirming in his chair because a reporter finally asked him some tough questions. Babbitt was enraged. He tells Stossel: "I'm going to fire whoever scheduled this interview." Ultimately, he walks off the set.

Such arrogance by a high-ranking public official beautifully illustrates just why more reporting like this is so necessary. Can you imagine that Babbitt has never before had to face real questioning by a reporter of Stossel's insight? How is that possible?

It's possible because most reporters, as I have long alleged in this column, have forgotten their central mission. They have forgotten -- or never discovered -- just what is the principal role of a free press in a free society.

Journalists are supposed to be -- first and foremost -- watchdogs of government. That has been a long tradition in American reporting. The founders understood that this "fourth estate" was a vital check on the awesome and fearful power of government.

As Stossel points out so perceptively in his special, government is the only institution in American society that can force people to do things. We don't accept force from any other quarter. But Americans accept it too willingly from government. Therefore, clearly, government poses the gravest threat to individual rights and personal freedom.

Tom Shales and the Washington Post can attempt to make good sport of Stossel's basic findings, but it would be more persuasive if the Post and other establishment news organizations did a little of this kind of enterprise reporting themselves.

For my money, John Stossel is a hero of the cultural revolution that is the best and last hope for reclaiming America's promise of freedom.

Americans need to be educated about freedom. They need to understand they are losing it -- that they are giving it up, willingly, unconsciously, without even the hint of a fight.

As someone who has walked this lonely road as Stossel has, I can tell you this is a reporter who needs your support. Think of what it took to get this masterpiece of a documentary on the air at ABC. It counters much of the disinformation that spews forth from that network and the others on a daily basis.

You can bet there are forces at his network right now trying to ensure that no report like this one ever airs again. You can bet that Babbitt and the other officials he embarrassed have called high-level ABC officials and complained about Stossel. You can bet many of Stossel's colleagues are more inclined to investigate him than they are to investigate government fraud, waste, abuse and corruption.

I must say, I don't get much of a chance to praise my colleagues in journalism for a job well-done. What Stossel accomplished Saturday evening is inspiring to me both personally and professionally.

I hope millions of other Americans were touched by it as I was and will let ABC News know they want more of this kind of reporting.