In the delusional, bizarro world of the right wing, President Obama is providing lots of free stuff to lazy, criminal black and brown people in order to buy their votes. The newest iteration of this paranoid and racist right wing narrative is a viral video, released by Drudge and reported on the Fox website, that shows a black woman who claims to have received a free phone from the president. Since then, the right wing sites have been awash in commentary about free "Obama Phones" being distributed, to the poor, by the administration. This has been a topic on Fox Nation and the Fox News website. (Term used with quote marks) The reality is that while there is a program for free cell phones for low income folks, started under George W Bush, there is NO SUCH THING AS AN "OBAMA PHONE and the whole thing appears to be a hoax which has been around, in e-mail form, since 2009. But that doesn't seem to be a problem for Fox & Friends which provided Steven Crowder with a platform for advancing this bogus narrative.
Yesterday, Dave Briggs began the hoax narrative with his comment that "a government run program that provides free cell phones is raising a few eyebrows yet again and it turns out that one of the president's donors, along with the world's richest man, are getting even richer from the so called Obama phones."
Fact Check - He's referring to Carlos Slim who, according to Fox News, is "supplying cell phones to the poor." However, Trac Phone, which Slim has a 98.2% ownership of, has issued a "fact sheet" on behalf of its Safelink Wireless service which provides service for low income families as part of the Federal "Lifeline" Program which began in the Reagan administration and IS NOT DIRECTLY SUBSIDIZED BY TAXPAYER MONEY but rather the Federal Universal Service Fund which paid for by telecommunications companies. They describe the Lifeline program which DOES NOT INCLUDE PHONES.
He then tossed to the ever righteous and no longer virgin Steve Crowder who is not a political pundit but a so called comedian playing a pundit on TV. The chyron advanced th hoax: "Politics Going Mobile, Company Called Out For Free "Obama Phones." Crowder further advanced the hoax with claims that Mr. Slim is profiting off of these non-existant "free phones." The chyron reinforced the lie: "Can You Hear Me, Dem. Donor Supplying 'Obama Phones" to Poor." Crowder accused the president of preferential business practices which include "doling out free phones."
Briggs further advanced the bogus narrative with his comment about how this is troubling because "an Obama donor is profiting from a program" and asking "why more hasn't been made of that." (Uh, because it isn't true?) Crowder didn't know but claimed that this program allows people "to vote in their own self-interest." He screamed, twice, "no one deserves free phones." (Uh, they're not getting them.) But then came the piece de resistance with his non sequitor that if you're a Christian, you can't vote for Obama." (WTF?) This was followed by the arguably racially biased comment that the only people who will be voting for Obama are those "who want more free stuff." (Like those folks whom Romney addressed at the NAACP conference?) He concluded with the statement that because Obama has put people in poverty, "a free phone might sound mighty nice to them."
The Trac Phone fact sheet was put out in response to what has been promoted on various media outlets including Fox News. The narrative is bogus and yet another example of misinformation being promoted on Fox & Friends. Wonder if they'll correct it? I'm not holding my breath!
And BTW, as the Forbes website deconstructs this myth, Fox can't blame the librul media!
One more thing. If you get an e-mail from the tedious cretin who sends you viral crap about Obama as a Marxist, Muslim, Kenyan dictator who wants to rule the world, just send them this.