On the one hand, I like the fact that media bungling like this enables me to link again to the saga of the late Marcus Stephens. On the other hand, I wish producers at network news magazines -- Last time, it was 20/20. This time, it's 60 Minutes, -- would stop treating this kind of meretricious swill as though it were an "evergreen" news story, like the Duckling Parade in Boston, or the annual NORAD tracking of Santa's sleigh. It simply has become reflexive behavior on the part of too many news organizations -- This American Life? Oh, Ira.-- to believe that we are beset by greedy poors who are gaming the good citizens. It is not easy to be poor in this country. That should be something our elite media takes as a given.

Read about Marcus. This is what really happens.

Charles P. Pierce Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976.

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