Welcome to poor-shaming month on Fox News. Then again, isn't every month that?
Today's installment comes via Fox and Friends, in an interview with a well-meaning charity that helps poor people get on their feet while helping them to gain job skills through their programs. Not a terrible thing, but watch Brian Kilmeade just jump all over the opportunity to be a jerk about it.
Austin Hunt, founder and CEO of Florida-based United Against Poverty, came on the show to share his ideas for how to help poor people who qualify for his program. By partnering with Walmart and other corporate partners, the charity provides food for those who need it at a discounted cost, crisis counseling, and job training.
It appears as though it's structured in a way to provide free labor for some of the corporate partners, too, though that's not confirmed from this interview or their website.
Fox host Brian Kilmeade couldn't resist an opportunity to use the program to slam poor people.
"And a lot of people say, when you go all-volunteer, make people work for their handouts, they say that's insulting, that people are going through a rough enough time," said Kilmeade.
Mr. Hunt was a little taken aback by the way the question was framed, saying, "I think it's insulting to say people don't want to participate in their own solution."
Fox News is trying to bolster Paul Ryan's recent initiatives on selling his "screw the poor, I've got mine" initiatives, which are always cloaked in faux concern for people in need, and this is their way of doing it.
Here's my question for Brian Kilmeade. When will you give up your handouts from Rupert Murdoch and actually do some work for a living instead of flapping your gums and pointing fingers at people less fortunate than you?
