Ed Schultz on Tuesday falsely accused Fox Business Network contributor Charles Payne of recommending people on unemployment lines eat each other to survive.
Such ironically occurred on the "Psycho Talk" segment of the "Ed Show" (videos follow with partial transcripts and commentary):
ED SCHULTZ, HOST: And in "Psycho Talk" tonight, now, some of the media blogs out there have question questioned why we do "Psycho Talk" and I might be looking for a feud with somebody.
Folks, pay attention to what some of these whack jobs are saying. So, we`re sending a first timer into "The Zone" tonight. It's not about a feud, it's about what he said.
Fox Business Network's Charlie Payne, he is trying to earn his right- wing wacko stripes. Now, he's following in Glenn Beck`s footsteps, now attacking the 99ers.
Beck once called the long-term unemployed in this country un-American. But yesterday, Payne took it even further during a conversation with one of the leaders of the 99ers' union.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GREGG ROSEN, CO-FOUNDER 99ERS UNION: You're telling me people would rather go hungry and homeless than to get a job? Does that make sense?
CHARLES PAYNE, FOX BUSINESS: I'm telling you that if people are faced with going hungry or homeless, they will find a job, they will create a job, they will create opportunities. Because guess what? When the first Americans landed here, there was nothing.
Some of them froze to death. Some of them resorted to cannibalism. But they made it. They created the greatest country in the world.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCHULTZ: Cannibalism. Did you hear that? This is an award-winning "Psycho Talk."
Cannibalism. He's suggesting that cannibalism is an option for unemployed Americans who have been there so long they`re 99ers?
No nation, let alone the greatest country in the world, should let its citizens get so desperate that they even consider cannibalism. But it's thrown out there.
You know, Beck, you better watch out. You better watch your back, buddy. Charlie Payne is nipping at your heels with all this level of crazy talk.
Suggesting that cannibalism is a viable option for long-term unemployed is disgusting "Psycho Talk."
Actually, that's by no means what Payne suggested. Here's the entire FBN segment (relevant section begins at 1:00):
PAYNE: That's not how capitalism works. Certainly, what you're talking about is a sort of failed effort. We've seen this around the world since the history of time where you have central planners try to create capitalism through government mechanisms. Obviously it doesn't work. But here's the thing that bugs a lot of people; it certainly bugs me. It seems like the 99ers in particular are holding out for the right jobs. You guys talk about your advanced degrees and you can't take that kind of job or this kind of job. So it's incumbent upon the public to pay for you to sit at home until the right job comes along. [....]
PAYNE: But here's the thing that I would like to understand more about what you're talking about. Do you think that it helps people that are unemployed to keep them on benefits for two, three, four years? Do you think their skills are sharper, do you think they have more interest to get off the sofa? At some point there's a thing called tough love. Do you believe in that at all?"
ROSEN: Well, what I believe and what I know is again, when you have someone without an income for eight months, again, the conventional thinking originally was "Stop providing the checks, they're going to go out, they're going to get jobs." When you have somebody, and you have Americans out there who are losing their homes, can't feed their families, and in some cases are taking their own lives, if we go along with your line of reasoning, you are telling me that people would rather go hungry and homeless than get a job?
PAYNE: I'm telling you that if people are faced with going hungry or homeless, they will find a job, they will create a job, they will create opportunities. Because guess what? When the first Americans landed here, there was nothing. Some of them froze to death. Some of them resorted to cannibalism. But they made it. They created the greatest country in the world. That's what I'm telling you. What I'm saying is we aren't the kind of people that after a certain amount of time it's proven, you can't keep, no matter how cold it sounds, you can't keep paying someone not to work for two, three, four years indefinitely because at some point it backfires miserably.
Obviously, Payne wasn't suggesting that unemployed people eat each other.
His point was that times have been tougher than they are today, and that when the first Americans came to this land, there were no jobs. Through their own resources and sense of self-preservation, jobs were eventually created, and the same will happen today if people try as hard as our forefathers did.
But to say that Payne was telling his fellow citizens if they can't find a job they should eat each other is, as Schultz said, disgusting psycho talk.
