* - OK, I don't know that the really hired Jame O'Keefe - but their 'investigative' journalism is on par with him.
This involves the government 'free cell phone' program. As you may recall, this developed a bit of a tempest in a teapot before the 2012 election. Sometime during the Reagan administration, a program was set up to provide phone service to the underprivileged. The logic is, if you don't have access to a phone, it is very hard to get and keep a job. The program has been expanded over the years - last time in 2008 - During the Dubya admin. At that time, cell phones were added to the program. BEFORE Obama ever took office. Yet, somehow, the phones got the nickname 'Obamaphones'. Obama had nothing to do with it.
The craptacular CBS 'special investigation' can be found here:
Obamaphone is mentioned several times. There is a throw-away line about how they are called Obamaphones because they became popular under the 'Obama' administration. Well, duh, the program came into existence just before he became president. While this show was being broadcast, my dog did his business in the back yard. I've taken to calling his droppings 'CBS Piles' - because they came into existence during the broadcast.
It's crappy journalism. Not only do the repeat the mischaracterization of 'Obamaphone', they fail to even dive into the fact that a PRIVATE cell phone company is distributing GOVERNMENT phones - at probably a handsome profit. And the more Cell Phones they distribute, the more they get to scrape off of the top of the government cash. Nobody ask the question, 'Isn't incentivizing private companies to distribute these phones an invitation to fraud?' And they throw in some nice soft racism - interview black folks who receive the phone, rather than the company executives that are allowing the fraud to happen. Those white collar white folks just have to send an official letter. Oh and express, shock, SHOCK that their probably commissioned agents are committing fraud to make sales.
The video can be found here. The damn title talks about how the executives of the company are 'outraged' over the 'Obamaphone' scam.
Snopes article debunking this is here.
I expressed my outrage here, but they seem to be ignoring me.