Fox News ran a segment about Cory Booker’s challenge with a Twitter follower to live on food stamps for a week. Though people on food stamps only receive about $133 for food per month, contributor Andrea Tantaros didn’t think it sounded so bad: ”I should try it because, do you know how fabulous I’d look? I’d be so skinny. I mean, the camera adds 10 pounds. I would be looking great.”
Sigh.
The worst part about this is the fact that this will now probably result in a bunch of people parroting this little quip because it’s so funny! See, look – even I can be awkward and creepy about both size and poverty at the same time by joking about how poor people should just be skinny like I’d be if I had no money! Even the ability to not feed your family has a silver lining!
Every time I start to ask a question, I just remember that the universal answer is “This was on Fox News.” and then I just sigh.
Media Matters goes a little deeper on the commentary:
Tantaros’ comments are appalling and uninformed. While most of us feast on turkey and yams, stuffing and cranberries, on Thursday, millions of Americans will go hungry, just as they do every day. The food stamp challenge exists to demonstrate the struggles that food insecure families face trying to live on their monthly allotment of food.
Despite the difficulty in subsisting on food stamps, the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP), which was formerly known as food stamps, helped keep millions of families out of poverty in 2011.
Tantaros’ commentary continues a long and extensive Fox campaign to dismiss hunger-related issues and to demonize SNAP recipients.
I guess this is what I get for expecting television pundits to have souls some sense.