Crazy Talk: Is Woman Who Fell Through Sidewalk Fat Because of Food Stamps?

By: Jenée Desmond-Harris | Posted: January 16, 2013 at 2:38 PM

Ulanda Williams, who fell through the sidewalk in New York (nypost.com); Rupert Murdoch (Getty Images)

How did fat lady who fell thru street get to 400 lbs?Welfare, stamps, etc?Then leave us all with 20yrs immense health bills.
— Rupert Murdoch(@rupertmurdoch) January 15, 2013

Last week a 32-year-old, 400-pound, 6-foot-5 African-American social worker fell through a New York City sidewalk, breaking her arm but avoiding serious injury.

There were plenty of mean jokes made on Twitter, but Rupert Murdoch chose a unique angle, Gawker reports, using the occasion to make social commentary about health care costs -- and giving us a peek into his own mind when he pretty much assumed that the black woman at the center of the story was the recipient of welfare or food stamps.

He tried to backpedal with the statement, "Unhealthy eating by rich and poor drives up premiums for us all." But of course, everyone who follows him knows that if that's really what he was getting at, he would have said it in the first place.

When someone else falls through a sidewalk and it ends up doing more damage to your reputation than to theirs, you might be doing something wrong.

Read more at Gawker.

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