Mr. 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' growing tendency to blame their misfortunes on others, and "Boys and Girls are Different."

Mr. Stossel traveled the world to compare American life with life elsewhere and ask: "Is America Number 1?" In "You Can't Say That!," he looked at the battle between free speech and censorship. He looked at the mechanics of mating in "Love, Lust, and Marriage," and at the science of happiness in "The Mystery of Happiness." He examined bogus lawsuits in "The Trouble With Lawyers," and bogus scientific claims in "Junk Science: What You Know That May Not Be So."

"Freeloaders" focused on how getting "something for nothing" appeals to all of us, including rich people who use the power of government to help themselves. "Greed" challenged conventional wisdom on how Americans view business, while "Sex, Drugs and Consenting Adults" questioned why Americans are jailed for voluntarily participating in so-called "consensual crimes."

Recently "John Stossel Goes to Washington" looked at how, under Democrats and Republicans, government keeps growing, while "Tampering with Nature" suggested that most tampering is a good thing.

Mr. Stossel's specials, which consistently rate among the top news programs, have earned him uncommon praise: "The most consistently thought-provoking TV reporter of our time" says the Dallas Morning News, while the Orlando Sentinel says he "has the gift for entertaining while saying something profound."

In addition to longer reports for "20/20 Friday," John Stossel is featured in a weekly segment entitled "Give Me a Break." These short commentaries take a skeptical look at a wide range of issues, including people who want to censor cartoons, controversial baseball player John Rocker, the color you can paint your house, and those who want government to police our homes and to rule on what prices are "fair."

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

In his early years at ABC, Mr. Stossel was consumer editor at "Good Morning America." Prior to that he was a consumer reporter at WCBS-TV in New York City. He began as a researcher for KGW-TV in Portland, Oregon. Mr. Stossel is a 1969 graduate of Princeton University, with a BA in psychology.

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