Jan helfeld

Jan Helfeld conducts political InterViews and documentaries. He hosts his show, The Bottom Line (which doesn't seem to be an actual show), which employs the Socratic method. Instead of attempting to increase the public discourse, Jan tends to try, often fallaciously, to pin politicians into corners to try and win cheap political points. Jan asks politicians, especially on the federal level, questions AbOUT their support of certain aspects of public policy in a way in which he tries to expose contradictions and hypocrisies. He GeneRally focuses on arguments against the Congressional Black Caucus and Affirmative Action, leading many to think he is racially motivated. This and the minimum wage are his two main issues, and his "interviews" consist of beleaguering these points over and over again, often ending in him giving a lecture.

He is noted for sometimes infuriating politicians with his repetitive style of questioning. At worse, they do the following:

-Congressman Pete Stark became impatient with the badgering and simplistic nature of the questions, which clearly showed Helfeld had not been listening to what he had said, stood up and said, "The interview is over, get out," and when Helfeld continued to talk, held the door open and said "Get the [...] out of my office or I’ll throw you out the window."

-During the interview, Congressman Henry Hyde went blank, panicked, and then stole and tore up the release he had signed for the interview;

-Congressman Esteban Torres stole one of the tapes of the interview. In the video Jan says he succesfully sued the Congressman but shows no evidence that he actually has done so.

Jan Helfeld espouses a minarchist ideology. He interviews politicians and then tries to sell the tapes on his website.

Jan Helfeld had also authored his own Wikipedia page, originally.