Regardless of what you think about Food Stamps and other
Great Society programmes it is instructive to realize that FOX news is using
one of the oldest tricks in the book.
They frequently will cite stories from sources like The New
York Post. In fact this tabloid publishes some of the more outrageous stories
with sensationalist headlines. I don't watch FOX. Besides not having regular
television, I don't have the stomach for it, but I do listen to a fair amount of
Christian news. By way of experiment my wife and I have at certain times noted
the top stories of the day, even the order and then out of curiosity will visit
the FOX news website.
Surprisingly there's often a perfect match. It's as if the
Christian news reporter simply went to the site that day and pulled his news
stories...almost verbatim.
And so it's not unusual to hear some of the more sensational
New York Post-style stories via FOX, being echoed in Christian circles...even
passed around the email circuit.
Yet many of these stories are later exposed to be completely
fraudulent. It doesn't matter, the word is out, the damage is done. Mission
Accomplished.
Rupert Murdoch owns both the New York Post and FOX news and
interestingly owns about half of the Christian publishing world.
Like I said, it doesn't matter what you think about Food
Stamps. There are larger moral issues at stake...integrity and false witness.
In closing I will also note this trend can be found in some
Christian ministry circles. There are a lot of walnut-shell games going on.
I've mentioned the lobbying issues with regard to the Heritage Foundation but
other organizations like Focus on the Family engage in this practice. They
create daughter/partner organizations and then cite their work or interview
their representatives. But they present it as if they're bringing in some kind
of outside experts. They're ringers...all part of the same organization with
the same agenda, goals...and sometimes even on the same payroll.
Here's the NY Post article:
And some rebuttals of this and other related stories:
A link regarding Murdoch's domination of Christian
publishing. There are many more which can be found on this topic. Not a few in
Christian circles, even those sympathetic with Murdoch's overall political
agenda, are less than pleased about this prospect:
This frustrates me immensely because, as we both know, this only feeds into the false perception about government aid that many conservatives love blindly comment on. My family is on food-stamps, and it's so horribly inadequate. The bureaucracy is obscene and red-tape so obtuse and Byzantine, that it takes forever to get through to anyone. Then when finally we got something it was: $15 for the month.
ReplyDeleteAll that food I'm sending to my non-existent relatives in Jamaica!
Yet, and this is the most egregious part, we have the same establishment types moan and groan over Americans supposedly sending food to their relatives. Yet (and yet!) we have absolutely ridiculous imperial commercials about the US Navy as a "global force for good" and making the world safe for democracy and freedom. Even if this was even remotely true, here we have the same fools fawning over this mission and the infinite more that gets spent on this.
No one even bats an eye!
Cal
And yet some of these same critics will happily take big handouts for store-front renovations, main street grants. Just this morning on the news a particular developer working with the city council was looking for a multi-million dollar grant to build a hotel near the convention center. Get the tax payer to pay.... keep the profits. This racket is going on virtually every time a stadium or sports arena is built....not to mention Wal-Mart, Lowes etc...
ReplyDeleteI tell homeschoolers to not feel bad if they have to sign up for Medicaid or Liheap or whatever. If you're keeping your kids home from school you're saving the state a bundle. Your local school district may groan because they want the funding but someone in the state capital is thanking you. PA spends (an admittedly ridiculous) $14k a year per student. We're saving them $56k a year by not sending them to school. Do you think I feel bad about signing them up through PA-state health care? I can't get any of course, but at least my kids can and I guarantee you we're not costing the Medicaid system $56k.