Alexandra Pelosi shot a video for Bill Maher at a New York welfare office. She, and he, totally blew it, but it was aired on Real Time regardless, despite HBO’s protests. Bob Cesca:
Totally false equivalence. Right there.
When Maher mentioned “apples and oranges” he was absolutely correct, but that doesn’t forgive the misleading nature of the clip he aired. By Maher’s own setup, polling has confirmed the observations from Pelosi’s Mississippi video. The Mississippi people aren’t outliers. They’re a majority representation, and Pelosi’s sampling was accurate.
Second, there are more whites on food stamps — as a percentage of the white population — than blacks on food stamps. To single out several black people (one or two were obvious addicts, if not drunk/high on the video) is extraordinarily unfair to all the people who legitimately need food stamps and welfare. And who even knows if those guys were actually granted welfare checks and stamps. This was never clarified. Yes, some people are abusing the system, and it seems like Pelosi inadvertently illustrated conservative stereotypes against social safety nets: welfare is for lazy, shiftless black people who don’t want to work. Wrong, wrong, wrong.
Be sure to watch the video, and read Cesca's full piece on this, which is a totally excellent and much deserved takedown of the video.
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