By Bob Parks ——Bio and Archives--April 3, 2008
American Politics, News | CFP Comments | Reader Friendly | Subscribe | Email Us
However, there's something wrong with this picture…
The Independent article starts off with the following tease, "Food stamps are the symbol of poverty in the US. In the era of the credit crunch, a record 28 million Americans are now relying on them to survive – a sure sign the world's richest country faces economic crisis."
But there's more to the rise in food stamp acquisition and usage that the Independent failed to check before creating all this drama.
The increase—from 26.5 million in 2007—is due partly to recent efforts to increase public awareness of the programme and also a switch from paper coupons to electronic debit cards….The photo (which should have been marked as "file") is meant to imply that America's poor are now standing in line for food stamps, soup, and a warm place to lay their heads for the night. However, according to the Done With Mirrors website,
A little poking around on the Getty archive Web site, and I found an identical photo here. It has this caption:Emphasis added by me. Inability to tell "5" from "8" added by the Independent. Gateway Pundit adds…New York Mayor Hands Out Coats To The Poor
NEW YORK - NOVEMBER 30: People wait on line to receive donated coats at the kickoff of the 17th annual New York Cares Coat Drive a the Bowery Mission November 30, 2005 in New York City. Bloomberg helped give out coats to residents of the Mission and the coat drive hopes to collect and distribute 80,000 coats to needy New Yorkers by New Years. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)
You'd think if America was entering a Great Depression that The Independent could find better proof than a picture from 2005. You'd think? It didn't help The Independent any that the stock market posted its best start to a second quarter in 70 years with a nearly 400 point gain on Tuesday. That was a quick Great Depression, huh?Just another example of some misleading media manipulation, and/or very sloppy journalism. It's a good thing they're honest, objective media types who aren't trying to slant the news to help one ideological candidate over another. Nah… never happen.
Support Canada Free Press
View Comments
Bob Parks is a is a member/writer of the National Advisory Council of Project 21. Bob’s websites are Black & Right and youtube.com/BlackAndRight