Fact Check: Fox's Stossel gets Title IX all wrong

This weekend John Stossel’s show, “Top Ten Politicians’ Promises Gone Wrong” included a four minute segment on Title IX. His central knock on the 38 year old statute is that men’s sports programs are being cut as an “unintended consequence” of compliance with the law. This is simply not true.

Content Summary

  • Stossel reported that Title IX requires even self-funded programs to be cut, such as the University of California at Berkeley’s men’s rugby and gymnastics programs. Unfortunately, a budget crisis caused these regrettable cuts to men’s and women’s athletics, not Title IX.
  •  Stossel claims that Title IX requires schools to provide sports opportunities proportionate to the student body, but there are two other tests that are widely used.
  • Stossel claims that Title IX is unfairly hurting men’s gymnastics, when it is the entire sport that has suffered declines for both males and females.

Fact Check: Fox's Stossel gets Title IX all wrong (PDF 168k)

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Published Dec 19, 2010
By Women's Sports Foundation

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