For months now the Racine Journal Times has been beating the drums to alert its readers to claims of fraud in the FoodShare program. FoodShare – basically the successor to Food Stamps – issues debit cards to low-income people who use them to purchase groceries.
Several times the newspaper has quoted local officials, starting with former Racine County Sheriff and now Racine County Executive William McReynolds, to the effect that such fraud is “massive“ in the system. The allegation is that there is a substantial black market on the street for FoodShare cards, with recipients reselling them for cash, then getting new ones, claiming they are lost.
Yet so far the stories have been remarkably data-free, with no actual cases reported – only broad, generalized claims and freely flung adjectives such as “rampant” and the aforementioned “massive.”
Today the newspaper finally ponied up a real case, with the arrest of a Racine woman who faces a $40,000 fine if convicted.
The news was at the top of Page 1. In short, the newspaper was telling its readers that this was the most important story, locally or nationally, in the last 24 hours.
Just how much has she allegedly defrauded the FoodShare system? Over a 17-month period, $6,000. That comes out to a bit more than $350 a month. And the allegations involved allegedly false paperwork, not the sexier black-market angle.
Certainly fraud is indefensible. If guilty, the suspect should be prosecuted. So should others.
But has the story been worth the barrels of ink expended on it? As a Racine resident and member of the Journal Times audience, as well as a press critic, I find the paper’s handling of the issue itself disturbing.
Simply put, this story has not yet been shown to be worthy of the play it’s getting. If local authorities are so convinced of “massive,” “rampant” fraud, they could at least put some numbers by those claims. And if they’re unwilling to, the paper should treat such assertions with some degree of skepticism. Guess what: Politicians of every stripe like to inflate their accomplishments.
I don’t pretend to be able to read the minds of the journalists who have decided when and how to play this story. But I do have a hunch. When the Journal Sentinel made huge waves with its coverage of fraud in the Wisconsin Shares childcare subsidy program, the newspaper found a stunning example in Racine and led a story with it.
Competition and the fear of competition are good for journalism – but they also can be harmful. I can’t help but wonder if the JT has rushed material into print because they didn’t want to find themselves second on the story yet again.
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