Long before “Fake News” became the unofficial phrase of 2016, Fox News was regularly exaggerating numbers and outright fabricating news in order to fit their extreme narrative.
From election fraud to minority crime to social assistance abuse, Republicans regularly make mountains out of molehills to assist their conservative agenda and keep their dedicated viewers mired in propaganda.
One most recent of such attacks came from Fox News in the form of a sky-is-falling headline which accused users of food stamps of abusing the program so much, that it might as well be ended entirely.
The headline read: “Food Stamp Fraud at All-Time High: Is It Time to End the Program?”
That sounds awfully important, no? Such a serious proposal might indicate that more than half of those users abuse the system – or at least 30 percent? 20? 10?
But if a curious person were to look into these so-called abuses, they would learn that Fox News based its hysterical headline off of a mere 0.09% of food stamp users who abuse the system. It’s awfully easy to claim something is at a historic high or low without providing the actual numbers behind that claim.
To be fair, that 0.09 percent is no small chunk of change. $70 million was wasted by the federal government last year through fraudulent use of the system. But considering that food stamps regularly pay out nearly 71 billion dollars yearly, this is just a drop in the bucket.
For the remaining >99 percent of food stamp users who need the assistance and do not abuse the program, these threats and lies from Fox News pose a serious danger.
And even if Fox News isn’t successful in bringing about an end to this vital social program, they are still succeeding at poisoning their viewers against anyone who does receive social benefits. Because there’s nothing Fox viewers love more than feeling superior!
