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Fox News Focuses on Ashe County During Eight-Minute Video Segment Titled ‘The Great Food Stamp Binge’

By Jesse Wood

Aug. 15, 2013. Fox News ran a video segment titled “The Great Food Stamp Binge” that focused on Ashe County on Aug. 9. The video begins in a convenience store in Columbus, Ohio, where undercover investigators bust a cashier who allowed someone to buy alcohol with food stamps. The host of the show says, “It’s another reason why people are puzzled that the USDA is trying so hard to get even more people to sign up for food stamps, whether they say they want them or not.”

The commentator then mentions that 17 percent of people in North Carolina receive food stamps, a number that is double the prior decade. Then, the segment cuts to Ashe County, where “mountain people” are playing music with banjos and guitars, and the commentator says, “Part of the increase is apparently an effort to break down mountain pride.”

Today, Jefferson Post’s Dylan Lightfoot wrote an opinion piece critical of the show that featured Ashe County, which has one of the highest unemployment rates in a state that has the fifth highest unemployment rate in the country. He noted that the recession nor the unemployment rate was mentioned in the video.

Here’s how his opinion piece begins:

“What’s wrong with “mountain pride,” Appalachia’s celebrated cultural imperative of rock-ribbed self-reliance? Not a thing.

What’s wrong with Fox News’ Aug. 9 segment “The Great Food Stamp Binge,” covering the USDA plot to “overcome mountain pride” in Ashe County, and fill out the food stamp rolls with reluctant beneficiaries? Just about everything.”

Click here to read more.

Watch the video segment below. 

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-Oi-vuK8UU[/youtube]