STOSSEL IS IRRITATINGLY CONVINCING

ABC News scold John Stossel annoys me even when I agree with him, which is
the case with his latest prime-time special, ``Sex, Drugs and Consenting
Adults'' (10 tonight on Channel 7).

Stossel has a narcissistic knack for calling attention to himself while he
makes someone else look stupid and tells you what you ought to think.

Here, he's in a lather over victimless crimes, or at least crimes that seem
victimless -- prostitution, gambling, drugs, doctor- assisted suicide, even
ticket scalping.

I happen to think, with Stossel, that there are better uses for police,
courts and jails. But if this special had lasted 10 more minutes I'd have
probably changed my mind. Especially if it was 10 more minutes of Stossel
hectoring us from the base of the Statue of Liberty. Subtle, John, real
subtle.

Stossel's own victims tonight include Tom Constantine, the head of the Drug
Enforcement Administration. Constantine, who apparently isn't easily given
to humor, tells Stossel that society has a right to protect itself from
harmful influences.

Cut, right then and there, to stock footage of feds smashing booze casks
during Prohibition, which Stossel reminds us was a disaster. You can also
hear the old voice-over from the newsreel footage, with the announcer
saying that ``for 13 years, the idiocy continued.''

Again, I agree with the argument. But the methods of Stossel and his crew,
headed by senior producer Martin Phillips, are heavy-handed and unfair to
Constantine. Why not simply have a cartoon arrow, with the word ``moron,''
jabbing at Constantine's head?

I do, however, like author Peter McWilliams (``Ain't Nobody's Business If
You Do'') taking a jab at our Uncle Sam.

``Keep in mind that you're asking the government to control individual
morality,'' McWilliams says. ``This is the government that can't buy a
toilet seat for under $600.''

Last month, PBS' ``Frontline'' did a better job than Stossel on the
nation's drug laws. But ``Frontline'' stumbles tonight with ``The World's
Most Wanted Man'' (9 p.m., Channel 9).

The fugitive in question is Radovan Karadzic, the Bosnian Serb commander
who laid siege to Sarajevo and is allegedly responsible for concentration
camps, mass killings and rapes.

Karadzic, a former poet and psychiatrist, would be a welcome defendant at
the United Nations' War Crimes Tribunal in the Hague. But he's on the lam,
and U.N. troops aren't going out of their way to catch him.

The disappointing ``Frontline'' program, done in association with Britain's
Channel 4 Television, amounts to a sloppy, skimpy and often confusing
profile of Karadzic.

Beware if you watch; the program contains some bloody footage from the
Sarajevo siege.

``Miss India Georgia'' (10:30 tonight on Channel 9) is a one-hour
documentary that's just what it sounds like -- a glimpse inside an East
Indian beauty pageant in Atlanta.

The filmmakers would probably say it's about the delicate balance between
assimilation and the preservation of ethnic identity.

To see it, though, is to watch an altogether minor film about four
seemingly normal young American women. You do get to hear ``Don't Cry for
Me, Argentina'' sung badly, though.

The documentary is part of ``Asian Pacific American Heritage Month'' on

KQED.

- - 1998 San Francisco Chronicle Page C1

Checked-by: Mike Gogulski