‘The Fox Story Was a Lie’
There are about 44 million people in America living on what is commonly referred to as food stamps, but Fox News thinks that maybe the program should be killed because, they claim, it has delivered $70 million in fraudulent assistance. That $70 million equals less than one-tenth of one percent, or 0.09% of the programs total benefits. (It’s also false, but more on that later.)
“Food Stamp Fraud at All-Time High: Is It Time to End the Program?” blares the Fox News Insider headline, complete with a clip (above) from Tuesday morning’s edition of “Fox & Friends.”
Mother Jones in response says, “this is like a headline that says, ‘Traffic Deaths at All-Time High: Should We Ban Cars?'”
And The Washington Post notes that this week it “reported about a long-running scam operated by Leonard Francis, a Navy contractor who, over the course of several years, defrauded the government to the tune of $35 million.”
“As of writing,” the Post continues, “Fox News has not questioned whether we should disband the Navy.”
As Greene noted, nearly half – 45% – of food stamps, or SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) go to feed children under 18 years of age.Â
But Mother Jones’ Kevin Drum goes one step further, writing, “I have no idea where Fox’s $70 million figure comes from—and I looked pretty hard for it. The Fox graphic attributes it to ‘2016 USDA,’ but as near as I can tell the USDA has no numbers for SNAP fraud more recent than 2011.”
And that makes sense to anyone who has tried to find recent government statistics on just about anything – they’re usually always at least 18 months old, allowing for the time period to end and analysis to be performed and published.Â
Drum says point-blank, “the Fox story was a lie. SNAP fraud isn’t at an all-time high. It’s been declining for years.”
UPDATE:
Dan Savage weighs in:
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