Jon Stewart is calling out Fox News for creating “a narrative that ties people's poverty to their own lack of virtue,” pushing back on Fox host Eric Bolling's campaign to “school” Stewart.

Bolling challenged Stewart on the March 8 edition of Fox's Cashin' In, calling The Daily Show host “a dummy” and purporting to lecture Stewart on the realities of food stamps abuse. According to Bolling, “Food stamps aren't just used for food. A lot of clowns are withdrawing cash from the EBT cards then spending in on things like booze, weed, and lap dancers.” Bolling then challenged Stewart to a debate.

Stewart responded on The Daily Show Thursday night, highlighting the way that Fox uses anecdotes to paint a distorted picture of poverty in America. “What we were ridiculing was the way you exaggerate the scope of public assistance abuse through random, often unprovable anecdotes, hour-long specials, and, for some reason, this hand bursting through the heart of America,” Stewart said.

Stewart noted how Fox has focused at least six separate segments to a California surfer who admits to abusing the system, part of the cable channel's campaign to create what Stewart called “the very balanced narrative that ties people's poverty to their own lack of virtue and says that programs created to serve the impoverished are, in fact, the reason they are still impoverished.”

Stewart also highlighted the fact that while Bolling and other Fox hosts and commentators often criticize spending on public assistance, they have defended tax breaks for corporations that cost more than the alleged waste in public assistance programs. He added that the EBT card program in many states is operated by JPMorgan Chase.

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