The government shutdown is on the verge of being over, and the media’s focus on those who are suffering, without the use of the SNAP program, played no small role.
Almost 42 million Americans are without payments from the SNAP program providing food aid to low-income people. President Trump is calling it a government shutdown issue. Democrats are calling it such things as “dumbfoundedness of cruelty,” and a “devastating” loss for the country.
As stories go, this one is a doozy of a “right versus wrong” fight playing out nonstop on the airwaves. As expected, most media coverage vigorously frames SNAP funding as a human crisis, not a budget fight, as the administration claims.
“Largely, when you talk about SNAP, you’re talking about largely Democrats. But I’m President, I want to help everybody. I want to help Democrats and Republicans.” He added, “All the Democrats have to say is let’s go…all they have to do is say the government is open. They’ve become a radical left party…they’ve lost their minds.”
The showdown will come to an end more quickly than anyone imagined. In a stunning development, seven Democrats broke with their party, along with independent Angus King of Maine, in a vote to reopen the government, including three bills to fund SNAP benefits. The House is very likely to go along.
The cynic in me believes halting food stamps – when there are contingency funds to pay for at least half of the benefits – is a tactic used to gain power in a negotiation. And if so, it’s illegitimate and cruel. But it doesn’t mean the administration’s side should be ignored or disparaged on mainstream news networks.
CNN anchor Erica Hill, filling in on The Source with Kaitlan Collins, chided Trump for “jetting off to Florida” for the weekend as millions of Americans couldn’t get money to pay for food, because of the shutdown.
MSNBC’s Jen Psaki said the decision to cut the program immediately impacted tens of millions of Americans. She interviewed Skye Perryman, the president and CEO of Democracy Forward, which calls itself a nonpartisan, national legal organization that promotes democracy.
“This administration must make these payments and the administration is fighting tooth and nail to deprive 40 million Americans of their food.” She cited cyclical employment and low wages as reasons people can’t make ends meet.
On CBS’ Face the Nation, when they reported the Trump administration told states that they must “immediately undo any steps” to release SNAP money, Democratic Maryland Governor Wes Moore pushed back hard.
“There is a chaos and it is an intentional chaos that we are seeing from this administration and where they have money for everything.” He added, “They got money to fight wars. They got money for ballrooms. They got money for everything, but when it’s to supporting the people, that’s now when they are crying, well, we are broke and that’s not what the law requires us to do.”
His argument points out that threatening financial penalties against the states, at least nine of them that want to use their own money to provide food stamps, makes it appear that his goal is to stop SNAP at all costs. The justifiable coverage of this move points out that the president is using this tactic to force the Democrats to cave.
In a show of balanced reporting, later in the program, Republican Governor Patrick Morrisey of West Virginia praised the Trump administration. “We have to make sure we’re protecting our people…we have 270,000-plus people on SNAP, but once again, there’s one reason why — they’re not getting the resources. It’s because people are insisting on adding all these new pieces on top of just a bill to keep the government open.”
The irony of this argument is that Morrisey allocated state funds to food banks to help meet demand during the SNAP disruption. And, he said he is prepared to call the Legislature into a special session to appropriate additional funds to ensure West Virginians do not go hungry.
On Fox News, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins was brought on to talk about the crisis and said when she posted a previous interview on the network about the same issue, 40 million people watched. She talked about the level of fraud in the program being “astounding,” and said data show illegal aliens are receiving SNAP. The USDA had initially said that there were contingency funds available for SNAP in the event of a shutdown but later declined to use them.
In a punishing lack of human empathy, and an example of one-sided journalism, Newsmax anchor Rob Schmitt called food insecurity an illusion. “Why is it that we are subsidizing food for people that weigh 300 pounds? I mean, my Twitter feed is full of some of the heaviest people I have ever seen screaming about SNAP benefits.”
Nowhere was the human toll angle reported more clearly than in local news. Media Matters, a left-wing media watchdog group, rounded up interviews from the states where as many as one in five people rely on SNAP.
On WLEX in Lexington, Kentucky, a mother said, “How many bills can you neglect paying to buy food?”
On a rival Kentucky station, another mother lamented, “My babies, they get fed at school, but they come home and they rely on meals to fill their bellies at home. So, it’s stressful.”
It’s these kinds of stories that show the value of local news in covering national tragedies. Reporters hammer home how devastating a halt in SNAP benefits is for Americans who rely on the program for food. It’s a needed service to bring to light the inexorable pain felt by lower-income people. And it shows why local news, especially in rural areas, needs to be funded.
Polls have also fallen along party lines. One conducted by a left-wing think tank shows that voters are highly in support of SNAP and want Trump to continue providing benefits. Some 78% of those polled hold a “favorable” opinion. No surprise there from a group that “supports a new generation of progressives.”
A poll by Feeding America, a group seeking donations to help hungry families, found the majority believe the lack of funding will increase hunger, drive people to food banks, and force families to skip meals. Also, no surprise.
What the coverage makes crystal clear is that Trump won, getting what he wanted, which is an end to the shutdown that he can blame on the Democrats. While the stories understandably focus on hungry families, many of whom live paycheck to paycheck, the president achieved his goal, whether the press likes it or not.
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