The Shirley Sherrod fracas is just the latest high-volume, over-blown, misinterpreted, misrepresented, totally fake media frenzy to occur since before and since Barack Obama ran for and was elected president. And it will most assuredly not be the last.The great gaping maw that is the 24/7 news cycle must be fed constantly. Like the giant man-eating plant in Little Shop of Horrors. And there is certainly no bigger Little Shop of Horrors than Fox News.
There can not be any sane person left in America who does not know that Fox News is Rupert Murdoch's gift to the right wing fringe. Just like every other media outlet that Murdoch has devoured over the last 20 years or so, Fox News has an agenda. And that agenda is the presentation of biased ultra-conservative propaganda under the guise of real news and journalism. Murdoch's media empire is as far removed from the truth as Pravda was during the days of the old Soviet Union. It is the official organ of the Republican Party. Add to that the exponential increase in political bloggers on the right (and the left) and you have yourself one helluva organization for the dissemination of disinformation.
Andrew Breitbart learned the fine art of smear and fear at the knees of Matt Drudge. Having served his apprenticeship, he moved on to of all places the Huffington Post where he was able to cloak himself in the mantle of an actual journalist. But Breitbart's ultimate goal was to create his own on-line empire and to place the crown upon his head with his own hands like Napoleon. He now rules over five major websites which are lovingly tended to by a coterie of devoted disciples.
Breitbart's stock in trade is the use of highly edited video tapes like the ones he used to bring down the community organization ACORN which purported to show employees of that group giving helpful hints to a "pimp and his whore" in how to set up their business. It was all a scam of course. Both the deception and the tape. But it brought down ACORN. Score one for Breitbart. And even though the whole thing was belatedly exposed by some real news organizations, Breitbart's power to control the news cycles went undiminished.
And now we have his piece de resistance, his chef d'oeuvre, the Sherrod fiasco. In the space of a mere 24 hours, he managed to destroy the career and reputation of an innocent woman. Con the NAACP into denouncing that same woman. Goad the Obama administration into a knee-jerk firing of that same woman. And all while sitting in the basement of his home in front of his computer. What a wonderful world we live in. When the lie was exposed in an amazing (for the MSM) following 24 hours, Breitbart excused the lie with yet another lie.
There are some commentators who are saying now that Breitbart has finally gone to far. And that his exposure as an outright liar will lead to his ultimate disgrace and downfall. But to be disgraced, one needs some semblance of morality and accountability. Neither of those pertain to Andrew Breitbart. He has honed his skills as a bully to a fine art. And like the schoolyard bully, he will only be defeated when those whom he has cowed see him for the coward he actually is.