Joesph Stiglitz is a Very Distinguished Economist who should be accorded a lot of respect. And even if he weren't, the press can misquote people. Those things conceded, Wired quotes Professor Stiglitz as follows:

"The majority of innovation comes from public investment. Where did the Internet come from? The government. Radar? Jet engines? Publicly funded."

Yup, it's a little-known fact that the innovations of John Deere, Alexander Graham Bell, Henry Bessemer, Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Charles Kettering, the Wright brothers, Willis Carrier, Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore, Bill Gates, and Sam Walton were all made possible by government money.