THE RELIABLE SOURCES PEOPLE send me these highlights from John Stossel’s appearance on the show today:

On journalists being clueless about science and hostile to capitalism

STOSSEL: Most journalists are clueless when it comes to science…I’d say journalists are hostile to capitalism and clueless about science and economics.

KURTZ: Hostile to capitalism. What do you base that on?
STOSSEL: I base it on the people I work with. People just don’t like business. We hate our employers who pay us but love the government, which takes a third of our money and squanders it. There’s a bias against business.

On reporters being in favor of government and opposed to business

STOSSEL: Reporters look at business with great suspicions. And hype Enron and WorldCom as if that’s the norm…I think reporters cheer on the ignorant politicians…

On bias in the “liberal media”

STOSSEL: I don’t think journalists are trying to push the agenda. I think most of you think you’re right down the middle. But the people you hang around with all think as you do here in New York and Washington. And that leads to a bias…Not everyone, but most.

KURTZ: So you think it is to some degree subconscious or, at least because — in other words, you think that journalists are out of touch with ordinary people, who perhaps are and ought to be more skeptical of government regulations?

STOSSEL: Yes. I think we are steeped like tea bags in “The Washington Post” and “The New York Times”, and it affects the way we view the world.

KURTZ: Are there people who, at ABC News who don’t like what you do or don’t like your point of view on all this?
STOSSEL: Yes. But God bless ABC News, they still feel I deserve a place at the table.

And good for them, though I suppose it doesn’t hurt that Stossel’s ratings are strong.