John Stossel made his first appearance as a FOX News employee today on The Live Desk with Martha MacCallum and Trace Gallagher.
Gallagher asked Stossel why he joined the FOX family: “The health care story is one of the reasons,” Stossel said. While still with ABC News Stossel said he’d produced an hour-long healthcare special, but, “I could not get it on the air at ABC. They were doing Michael Jackson stories. Fox covers the news, so finally, the freedom to talk about a few things I know about.”
Stossel will host a program on Fox Business Network and make appearances on Fox News Channel. As for the timing of the premiere of his FBN show, Gallagher said, “We’re not exactly sure when.”
“It’s my first day, cut me some slack,” responded Stossel.
> Update from an ABC News insider: “John knows full well that he did not produce an hour on healthcare. It was a five minute retread of a piece that had been done a year earlier. And with Michael Jackson’s body not yet cold, there wasn’t a news person in the world who would have made a different judgment than to hold that retread and put it on a couple weeks later, which is what we did.”