Nina Totenberg Says ‘Facts Don’t Matter’ to Gingrich After She Claims More People Were on Food Stamps Under Bush
In a delicious example of irony, NPR’s Nina Totenberg on Friday falsely claimed that there were more people on food stamps under George W. Bush than are using the food assistance program today.
This marvelously came seconds before she told the panel of PBS’s Inside Washington that “facts don’t matter” to Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich (video follows with transcript and commentary):
NINA TOTENBERG, NPR: You know, Newt knows how to play this game. And as Charles said, he is in his own backyard, right next to Georgia, and he is incredibly glib. It doesn’t matter that, you know, that there were more people on food stamps under George W. Bush. It doesn’t matter that his suggestion is that minorities are the ones who get food stamps, that far more white people get food stamps. It doesn’t matter that working people get food stamps in order to feed their families. Facts don’t matter to him and it makes for great, it makes for great talk.
Facts don’t matter to him?
Well let's start with the fact that far more people are on food stamps today than when George W. Bush left the White House. Heck, even the perilously liberal Huffington Post got this one right with its November 3 report:
USDA data released this week shows that the number of Americans receiving food aid from the Supplemental Nutrional Assistance Program (SNAP) hit another all-time high in August. 45.8 million people -- almost 15% of the country -- were enrolled in the program, which replaced Food Stamps in 2008. This is only a slight increase from July, when 45.3 million Americans were receiving SNAP help -- but a massive 31% jump since June 2009, when the National Bureau of Economic Research declared the most recent recession over.
Notice the phrase "all-time high?"
Totenberg obviously didn't, nor did she see the handy chart the Post included in its piece:
Look like more people were on food stamps - now called Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program - than under Bush?
In fact, the most recent data from the USDA show 46.2 million on SNAP as of October 2011. This compares to 32 million in January 2009, a 44 percent increase since Obama was inaugurated.
The website DailyJobsUpdate.com offers an even longer view of this issue:
And Totenberg thinks "facts don't matter" to Gingrich.
But that wasn't her only error. According to the USDA, 35 percent of SNAP recipients are white. That means that 65 percent are minorities or are of unknown race or ethnicity.
So much for her claim, "It doesn’t matter that his suggestion is that minorities are the ones who get food stamps, that far more white people get food stamps."
Despite the fact that Gingrich is suggesting nothing of the sort, it seems in Totenberg's world, 35 is greater than 65.
And this woman is given a daily platform on a taxpayer supported radio network to spout such nonsense.
Just another example of how poorly the government spends your money.
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Comments
Couldn't someone point this out?
Submitted by DontFeedTheTrolls on Sat, 01/21/2012 - 11:16am.
Well could you send this woman a registered letter and let her know?
The NPR way,when the truth doesn't fit, change the facts to fit
Submitted by bmacdmac on Sat, 01/21/2012 - 11:58am.
Has NPR ever gotten the facts right. They report the story then adjust the facts to fit what their listeners expect. Brain dead!!!
Since she's on vacation, I'll just have to fill in here
Submitted by Blonde on Sat, 01/21/2012 - 11:19am.
The facts are immaterial, liberals know the Truth ~ motherbelt's axiom
Handy Reference Guide to Obama's Gaffes and Goofs ~ Currently Numbering 200 (and Counting)
Exactly
Submitted by Galvanic on Sat, 01/21/2012 - 12:46pm.
And it would be interesting to take a poll to see if anyone thinks Totenberg adds insight to anything she babbles about. I've seen er on Inside Washington for many years, and I can't recall a single moment in which Totenberg appeared to have made a superior point. She seems to get all her political knowledge from Beltway cocktail parties.
Early-onset Alzheimer's is a terrible thing
Submitted by Dave. on Sat, 01/21/2012 - 11:28am.
And it only gets worse from there.
-Dave
Vote for the American in November
⇒ Dave
Submitted by Cool Arrow on Sat, 01/21/2012 - 11:39am.
I'm sure she's flattered with your implication she's all that young. OK, maybe not now, but a moment of clarity may settle on her later.
Cool,
Submitted by Dave. on Sat, 01/21/2012 - 7:52pm.
ROFL!
Wiping adult beverage off my keyboard.
-Dave
Vote for the American in November
Helmet-Hair.
Submitted by BBallleaper on Sat, 01/21/2012 - 12:43pm.
Nuff said. A 3 bagger.
Alzheimer's not the problem
Submitted by ckc1227 on Sat, 01/21/2012 - 3:33pm.
Full-onset liberalism is the problem, lol.
Good Grief, Totenberg again?
Submitted by KyWriter on Sat, 01/21/2012 - 11:48am.
Facts are as alien to her as moon dust. I take that back; anyone as dessicated at Nina does have certain similarities to billion-year-old dirt.
⇒ Don't you remember?
Submitted by Cool Arrow on Sat, 01/21/2012 - 11:53am.
Totenberg and Clift played the Baldwin Sisters who sold "their recipe" on "The Waltons"
Add Margaret Carlson, a boiling kettle and Scotland....
Submitted by drsamherman on Sun, 01/22/2012 - 1:07pm.
...and they are the three witches from "MacBeth".
Totenberg is just one from a
Submitted by rbosque on Sat, 01/21/2012 - 11:51am.
Totenberg is just one from a pantheon of leftists paid to re-elect Democrats. Which means as a matter of course, she has to lie.
I am still furious the Republicans have NOT withdrawn public support for NPR. I wonder how the left would react if taxpayer maney went to Rush Limbaugh? But we're supposed to accept that our money is going to this left-wing propaganda mill. This is nothing short of insane.
Nina
Submitted by xraynova on Sat, 01/21/2012 - 12:11pm.
They don't call her "Nina" for nuthin' :
NINA -- an acronym for... Npr Is Never Accurate
She only has to convince the ~40% of the electorate pushed through government schools with only incoherent thoughts rambling around between their ears, and who cannot identify a photo of GWB (or for that matter, obama), who really think obama visited at least 57 states last time, who are really worried that Guam will tip over in the Pacific (that is, assuming they know that the Pacific is an ocean), and who think global warming is totally manmade.
Liberals know the truth, but are convinced that the lipstick... pig thing, with repetition, will work every time.
It's time to seriously start talking about:
A voters' qualification test (passing the most basic government & economics test)
Only voters with a net payment of taxes to vote
Only voters with valid ID to vote .
I'll see your acronym and raise you an etymology
Submitted by CO2Maker on Sat, 01/21/2012 - 1:25pm.
Totenberg = City of the Dead
you wonder why?
Submitted by ferv888 on Sat, 01/21/2012 - 12:13pm.
Hmmm, Democrats have never been able to count, look at todays deficit for further enlightenment! LOL
mental defectives
Submitted by Tyler520 on Sat, 01/21/2012 - 12:16pm.
Everyone who voted/will vote for Obama should be declared "mentally unfit" and locked away for the safety of all.
Great info on this thread
Submitted by merly1 on Sat, 01/21/2012 - 12:25pm.
thanks
she looks like
Submitted by gr29az on Sat, 01/21/2012 - 12:24pm.
she looks like dws. another food stamp party kool aide drinker
Boycott ABC News
Submitted by Scott Trent on Sat, 01/21/2012 - 12:28pm.
Join our facebook page boycotting ABC News! http://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/236401343102817/
How 'bout
Submitted by texasborngranny on Sun, 01/22/2012 - 3:39pm.
How 'bout a boycott of the St of the Union address, too? This will by my third time of reading, instead of watching.
In Nina's defense,
Submitted by drsamherman on Sat, 01/21/2012 - 12:47pm.
she probably can't read the numbers properly. Some of the cholinesterase inhibitors used in Alzheimer's do have some side-effects related to vision, and they also do cause some psychiatric side effects. The drug Namenda can also cause a fair amount of confusion and somnolence. Since Nina acts like she is in a walking catatonic state, devoid of any consciousness or judgment most of the time, perhaps it's not really her fault. It's the drug combination she is on for her "spells".
/sarcasm off
Banana Bag Shy Of A Functional Brain Cell
Submitted by stratman on Sat, 01/21/2012 - 5:24pm.
Could be confabulation from Korsakoff's caused by years of alcoholism.
Do you see the blue string, Nina?
Nina Totenberg.
Submitted by djwolf12 on Sat, 01/21/2012 - 1:11pm.
Who cares what Mrs. Seinfeld has to say. She naturally gets it wrong once again. The only thing she cares about is not finding a chipped drinking glass to take a pee test in.
Nina
Submitted by mmilesll on Sat, 01/21/2012 - 1:50pm.
We have to pay for this airhead to spin. Another case of "how did this woman ever get the job"
Contacted NPR
Submitted by Model850 on Sat, 01/21/2012 - 2:29pm.
For all the good it will do I contacted NPR through its web page Contact Us link, pointing out her mistake.
I included this link from this blog article: http://www.zerohedge.com/news/us-food-stamp-usage-hits-new-record
And I offered my opinion that Nina should review the facts and issue a correction, on the same show, as soon as possible.
Since it was such a waste to bother doing that I guess that means I have too much time on my hands!
Nina
Submitted by almostacowboy on Sat, 01/21/2012 - 3:42pm.
Toten-water-for-obama.
Nina the numb one..........
Submitted by Herbster on Sat, 01/21/2012 - 3:48pm.
Nina looks like she hasn't had a good "Food stampin'" in years!
For Obama to be re-elected....
Submitted by GregE on Sat, 01/21/2012 - 5:40pm.
Not only do facts not matter, they CAN'T matter if he's going to be re-elected.
The sad thing is, about 40% of the nation will oblige no matter what.
Those blinders she wears must
Submitted by amyshulk on Sat, 01/21/2012 - 7:48pm.
Those blinders she wears must be cutting off the blood to her brain!!!
Ronald Reagan
truth doesn't matter when
Submitted by ohio granny on Sat, 01/21/2012 - 8:58pm.
Truth doesn't matter when you have a pResident to protect. No lie is too small or too large in trying to protect this dispicable,, corrupt administration. Nina is just following the playbook of the democRats. We can only expect more of this until the election. After all, Barry MUST be reelected. He needs to totally destroy the constitution before he leaves office.
I believe
Submitted by dreamsincolor on Sun, 01/22/2012 - 12:34pm.
NPR is the Mad magazine of journalism.
Diseased
Submitted by IrateNate on Mon, 01/23/2012 - 2:27pm.
Most would swear Nina Totenberg suffers from Mad Cow disease, but why single her out? All liberals suffer from the same disease: Lactofactosis.
Liberals are NOT entitled to their own facts
Submitted by TheHistorian on Sun, 01/22/2012 - 1:00pm.
Nina Totenberg should be FIRED because she continually lies about facts like this. Why doesn't anyone ever bother to tell this woman that she is a liar?
Dennis Prager