Friedman-Stigler interpretation is a way of treating the market as a moral thing in and of itself. In other words, if markets can organize themselves so well you certainly don't want the government mucking things up with unnecessary rules and regulations or price controls. A lot of the time, experts, bureaucrats, government organizations act like private interest groups and create huge inefficiencies.
Economists and politicians have turned him into a mascot for free-market ideology. Some on the left say the right has badly misread him. Prepare for a very Smithy tug of war. (Part 2 of “In Search of the Real Adam Smith.”)