Fox News Retracts Their Dangerously False Food Stamp Story – And Still Gets It Wrong

On Tuesday Fox News broadcast an episode of their “Entitlement Nation” series that made some startling claims about the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (aka food stamps). What was not startling was that they got it all wrong (as reported here on News Corpse). Fox & Friends co-host, Abby Huntsman, asserted that “$70 million of taxpayer money was wasted on food stamp fraud.” Then she asked “Is it time to end the program altogether?” Because eliminating a program that keeps millions of kids and seniors from starving is preferable to looking for ways to reduce a minuscule amount of alleged fraud.

Fox News

Now the U.S. Department of Agriculture has weighed in to chastise Fox for their “mistakes.” They wrote to the network asking them “to correct a report from Tuesday morning’s edition of ‘Fox & Friends’ alleging new heights for food-stamp fraud in the United States.” They stated that the agency had not issued any data for 2016 and that they didn’t know where Fox was getting their info. Except to say that “We saw that there was a story on Breitbart.”

So Huntsman aired a retraction of her dangerously false food stamp story Friday, saying that the data she cited was incorrect. However, she went on to assert another falsehood saying that the “correct” number for food stamp fraud was $853 million for the three years from 2009 to 2011. In fact, that number refers to any errors (i.e. under/over payments), not just fraud. And it’s still an uncommonly low error rate. What’s more, Fox removed the original story from their website, leaving only a correction but no indication of what they corrected. That is not how ethical journalists operate.

So now that Fox has apologized for reporting false information, will they also retract their suggestion that the SNAP program be eliminated? Not likely. Fox News and the Republican Party have opposed virtually every social welfare program, including Social Security and Medicare. And they are currently obsessed with repealing ObamaCare. They are devoted to making life more difficult for people who are already undergoing hardship. While simultaneously they strive to make life easier for the wealthy by reducing taxes and regulations that benefit the population at large. So merry Christmas and happy new year from Fox News.

How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.

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7 thoughts on “Fox News Retracts Their Dangerously False Food Stamp Story – And Still Gets It Wrong

  1. It is Fox news. Why would anyone think that they would tell the truth about something. It would ruin their reputation.

  2. Sadly for the American people fake Fox News is the mouthpiece of the rethuglicans party. The GOP cannot exist in a truthful world, only lies. And fake Fox News doesn’t have one ethical reporter. In fact the less ethical the bigger the salary. One wonders how those slimy reptiles can look st themselves in a mirror.

    • They don’t worry about looking at themselves as long as someone is paying them. Since Reagan was president the only thing that matters for conservatives is how much money can they acquire- honor, ethics, and the law are ignored.

  3. they’ve never been news.
    its propaganda to trick america’s dumb into voting against themselves.

  4. I sure get a kick how one side ,slams and discredits the other side.It is a back and forth tale ALL THE TIME.You have to wonder why Americans are disliked so much.You want to seperate a nation,well YOU are sure doing a good job,by feeding the flames

    • When one group is dedicated to giving to the rich while either taking or ignoring everyone else then it is the duty of caring people to “slam and discredit” the other side.
      Conservatism is necessary to keep unbridled progress from ruining the country. Unbridled conservatism exists solely for the benefit of the very few.

    • You are doing exactly that as well Trumpian, though ypu guys wpuld never admit that.

      It’s true that America is more divided than ever, but there have been few who have divided it more than Trump.

      That said a country being divided on certain issues isn’t necessarily a bad thing in the long run. America was divided to the point of civil war over slavery, it ws also divided over civil rights and racism.

      Would it have been better to not divide the country and simply match lockstep in support of both slavery and racism which were norms at that time?

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