Home / Series / Stossel / Aired Order / Season 4 / Episode 24

Big Brother

From John Stossel's blog: 65 years ago, the novel 1984 suggested the future would bring government spying through telescreens that were even in bedrooms. Big brother would be watching. Some believe recent revelations about the NSA tracks on our phone calls, and some emails, mark the start of that. Michigan Congressman Justin Amash says the NSA's actions are a threat to liberty. Kansas Congressman Mike Pompeo supports NSA spying. I've taken heat from libertarians because I'm sympathetic to the congressman's arguments. I'm not yet angry about data mining for two reasons: 1. It might prevent terrorism 2. I can think of at least 100 other things that government does that enrage me as much, or more. Judge Andrew Napolitano tries to educate me on why I should be much more upset about the NSA. The IRS bias against conservative groups... that's a scandal clearly worth getting angry about. Brooke Rollins runs the Texas Public Policy Foundation, one group that was targeted. Increasingly, surveillance cameras watch us. Sheriff Russ Martin says the loss of privacy is worth it; we are safer because of cameras. But Ginger McCall from the Electronic Privacy Information Center says the cameras threaten our freedom of movement, and don't even work. People say " if you're not doing anything wrong, you have nothing to worry about." But Oregon lawyer, Brandon Mayfield did nothing wrong. He spent two weeks in jail because he was mistakenly caught up in a terrorism investigation.

English
  • Originally Aired June 27, 2013
  • Runtime 60 minutes
  • Content Rating United States of America TV-PG
  • Network Fox Business
  • Created September 1, 2014 by
    Administrator admin
  • Modified September 1, 2014 by
    Administrator admin