John Stossel Net Worth

What Is John Stossel's Net Worth?

John Stossel is an American journalist and author who has a net worth of $4 million. John Stossel is probably most famous for being a longtime reporter on ABC News and the best-selling author of "Give Me a Break: How I Exposed Hucksters, Cheats, and Scam Artists and Became the Scourge of the Liberal Media…" (2004), "Myths, Lies and Downright Stupidity: Get Out the Shovel – Why Everything You Know is Wrong" (2006), and "No, They Can't: Why Government Fails – But Individuals Succeed" (2012). At ABC, Stossel was a co-anchor on "20/20" and a reporter and consumer editor on "Good Morning America." After nearly three decades with ABC News, John left in 2009 to join the Fox News Channel, where he hosted a weekly show on Fox Business Network and had his own program, "Stossel." John also made regular appearances on "The O'Reilly Factor" and other Fox News programs. In 2019, he launched the online channel Stossel TV.

Early Life

John Stossel was born John Frank Stossel on March 6, 1947, in Chicago Heights, Illinois. He is the son of Jewish parents who left Germany before Adolf Hitler's rise to power. His brother, Thomas, taught at Harvard Medical School and was the co-director of the Hematology Division at Brigham and Women's Hospital. Stossel's parents joined a Congregationalist church after moving to the U.S. and raised their sons Protestant. John attended New Trier High School and said that he was "an indifferent student" during his college years. He stated, "I daydreamed through half my classes at Princeton, and applied to grad school only because I was ambitious, and grad school seemed like the right path for a 21-year-old who wanted to get ahead." Stossel was accepted into the School of Hospital Management at the University of Chicago, but since he was "sick of school" at the time, he decided to get a job, thinking that it might inspire him to be more enthusiastic about his graduate studies. John developed a stutter as a child, and he eventually learned to manage it with help from the Hollins Communications Research Institute while he was working at WCBS-TV in New York City. He later served as a spokesman for the Stuttering Foundation of America. Magazine editor/journalist Scott Stossel is John's nephew.

Career

Stossel initially wanted to work at Seattle Magazine, but the publication went out of business before he graduated. He had contacts at the magazine, and they helped him get a job at Portland's KGW-TV. John started out as a gofer and eventually became a researcher, then a writer. A few years into the job, the news director gave Stossel the opportunity to go on the air and read what he had written. A few years later, he was hired by New York City's WCBS-TV, but he was frustrated with the station because less time was spent on research there than at KGW-TV, and he didn't like adhering to the assignment editor's idea of what was news. In 1981, John was offered a job at ABC News, where he would work as a consumer reporter on "Good Morning America" and a correspondent on "20/20." In May 2003, he was promoted to the position of co-anchor on "20/20."

After 28 years at ABC, Stossel left the network to join the Fox News Channel. There, he appeared on "The O'Reilly Factor" once a week and hosted a weekly show on Fox Business Network. He also hosted several one-hour specials on the Fox News Channel, and from December 2009 to December 2016, he hosted the Fox Business talk show "Stossel" which focused on economic and libertarian issues. During his time at Fox News, John also wrote the blog "Stossel's Take," which was published on the Fox News and Fox Business websites. In 2019, he launched the online channel Stossel TV, which publishes weekly videos on social media. John said of his decision to create Stossel TV, "I recently gave up my Fox TV show because I want to explain liberty and free markets to young people. Many don't watch TV, but do watch short videos."

NEW YORK, NY – JUNE 03: John Stossel attends the 7th Annual "Freeing Voices, Changing Lives" Benefit Gala at Tribeca Rooftop on June 3, 2013 in New York City. (Photo by Daniel Zuchnik/Getty Images)

Personal Life

John married Ellen Abrams on  January 16, 1983, and they have welcomed two children, Max and Lauren, together. Stossel embraced his family's Ashkenazi Jewish heritage after he married Ellen, who is also Jewish, and they raised their children in the Jewish faith. In a 2010 episode of "Stossel," he said he was agnostic, stating that although he didn't believe in God, he was open to the possibility. In April 2016, John revealed that he had been diagnosed with lung cancer and that a fifth of one of his lungs would be surgically removed.

In 2021, Stossel sued Facebook for defamation after fact-checkers applied labels to two of his videos, but the lawsuit was dismissed the following year. His video "Government Fueled Fires" was labeled as "misleading" and "missing context," and the video "Are We Doomed?" was labeled "factual inaccuracies" and "partly false." John alleged that the labels hurt his viewership, reputation, and ad revenue. John is a libertarian and believes in the free market. He launched a nonprofit organization to teach youths about free market ideas. According to his website, "About 10 million students a year now discuss liberty and free markets in class via Stossel in the Classroom run by former NYC high school teacher Rob Schimenz."

Real Estate

In 2007, John paid $1.8 million for a home in Wallfleet, Massachusetts. Today, this home is worth around $2.4 million.

Awards

Stossel has won 19 Emmys, five National Press Club awards, a Peabody Award, and a George Polk Award for Outstanding Local Reporting. In 2012, he was honored with the Chapman University Presidential Medal. For the "20/20" special "Punishing Parents," John won a Silver Award for News: Other Category at the 2000 World Media Festival and received an Honorable Mention in the Education & Information category at the 2001 Columbus International Film and Animation Film Festival.

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