FOX Goals: Disparage, Embarrass, Insult, Put Down America

FOX Milked This Crappy Story Like An Oversized Udder

To emphasize my post title, this is FOX's latest stunt - and yes, it is typical of FOX practically 24/7 and reruns: FOX's War on the Less Fortunate in Our Society.

I have had these notes from my files dated September 2014. I now post here for your review.

My label was then and remains so today: “A legitimate news organization does not do these things, but FOX has and continues to do so.”

1. Source its research to conservative blogs.
2. Purposefully present stories out of context.
3. Regularly declare Victory! when a White House initiative fails.
4. Ignore a breaking news story that embarrasses the Republican Party.
5. Invite fringe conspiracy theorists to appear on news shows.
6. Suggest during a news program that Democrats voted to protect pedophiles, but not veterans.
7. Routinely accuse the president of the United States of being like Adolf Hitler.
8. Describe itself as the voice of the opposition.
9. Air more than 100 commercials promoting partisan political rallies.
10. Show 22 clips of health care reform opponents who attended town hall forums, and none of health reform supporters.
11. Purchase full-page newspaper ads to spread falsehoods about the news competition.
12. Invade the privacy of second-grade students.
13. Promote violent political rhetoric.
14. Allow a news anchor to suggest a Supreme Court nominee is guilty of reverse racism.

Now this post for today re: the photo above and related story below – enjoy:

FOX News continues to mislead with this smear about a certain food stamp recipient “known as the Surfing Freeloader.” Now that story has found its way into a congressional hearing aimed at examining the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). 

For example: On May 20, the House Committee on Agriculture held a hearing addressing the “Past, Present, and Future of SNAP.”

Throughout that hearing, FOX News used the misleading 2013 special, “The Great Food Stamp Binge” that attempted to make the Surfing Freeloader (photo above) the face of food stamps" and he and that story was referenced several times as evidence of abuse within the food stamp program. That misrepresentation found its way into the hearing via two members on the committee who used the FOX “special” as anecdotal evidence of abuse within SNAP as follows:

(1)  Rep. Bob Gibbs (R-OH) cited the FOX example of that “surfer in California living on food stamps and eating lobster” as evidence of abuse within the program, though he “forgot which network” had aired the spot.

(2)  Then later, Rep. Ted Yoho (R-FL) referenced “the same surfer that was on one of the news channels,” as he claimed was, “unfortunately, what we see in our districts, and I hear stories about that every day.” (I note: so there are a lot of suffers in Ohio, Mr. Yoho? I see, I see). 

The background: That surfer mentioned by Gibbs and Yoho identified himself as Jason Greenslate. He was featured in FOX’s special as part of their “News” longstanding history of maligning the poor and misrepresenting food stamp recipients. After it aired, the network delivered physical copies of the special to members of Congress in an attempt to influence a vote to cut SNAP benefits by billions of dollars.

What the special failed to note was the fact that according to the Agriculture Department's Food and Nutrition Service, that kind of fraud and waste rate in SNAP is roughly only about 1 percent.

A key point: The FOX special also ignored the fact that SNAP kept 4.7 million people out of poverty in 2011 alone. Many on food stamps are children, and further, some 82 percent of all households with SNAP include at least one child, at least one elderly person, and, or disabled person or persons. (I note: it is pathetic and ironic that FOX would skip those numbers).

But, Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA), corrected the record by pointing out the “surfer on food stamps was is not the reality of the program, and he said “… it's our job to tell anybody who says it is, that it isn't.”

Mr. McGovern’s precise words: “I want to make sure that the record is corrected on this. We heard a couple of times mention the guy who is a surfer on food stamps. That is not the reality of the program, and it's our job to tell anybody who says it is, that it isn't. The majority of people on this program are kids, senior citizens, or are those who are disabled. And of those who are able-bodied, the majority of them work. Given the opportunity between working at a job that pays a wage where I wouldn't have to rely on this benefit, or a job that I have to work full-time and I still need to rely on SNAP, I mean, we know what people would decide. So let's not demonize this program by taking some examples that may have appeared on some news show that I won't mention the name of the news show, but anyway, the point of the matter is we ought to be talking, we ought to make sure that the narrative we are echoing here reflects the reality.”

I wonder who reported that surfer to proper authorities for proper legal action, for surely some is needed. I tend to doubt that any member of that committee even thought about that aspect.

Shame on FOX and shame for anyone who listens or watches them and falls for their crap for surely it is a heaping pile of horseshit. Now how do they get the shit back in the horse? (Line in the 1992 movie: “The Distinguished Gentleman” spoken by Joe Don Baker).  

Closing note is this reminder, as if many of us didn’t already know. Watching Fox Makes You Stupider –