This diary talks about Fixed News's attempts to race-bait against Shirley Sherrod, the NAACP, and others of color. They are going all-out with their race-baiting until the end of time-- or at least until Obama's time in office is up. It shows you the dangers of falling into the trap that the RNC NewsChannel tries to do people, and some people, unfortunately, fall for them. But Sherrod didn't play into Faux Spews' plans. And she should be commended for sticking to her guns.
On the other hand though, Andrew Breitbart will have a price to pay for his sleazy, racist tactics against Sherrod, aided O'Keefe with his plot to tap into Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA)'s office, and other bogus tape editings (such as breaking into an ACORN building) to distort the real truth. I hope Breitfart and his minions end in Hell for their actions to discredit people.
Shirley Sherrod To Sue Andrew Breitbart
| 07/29/10 11:59 AM | AP
SAN DIEGO — Ousted Agriculture Department employee Shirley Sherrod said Thursday she will sue a conservative blogger who posted an edited video of her making racially tinged remarks last week.
The edited video posted by Andrew Breitbart led Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to ask Sherrod to resign, a decision he reconsidered after seeing the entire video of her March speech to a local NAACP group. In the full speech, Sherrod spoke of racial reconciliation and lessons she learned after initially hesitating to help a white farmer save his home.
She said she doesn't want an apology from Breitbart for posting the video that took her comments out of context, but told a crowd at the National Association of Black Journalists annual convention that she would "definitely sue."
Vilsack and President Barack Obama later called Sherrod to apologize for her hasty ouster. Vilsack has offered her a new job at the department, which she is still considering.
"I have many, many questions before I can make a decision," Sherrod told the group. "I don't know what will happen from this day forward in terms of whether I'll be back in the department or what I'll do."
E-mails to Breitbart's Web sites seeking comment were not immediately returned Thursday morning.
Obama said Thursday morning on ABC's daytime talk show The View that the incident shows racial tensions still exist in America.
"There are still inequalities out there. There's still discrimination out there," Obama said. "But we've made progress."
Obama pinned much of the blame for the incident on a media culture that he said seeks out conflict and doesn't always get the facts right. But he added, "A lot of people overreacted, including people in my administration."
Shirley Sherrod sues Breitfart
Keith Olbermann's special comment (07.21.2010)
Rush Limbaugh: Fox News 'Caved' On Shirley Sherrod Story
First Posted: 07-23-10 04:41 PM | Updated: 07-23-10 05:30 PM
Rush Limbaugh criticized Shepard Smith and Fox News for their backtracking on the Shirley Sherrod story, saying they had "caved" by admitting that the tape of Sherrod had been taken out of context.
On Wednesday, Smith tore into his own network, saying it had failed to check whether or not the Sherrod story was true. That night, Bill O'Reilly also apologized for his role in pushing the story.
This did not sit well with Limbaugh. On his radio show Thursday, he said that conservative media "cowards" have wrongly abandoned the story:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...
Megyn Kelly Loses It when Challanged About DOJ And New Black Panther Party Case
Reported by Ellen - July 13, 2010 - Comments (62)
Lest there be any doubt that "objective" news host Megyn Kelly is extremely biased, watch her throw a bitchy temper tantrum when her Democratic guest, Kirsten Powers, challenges Kelly’s hyping interpretation that the Obama Justice Department’s dismissal of a case against the New Black Panther Party and a few of its members signifies a policy not to prosecute any black people for voter intimidation. Kelly not only had a very unbecoming hissy fit in which, instead of debating Powers, she attacked her, but Kelly destroyed any last shred of her own credibility as someone "fair and balanced."
Kelly obviously thought she had a two-for-one in this segment that began by showing a town hall in which a group of Fox News watchers (I’ll wager they came from Breitbart) obviously had staged and recorded a confrontation with Democratic Rep. Brad Sherman over the DOJ case. Not only did Kelly get the chance to demonize Sherman, she had the opportunity to hype her faux New Black Panther Party controversy yet again.
"Oh, Congressman Sherman," Kelly began sarcastically, right there tossing aside her veneer of objectivity.
Kelly started yelling at Powers and refusing to allow her to talk. And then, as Powers continued trying to speak, Kelly laughably screamed, "Don’t talk over me!"
"I’m actually challenging you on what you’re saying and you won’t let me talk," Powers correctly pointed out. It's worth noting that she remained calm and professional throughout. "You just want people to come on and just agree with you... the way you’ve been completely, like, doing the "scary black man" thing. This guy was one person. There was an injunction against him. The injunction was enforced. The Civil Rights Division decided that there wasn’t a case to pursue against anyone else. That’s completely on the up and up. There’s nothing wrong with that."
What’s wrong with that is that it didn’t comport with Kelly’s race-baiting agenda. Shaking her head, Kelly said disdainfully, "Are you like Congressman Sherman? Do you know anything about this case?’"
Further validating the claims of J. Christian Adams, a GOP activist Kelly calls a "whistleblower," Kelly demanded, "Do you dismiss his allegation that that case was dismissed not because of legal reasons but because of a policy at the Department of Justice that they will not pursue cases in the voting rights section where the defendant is black and the victim is white?"
Yes, Powers did dismiss the allegations. And she’s not the only one. As Kelly surely knows, conservative Angela Thernstrom, an expert in voting rights, said the case has no significance. "I think you’ve got a conservative activist posing as a whistleblower," Powers said, adding that she found it "absolutely shocking" that this case is getting the kind of attention it’s getting. She didn’t say so, but she obviously meant "on Fox News."
As Powers continued to talk, Kelly barked, "Don’t make me cut your mike!"
I’ll say it now and I’ll say it unless and until she comes out and apologizes for acting as a race-baiting shill for the GOP, Megyn Kelly should be fired. As for Powers, I award her Best in Show. Not just for standing up to Kelly but for confronting the race-baiting agenda of her employer. She should not be the only one.
Megyn KKKelly loses it; Kirsten Powers ass-smacks Megyn
Fox smears Sherrod as racist, Sherrod cancels Fox interview
July 20, 2010 5:19 pm ET by Matt Gertz
Late in her program (America Live) today, Megyn Kelly announced that her interview with former USDA official Shirley Sherrod -- which Kelly had touted throughout the show -- was off. Kelly said that Sherrod had "changed her mind," even after Fox had "offered her a considerable amount of time" to "clear the air" and "tell her story."
Full: ox smears Sherrod as racist, Sherrod cancels Fox interview
Rush: "For All I Know, The White House Orchestrated" The Sherrod Affair
July 22, 2010 3:42 pm ET — 12 Comments
For a guy who said on Monday that "the charge of racism is losing its heft" and has been "overdone and overblown," Rush sure did devote a lot of his show today to tossing around accusations of racism and otherwise discussing race. According to Rush, Barack Obama isn't a post-racial president -- he's "the most-racial president"; Andrew Breitbart "was exactly right" that Shirley Sherrod is "racist" and that the NAACP is "racist"; the NAACP is "now the R-A-C-I-S-M"; members of the "Democrat Party" are the "white plantation holders"; and the Obama "regime" is "tribalizing this country" into "different racial tribes."
While talking about the Sherrod affair, Limbaugh criticized Fox News, and Shepard Smith in particular, for "cav[ing]" on the story by saying that "Breitbart is wrong." Rush also said, "For all I know, the White House orchestrated this whole thing."
Boss Limbaugh's Oxycontin machine in business: attacking Sherrod for racial reasons
Savage calls Sherrod "the psycho"
July 23, 2010 4:43 pm ET
From the July 22 edition of Talk Radio Network's The Savage Nation:
Beck falsely claims he didn't attack Sherrod and that he "supported her"
July 23, 2010 11:01 pm ET
From the July 23 edition of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor:
Breitbart still insists Sherrod video "shows that she's the racist"
July 27, 2010 2:48 pm ET
From the July 26 edition of Talk Radio Network's The Savage Nation:
Michelle Malkin accuses Democratic Party and the White House of "racial demagoguery"
July 28, 2010 10:33 pm ET
From the July 28 edition of Fox News' Hannity:
Levin: Shirley Sherrod is "not only a race-baiter, she's an idiot"
July 26, 2010 4:29 pm ET
From the July 23 edition of ABC Radio Networks' The Mark Levin Show:
Sherrod: I'm a Victim of Breitbart, Fox 'Racism'
July 21, 2010 11:40 am ET by Joe Strupp
Shirley Sherrod, the former Agriculture Department Georgia Director of Rural Development, says she is a victim. A victim of poor reporting and, as she contends, clear bias and racist coverage from both Andrew Breitbart and Fox News.
"When you look at their reporting, this is just another way of seeing that they are (racist)," Sherrod told me about Fox in a lengthy interview Tuesday night. "But I have seen that before now. I saw their reporting as biased during the Bush Administration and the Clinton Administration."
Breitbart also did not include the entire context of the speech, in which she later explained that she learned from the situation and ended up helping the farmer, Roger Spooner and his wife. Both Spooners spoke out several times Tuesday to support Sherrod and voice that they would have lost their farm if not for her help.
"It was a time when I realized that they did some of the same things to white farmers that they did to black farmers," Sherrod said about the speech. "I thought that all white farmers got the best treatment, but I found out in this case that was not so."
Explaining the speech further, Sherrod said, "I am trying to say to the people there that it is time for us to move forward. We do not want to forget the past and be in a position that racism is there and we don't see it. We want to move together. Our area of the state cannot grow and thrive until we learn to get along."
But after Breitbart posted the video clip, Sherrod said the lack of context and explanation sparked anger against her. She said she found out about the clip when someone e-mailed a link to her and asked about it.
She adds: "People were calling and writing the Department of Agriculture in Athens, Ga., and Washington to tell them about it. That I needed to be fired. That a racist like me had no business working for the department. That is the way they intimidate people and it worked."
By the end of the day Monday, she was forced to resign.
Sherrod, 62, said her first reaction was shock that, after a career working for civil rights and as the daughter of a father murdered by racists, she would be seen in such a terrible light.
"To have people say that I was such a racist was unbelievable," she said of the fallout from the video and Fox coverage. "My whole life, if you look into what I have done, my father was murdered in 1965. If you look at all of us, we all hurt with that and we got involved into the movement and channeled our effort into good, instead of hating.
But the clear damage to Sherrod comes from Breitbart, who posted the tape without context, and Fox, which ran with the story and did not seek to confirm it.
"The news media should tell it like it is and not the way they want it to be," she said.
Sherrod said Breitbart never contacted her before posting the video clip to ask about it.
"I never heard that name until a few minutes ago," she said Tuesday night about Breitbart. "He never contacted me. I think they intended it to be what it ended up being, a racist thing that could unite even more the racist people out there who follow them."
She also said Fox News never checked the facts with her before posting a story and the video clip.
"Not before they reported it," she said of Fox's negligence. "They have called me today and initially I had said yes (to an interview), but I thought about it and I did not think they intended to be fair in their reporting. They are going to say what they want to say regardless of what I say."
She said Fox showed no professionalism in continuing to bother her for an interview, but failing to correct their coverage.
"I think they should but they won't. They intended exactly what they did. They were looking for the result they got yesterday," she said of Fox. "I am just a pawn. I was just here. They are after a bigger thing, they would love to take us back to where we were many years ago. Back to where black people were looking down, not looking white folks in the face, not being able to compete for a job out there and not be a whole person."
Still, Fox continued to push for an interview with her, Sherrod said.
"It was unbelievable. I am refusing to be on there. They have been calling me and calling me. I have refused to do an interview because they are biased," she explained. "I don't think Fox News does it fairly. It is worse so now. I have sat and listened to the way they cover the news even before this administration and I saw what was going on."
Sherrod said this situation has worsened her view of racism in media coverage.
"I think it is race. You think we have come a long way in terms of race relations in this country, but we keep going backwards," she said. "We have become more racist. This was their doing, Breitbart put that together misrepresenting what I was saying and Fox carried it."
Despite that, she plans to carry on.
"I will go back to doing what I was doing before, working with people, trying to build," she said. "There are a lot of projects in Georgia I have been involved in creating. I will get busy with that again."
Sherrod said she is considering legal action, perhaps against Breitbart, Fox or the federal government:
"I don't know enough to know. I wish I did. I would love to sue. I am going to talk about it. I have been getting calls from all over the country. I don't want to leave one stone unturned."
Sherrod said she has been helped by many media outlets, such as CNN and others that have allowed her to explain the truth, enough so that the NAACP retracted a statement Tuesday that had denounced her.
She said that has convinced her to trust some media outlets, noting she had plans to be on Good Morning America and NPR Wednesday.
"The only one I refused to do is Fox," she said, adding the fair coverage by others "makes me think highly of some of the media, but not any better about Fox. It is a bad taste in my mouth dealing with them. It would help some if they apologized and say they were wrong, but I don't see that happening."
Sherrod: I'm a Victim of Breitbart, Fox 'Racism'
Sunday media call out Breitbart, Fox for running with bogus attacks on Sherrod
July 25, 2010 4:38 pm ET — 136 Comments
Numerous Sunday television and print commentators criticized Andrew Breitbart for posting the deceptively edited video of Shirley Sherrod, as well as Fox News for running with Breitbart's bogus smear.
Sunday commentators slam Breitbart, Fox for smearing Sherrod
Joan Walsh: Fox ran with Sherrod smear pushed by "discredited" Breitbart. On the July 25 edition of CNN's Reliable Sources, Salon.com's Joan Walsh criticized Fox News for running with Breitbart's deceptively edited video of Sherrod, stating that Breitbart "should have already been discredited" for pushing heavily edited ACORN videos last year. Walsh further stated that "Fox played a much bigger role [in the Sherrod story] than people want to admit," noting that the "Breitbart version of the story ran on FoxNews.com all day Monday" and that Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity discussed the story on their July 19 Fox News programs.
Jane Hall: Fox ran with Sherrod story "because it fit their narrative of a very anti-Obama situation." On the July 25 edition of Reliable Sources, former Fox News contributor Jane Hall said the Sherrod video was "almost a virtual world McCarthyism" and that Fox News ran with the video "because it fit their narrative of a very anti-Obama situation."
Bob Schieffer: "A partisan blogger with an agenda ... put the heavily edited" video of Sherrod on the Internet. On the July 25 edition of CBS' Face the Nation, host Bob Schieffer stated: "A partisan blogger with an agenda -- not a journalist -- put the heavily edited, totally out of context, now-infamous sound bite of Shirley Sherrod on the Internet." Schieffer further stated: "Some of the cable folk picked up this story and demanded the woman's ouster -- no calls to those involved; no checking of any kind. Just throw it out there and leave it to the woman to defend herself."
Mara Liasson: Fox among those "guilty" in Sherrod controversy. On the July 25 edition of Fox Broadcasting Co.'s Fox News Sunday, Fox News contributor and NPR correspondent Mara Liasson stated that "every entity here who did not do their homework and practice good journalism and report the entire videotape is guilty -- including Fox, who played it, but not in its entirety even after she'd been fired."
Frank Rich: Breitbart is a "dirty trickster notorious for hustling skewed partisan videos on Fox News." In his July 24 New York Times column, Frank Rich wrote that "[e]ven though the egregiously misleading excerpt from Shirley Sherrod's 43-minute speech came from Andrew Breitbart, the dirty trickster notorious for hustling skewed partisan videos on Fox News, few questioned its validity." Rich further noted that Fox News touted Breitbart's edited video clip of Sherrod's comments as "what racism looks like."
Van Jones: Breitbart "promoted a misleadingly edited video of [Sherrod's] speech." In a July 24 New York Times op-ed, former Obama administration official Van Jones criticized how "[p]artisan Web sites and pundits pounced" on the Sherrod controversy, writing that "news organizations, and partisans posing as news organizations" have "cross[ed] the line from responsible reporting to dangerous rumor-mongering." Jones also wrote: "Andrew Breitbart, a prominent Internet conservative, promoted a misleadingly edited video of her speech; within hours, news outlets of all stripes were promoting it as truth."
http://mediamatters.org/...
Still digging: Conservatives won't let up barrage of attacks on Shirley Sherrod
July 27, 2010 5:09 pm ET — 72 Comments
Even after Andrew Breitbart's video of Shirley Sherrod's NAACP speech was uncovered as a deceptively edited excerpt that distorted her comments, conservatives have continued to attack Sherrod with a barrage of false or ludicrous smears.
Breitbart posts Sherrod video, calls her "racist," claims "Context is everything." On July 19, Breitbart posted heavily edited video of Sherrod and falsely suggested that Sherrod discriminated against a white farmer in her capacity as the Agriculture Department's Georgia Director of Rural Development. Breitbart said that the video provides "video evidence of racism coming from" Sherrod.
Limbaugh: "Andrew Breitbart was exactly right. ... If you listen to the whole speech ... she's racist." On the July 22 edition of his radio show, Rush Limbaugh claimed,"Andrew Breitbart was exactly right. This woman did not have an epiphany when she was at the USDA. When she was speaking to the NAACP, she did not have an epiphany. ... If you listen to the whole speech, as people have, 43 minutes, she's racist. The NAACP is racist."
Levin: Sherrod is a "race-baiter." On July 23, Mark Levin called Sherrod a "race-baiter," "an idiot" and claimed, "Breitbart was right about her."
Hoft: Sherrod is "communist, radical, socialist, terror-sympathizer." Hoft called Sherrod "a communist, radical, socialist, terror-sympathizer" and "white farmer-hater."
Mattera: "The broad is a Marxist." Human Events editor Jason Mattera posted on his Twitter account: "Sherrod shouldn't be given her job back. The broad is a Marxist. I have no sympathy for her."
Derbyshire: Sherrod is "a revolutionary radical." On his "Radio Derb" podcast, National Review's John Derbyshire called Sherrod "a revolutionary radical."
Hoft, Illinois Review attempt to connect Sherrod to William Ayers through SNCC. In a post promoted by Gateway Pundit's Jim Hoft, conservative blog Illinois Review attempted to connect Sherrod to William Ayers, writing, "Ms. Sherrod's husband is a former honcho in the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee back in the 1960's. You can read more about it in Bill Ayers book 'Fugitive Days.' Yes, that Bill Ayers. He was involved in SNCC as well."
Full story: Still digging: Conservatives won't let up barrage of attacks on Shirley Sherrod
Sherrod Critic Lord: She Used 'Lynching' To Gin Up Democratic Voters
Brian Beutler | July 28, 2010, 8:54AM
On Monday, former Reagan administration official Jeffrey Lord astonished the left and the right by penning an article in the conservative American Spectator attacking former-USDA official Shirley Sherrod for using the term "lynching" to describe the murder of one of her relative years ago. The problem, according to Lord, was that the victim, Bobby Hall was beaten to death by a blackjack, rather than being hanged by the neck. "It's...possible that she knew the truth and chose to embellish it, changing a brutal and fatal beating to a lynching."
Critics, even at his own magazine, pounced, noting that a lynching is an extrajudicial murder by a mob, whether or not the weapon of choice is a rope.
Sherrod Critic: She Used 'Lynching' To Gin Up Democratic Voters
Dana Loesch Embarrasses St. Louis on National TV...Again
St. Louis Tea Party co-founder Dana Loesch (who was responsible for Kings Of Leon's cancellation here in STL by INTENTIONALLY setting off a bird.) was on Larry King last night interrupting guests, desperately trying to change the subject, and claiming that Breitbart's presentation of a clip that showed the exact opposite of what he claimed it showed, "wasn't edited." It was truly an amazingly bad performance, even by Loesch's already low standards. Here's the video:
Loesch embarrasses STL... again
Andrew Breitbart - the NAACP's Best Friend and the Tea Party's Worst Enemy
-- Alvin McEwen
In the midst of the Shirley Sherrod hoopla, an interesting situation involving the Tea Party Movement seems to have gone unnoticed:
One of the most prominent men in the tea party movement, Tea Party Express spokesperson and former chair Mark Williams, is abandoning the group he helped propel into the role of the tea party's public face.
. . . In his resignation letter to the TPE, Williams says he left the group after the past week's public battle with the NAACP made him too hot to handle.
"I feel compelled to separate myself from any further involvement with the Tea Party Express so that I can pursue other interests," Williams wrote, "and to free the tea party movement from any more distraction based on my personal comments or blogs."
Alvin McEwen: Breitbart's the Tea Party's Worst Enemy
Loesch Doesn't Bother Doing The Most Basic Research Before Calling Sherrod's Story 'False"
Dana Loesch tweeted the following yesterday:
Hmm. Sherrod's story false as Washington's teefs.
The article she links to is offensive and idiotic. Sherrod had said that one of her relatives was lynched in the past. The author of the article, former Reaganite Jeffery Lord, called Sherrod's story "false," and attempted to support this assertion by quibbling about the meaning of the word "lynched." He agrees that her relative was beaten to death by an angry group of racists, but somehow thinks that it's only lynching if it involves a noose. First of all, this is an absolutely obnoxious, ridiculous point to quibble about. Her relative was beaten to death by a group of racists! I think that was the relevant part of what Sherrod was trying to convey. Second, Lord, and by the sacred laws of retweeting, Loesch, are also idiotic because in making this completely obnoxious point they also happen to be flat out wrong. As was pointed out by Lord's colleague in the Weekly Standard John Tabin, lynching is defined as, " extrajudicial killing by a mob (which can be as few as two people)." As Tabin writes, and as should be obvious to all, "the fatal beating of Bobby Hall most certainly qualifies."
Furthermore, Tabin's post was up on Monday and has been much discussed online, so if Loesch even had the dimmest awareness of this conversation or the ability to use google, she could have found out that she was about to link to a humiliating article
http://stlactivisthub.blogspot.com/...
Timeline of Breitbart's Sherrod smear
July 22, 2010 7:38 am ET
Media Matters has documented a timeline of Andrew Breitbart's smear of Shirley Sherrod, from Breitbart's initial posting of his deceptively edited clip of Sherrod -- which was amplified by Fox News and other right-wing media -- through the release of the full video of Sherrod's comments, which made clear the context of her remarks.
Monday
11:18 a.m.*: Breitbart posts Sherrod video, calls her "racist," claims "Context is everything." Breitbart posted the heavily edited video of Sherrod and falsely suggested that Sherrod discriminated against a white farmer in her capacity as the Agriculture Department's Georgia Director of Rural Development:
We are in possession of a video from in which Shirley Sherrod, USDA Georgia Director of Rural Development, speaks at the NAACP Freedom Fund dinner in Georgia. In her meandering speech to what appears to be an all-black audience, this federally appointed executive bureaucrat lays out in stark detail, that her federal duties are managed through the prism of race and class distinctions.
In the first video, Sherrod describes how she racially discriminates against a white farmer. She describes how she is torn over how much she will choose to help him. And, she admits that she doesn't do everything she can for him, because he is white. Eventually, her basic humanity informs that this white man is poor and needs help. But she decides that he should get help from "one of his own kind". She refers him to a white lawyer.
Sherrod's racist tale is received by the NAACP audience with nodding approval and murmurs of recognition and agreement. Hardly the behavior of the group now holding itself up as the supreme judge of another groups' racial tolerance.
Fox News amplifies Breitbart's deceptively edited video. On July 19, FoxNews.com reported: "Days after the NAACP clashed with Tea Party members over allegations of racism, a video has surfaced showing an Agriculture Department official regaling an NAACP audience with a story about how she withheld help to a white farmer facing bankruptcy." The FoxNews.com article further reported that "[t]he video clip was first posted by BigGovernment.com" and that "FoxNews.com is seeking a response from both the NAACP and the USDA." The article is no longer available on FoxNews.com but was republished on another website:
12:13 p.m.: Hoft runs with Breitbart video. In a Gateway Pundit post titled, "More Racism at NAACP: Radical Obama Official Admits That She Openly Discriminates Against Whites," Jim Hoft posted Breitbart's video clip and wrote: "The former civil rights group known as the NAACP does not just invite anti-Semite Louis Farrakhan and radical America-hating Marxist Jeremiah Wright to speak at their events ...They also invite government officials who hate whitey, too." Hoft further wrote that "Sherrod admits in a speech at the NAACP that she discriminated against farmers because they were white."
1:40 p.m. (approximately): Fox Nation accuses Sherrod of "discrimination caught on tape" before she resigned. Fox Nation linked to Breitbart's Big Government piece and posted the deceptively cropped clips of Sherrod's speech at the NAACP in a post titled, "Caught on Tape: Obama Official Discriminates Against White Farmer":
The first reader to comment on the post is from July 19 at 1:41 p.m.:
After news broke that Sherrod resigned, the post's headline was changed to read "Obama Official Resigns After Discrimination Caught on Tape":
1:49 p.m.: Ace of Spades picks up Sherrod story, calls it an example of "your government, working for you." In an Ace of Spades post, blogger "Ace" posted Breitbart's video and wrote that "[f]aced with a white farmer whose farm was in Chapter 12," Sherrod "decided she wouldn't do 'the full force' of what she could do to help him, because she was concerned about black folks losing their farms."
3:31 p.m.: Elizabeth Scalia of the blog The Anchoress raises questions about the editing of Breitbart's video. In her post, Scalia wrote, "I am uncomfortable with this 'get' by Breitbart." Scalia further questioned Breitbart's selectively edited video of Sherrod's comments (emphasis in the original):
Nevertheless I am uncomfortable with this "get" by Breitbart.
[...]
But the video ends so abruptly!
Sherrod, who is not an impressive public speaker, says she did not do all she could for the "poor white farmer" who she perceived to be somehow both asking for her help and simultaneously "trying to show me he was superior to me; I knew what he was doing ..." She admits that she did just "enough" for the farmer so as to cover her own sense of accountability and then: "I took him to a white lawyer ... I figured if I took him to one of them, then his own kind would take care of him."
Yes, there is a bit of paranoid projection, there, and some shocking language -- language that has been rightly rejected by society -- that seems to play well to the audience. But then Sherrod apparently has a revelation. She begins to understand that "it's about poor versus those who have, and not so much about white -- it is about white and black -- but you know it opened my eyes, because I took him to one of his own."
Yes? AND?
[...]
Doesn't it seem like, after all of that sort of winking, "you and I know how they really are" racist crap wherein Sherrod -- intentionally or not -- indicts her own narrow focus, she was heading to a more edifying message? What did it open her eyes about? Was she about to say "I took him to one of his own, but it shouldn't have mattered about that; my job was to serve all the farmers who needed help."
Was she about to say, "I learned about myself and about how far we still have to go?"
Was she about to say "it's not poor vs those who have, because we are not at war, we are just in the same human reality that ever was?"
Was she about to say, "poor is poor, hungry is hungry and the past is the past when a family can't eat?"
I want to know. Because it seemed like Sherrod was heading somewhere with that story, and the edit does not let us get there. I want the rest of the story before I start passing judgment on it.
[...]
I want to see the rest of the tape. I cannot believe Sherrod ended on "I took him to one of his own." Either she said something much worse after that (which we would have seen) or she said something much better.
If it was something "better" then we should have seen that, too.
4:50 p.m.: Breitbart tweets to Media Matters: "Tomorrow's gonna be a long day." In a Twitter post to Media Matters for America, Breitbart wrote: "Get some rest. Tomorrow's gonna be long day & first of many in a row."
7:51 p.m.*: Big Government links to a FoxNews.com article reporting that Sherrod had resigned and USDA repudiated her remarks. Big Government stated: "This morning, we broke video of a USDA official, Shirley Sherrod, recounting for attendees at an NAACP awards dinner how she withheld help from a white farmer seeking the agency's help in saving his farm. Fox News is reporting that Ms. Sherrod has resigned." The FoxNews.com article reported that "[t]he Agriculture Department announced Monday, shortly after FoxNews.com published its initial report on the video, that Sherrod had resigned."
8:50 p.m.: O'Reilly airs Breitbart's Sherrod video. On his Fox News program, Bill O'Reilly stated that "Sherrod was caught on tape saying something very disturbing. Seems a white farmer in Georgia had requested government assistance from Ms. Sherrod." After airing Breitbart's video, O'Reilly stated: "That is simply unacceptable. And Ms. Sherrod must resign immediately." (accessed via Nexis)
9:04 p.m.: "Fox News Alert": Hannity reports that Sherrod has resigned and discusses the incident with Gingrich. On his Fox News program, Sean Hannity reported that Sherrod "resigned just a short time ago after she was caught on tape appearing to tell an audience that she had used her position to racially discriminate against white farmers." Hannity then aired Breitbart's "shocking video." In a later segment, Fox News contributor Newt Gingrich stated: "Secretary Vilsack did exactly the right thing. I mean I often disagree with this administration. But firing her after that kind of viciously racist attitude was exactly the right thing to do." Hannity later stated: "My only thing is they weren't the ones that caught it. It was on Breitbart.com and it happened some time ago. So it's interesting that it took the new media to expose this." (accessed via Nexis)
9:10 p.m.: NAACP's Jealous tweets that "NAACP is appalled" by Sherrod's comments. In a Twitter post that has since been deleted, NAACP president Ben Jealous wrote: "Racism is about abuse of power. Sherrod had it at USDA. She abused a white farmer because of his race. NAACP is appalled. Go to naacp.org." The NAACP's initial statement regarding Sherrod's comments has been removed from its website, but as Talking Points Memo reported, Jealous said in the statement: "Racism is about the abuse of power. Sherrod had it in her position at USDA. According to her remarks, she mistreated a white farmer in need of assistance because of his race. We are appalled by her actions, just as we are with abuses of power against farmers of color and female farmers."
9:33 p.m.: On CNN, Tea Party organizer Loesch references Sherrod story. During a segment on CNN's Larry King Live about racism in the tea party, Dana Loesch, a conservative radio host and an organizer with the Nationwide Tea Party Coalition, mentioned "Shirley Sherrod speaking at an NCAAP banquet, going off about a member of the government, by the way, state director of the USDA of rural development for Georgia -- saying that she actually was basing whether or not she was going to help somebody on the color of their skin."
9:44 p.m.: Hannity's Great American Panel discusses Sherrod video. During the "Great American Panel" segment of Fox News' Hannity, Republican strategist Kate Obenshain stated, "It's just a shame that it takes an expose, it takes Breitbart having to put it on his website, for her resignation to be forced." The Wall Street Journal's John Fund stated: "Obviously no one complained at the Georgia NAACP. No one complained. It would have passed unless they had this video which came out now." Hannity further stated that Sherrod's comments were "racist." (accessed via Nexis)
9:49 p.m.: Doug Powers: "USDA Official Resigns After 'White Farmer' Video." In a post on Michelle Malkin's website, Doug Powers wrote, "We interrupt this 'Tea Partiers are so incredibly racially biased' broadcast for the following update" and linked to FoxNews.com's article on Sherrod's resignation. Powers further linked to Breitbart's video, writing, "The video posted at BigGovernment that started it all is here if you haven't seen/heard it yet."
10:20 p.m.: Perino discusses Sherrod on Fox's On the Record. On Fox News' On the Record, guest host Dana Perino reported on Sherrod's resignation and aire Breitbart's video. Perino stated that "the video adds fuel to a growing controversy after the NAACP approved a resolution condemning the tea party movement for not denouncing racist members." (accessed via Nexis)
10:39 p.m.: On CNN, Johns reports on Sherrod's resignation. In the network's first report on the matter, Joe Johns said that Sherrod "has resigned after a YouTube video surfaced showing her describing to an NAACP audience how she withheld help to a white farmer," then aired a portion of her comments from the Breitbart clip.
Tuesday
12:03 a.m.: Sweetness & Light picks up the Sherrod story. The conservative blog Sweetness & Light picked up the Sherrod story in a post titled, "USDA Official Out Over Racist Comments." The post also linked to Breitbart's video.
1:12 a.m.: NewsBusters criticizes broadcast networks for ignoring "racist comments" at NAACP meeting. NewsBusters' Noel Sheppard wrote that "the three broadcast evening news programs completely ignored the story," which he said started "[a]t 8:18 AM Monday" when Big Government first posted the Sherrod video.
4:09 a.m.*: Big Government republishes NAACP statement denouncing Sherrod. A Big Government post republished a statement by the NAACP's Jealous in which Jealous said, "We concur with US Agriculture Secretary Vilsack in accepting the resignation of Shirley Sherrod for her remarks at a local NAACP Freedom Fund banquet." Jealous further stated that "[w]e are appalled by [Sherrod's] actions."
6:08 a.m. Sherrod story hits Fox & Friends: "Exhibit A" in "what racism looks like." On Fox News' Fox & Friends, Steve Doocy said Sherrod had been caught "making a speech to the NAACP that sure sounded racist." Co-host Alisyn Camerota then accused Sherrod of "touting this in this anecdote as though this is, you know, a feather in her cap, somehow, for her to be congratulated." Then Camerota and Doocy agreed that the comments were "Exhibit A" as far as "what racism looks like." On-screen text during the segment read, "Racism caught on camera" and "USDA official admits racism on tape; Forced to resign after dicey video leaks."
6:43 a.m.: Morning Joe airs Sherrod clip. MSNBC's Morning Joe aired the edited Sherrod clip and reported that Vilsack accepted Sherrod's resignation. Co-host Joe Scarborough then said that "a narrative is going to emerge ... certainly on the right with this tape that's just come out -- and you'll be hearing this the next couple of days. I think its relevance relates back to the New Black Panthers tapes that have been out there."
6:53 a.m.: In CNN interview, Sherrod claims that she told the administration that her comments were taken out of context, but that they're afraid of "Fox and the Tea Party." In an interview on CNN's American Morning, Sherrod stated that the story she was recounting in the edited video clip took place in 1986 and that she was not working for the Department of Agriculture at the time. Co-host John Roberts later stated: "Miss Sherrod, let's make it clear though, that this happened 24 years ago. You eventually worked with this white farmer. You eventually became friends, you say, with the farmer and his wife." Sherrod replied, "Yes." Roberts then asked, "So, the question I have is, when the U.S. Department of Agriculture came to you and said you have to step down, why didn't you just say, wait a minute, you don't know the full story. Here's the full story, why should I step down?" Sherrod replied, "I did say that, but they, for some reason, the stuff that Fox and the Tea Party does is scaring the administration. I told them get the whole tape and look at the whole tape and look at how I tell people we have to get beyond race and start working together."
Sherrod to AJC: Encounter happened 24 years ago and was "completely misconstrued" by Breitbart because she was discussing "getting beyond the issue of race." The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported on July 20 morning that Sherrod said her comments were "misconstrued" and that the event she was discussing took place 24 years ago. In a phone interview with the Journal-Constitution, Sherrod said the video was "completely misconstrued" and "excluded the breadth of the story about how she eventually worked with the man over a two-year period to help ward off foreclosure of his farm, and how she eventually became friends with him and his wife." From the AJC:
But in a phone interview from her home in Albany early Tuesday morning, Shirley Sherrod told the Atlanta-Journal Constitution that the video posted online Monday by biggovernment.com and reported on by FoxNews.com and the AJC completely misconstrued the message she was trying to convey.
[...]
But Tuesday morning, Sherrod said what online viewers weren't told in reports posted throughout the day Monday was that the tale she told at the banquet happened 24 years ago -- before she got the USDA job -- when she worked with the Georgia field office for the Federation of Southern Cooperative/Land Assistance Fund.
[...]
Sherrod said the short video clip excluded the breadth of the story about how she eventually worked with the man over a two-year period to help ward off foreclosure of his farm, and how she eventually became friends with him and his wife.
"And I went on to work with many more white farmers," she said. "The story helped me realize that race is not the issue, it's about the people who have and the people who don't. When I speak to groups, I try to speak about getting beyond the issue of race."
9:22 a.m.: Fox News reports on Sherrod's AJC comments. On America's Newsroom, after airing the edited video of Sherrod's comments, co-host Martha MacCallum stated: "Sherrod says that that story is about something that happened 24 years ago ... and that she uses the story when speaking to groups to point out how racism can and needs to be overcome." MacCallum then cited Sherrod's quote in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution article. MacCallum's guest, Byron York of The Washington Examiner, said: "I think in fairness to her, we need to see the whole story. We need to see the whole tape, and how she delivered the story."
9:52 a.m.: Beck asks, "Have we transformed into 1956?" On his radio show, Glenn Beck discussed the Sherrod story and asked, "Excuse me, have we transformed into 1956, only the other way around?" Beck also aired Breitbart's edited Sherrod clip.
11:06 a.m.: On CNN Newsroom, Sherrod claims she was told to resign because she would "be on Glenn Beck tonight." In an interview on CNN Newsroom, Sherrod recounted that Cheryl Cook, the deputy undersecretary of the Department of Agriculture, asked her to resign. Sherrod said that Cook told her, "Well, Shirley, they want you to pull over to the side of the road and do it because you're going to be on Glenn Beck tonight."
SHERROD: Oh, I can tell you, that was Cheryl Cook, the deputy undersecretary. She called me and said -- because she called me, and I said, "Cheryl, I've got a three and a half hour ride to get into Athens." She called me a second time, "Where are you now?" I said, "I'm just going through Atlanta."
She called me again and I said, "I'm at least 45 minutes to an hour from Athens." She said, "Well, Shirley, they want you to pull over to the side of the road and do it because you're going to be on Glenn Beck tonight."
TONY HARRIS (host): Wow. So the administration pressured you out?
SHERROD: Yes.
HARRIS: How do you feel about that?
SHERROD: I don't feel good about it, because I know I didn't do anything wrong. And I know during my time at USDA, I gave it all I had.
I worked when I didn't feel like it. I pushed the staff to get out there in places they had not been into before.
11:20 a.m.: On CNN Newsroom, farmer's wife calls Sherrod a "friend" who "helped us save our farm." On CNN Newsroom, during his interview with Sherrod, host Tony Harris also interviewed Eloise Spooner -- the wife of the farmer who Sherrod helped -- who came to the defense of Sherrod, calling her a "friend" who "helped us save our farm." The Atlanta-Constitution Journal similarly reported that Spooner considered Sherrod a "friend for life" and said that Sherrod "worked tirelessly to help the Iron City couple hold onto their land as they faced bankruptcy back in 1986." From the Atlanta-Constitution Journal:
But Spooner, who considers Sherrod a "friend for life," said the federal official worked tirelessly to help the Iron City couple hold onto their land as they faced bankruptcy back in 1986.
"Her husband told her, 'You're spending more time with the Spooners than you are with me,' " Spooner told the AJC." She took probably two or three trips with us to Albany just to help us out."
12:10 p.m.: Limbaugh calls Breitbart's heavily edited video of Sherrod "great work." On his nationally syndicated radio show, Rush Limbaugh called Breitbart's heavily edited video of Sherrod "great work," saying that it depicted Sherrod's "supposed racism." He later stated that "[t]he NAACP is as racist an organization as there has been and is in this country."
1:03 p.m.: Video producer confirmed that "the full speech is exactly as Sherrod described ... she goes on to explain learning the error of her initial impression." Talking Points Memo reported that "[t]he Douglas, Ga., company which filmed the banquet for the local NAACP has refused to release" the video until the national NAACP gives him "permission" to post it. However, Johnny Wilkerson, the owner of the video company, told TPM "that the full speech is exactly as Sherrod described, and that she goes on to explain learning the error of her initial impression and helping the farmer keep his farm."
1:36 p.m.: HotAir's Morrissey reports that edited video was "the entirety of the speech [Breitbart] had in his possession." Morrissey reported that Breitbart posted his heavily edited video without having seen the entirety of Sherrod's speech. Morrissey stated: "Sherrod and others can complain about Fox News and the editing of the tape, but two points should be remembered. First, Andrew Breitbart made it clear to me last night that this was the entirety of the speech he had in his possession. He also wants to find the whole speech and is trying to get it."
2:34 p.m.: After promoting her interview with Sherrod throughout the 1 p.m. hour, Kelly announces that Sherrod "changed her mind" about appearing on Fox. On America Live, host Megyn Kelly announced that her interview with Sherrod -- which Kelly had touted throughout the show -- was off. Kelly said that Sherrod had "changed her mind," even after Fox had "offered her a considerable amount of time" to "clear the air" and "tell her story."
3:01 p.m.: Brent Bozell slams media for not covering Sherrod's "racist remarks." Despite CNN's interviews with Sherrod and Eloise Spooner, Media Research Council president Brent Bozell said in a statement posted on NewsBusters that "[t]he liberal media are deliberately spiking the shocking video that reveals an NAACP banquet speaker admitting her racist views and actions. We've waited a full 24 hours to see if any coverage of this exposé would surface. So far, nothing but crickets."
3:58 p.m.: Breitbart confirms in a TPMMuckracker interview that he never had the full video of Sherrod's remarks. In an interview with Talking Points Memo, Breitbart confirmed that he never had the full video of Sherrod's remarks. From Talking Points Memo:
The crux of the Shirley Sherrod controversy is what she said outside of the two-minute video clip posted by Big Government -- whether she was, as she claims, telling a story about how she overcame racial prejudice while helping poor farmers in Georgia, or whether the clip is a good encapsulation of her views. So we asked Andrew Breitbart, the founder of Big Government, why he hasn't posted the full video.
"I don't have it," Breitbart told TPMmuckraker in an interview. Breitbart said his source sent him just the edited clips at first, but is in the process of sending the full video.
4:03 p.m.*: Big Government highlights Sherrod's statement that Obama admin "made [her] quit because [she] was going to be on Glenn Beck." In a Big Government post, Jeff Dunetz wrote that "Sherrod was forced to resign almost immediately after the video was posted. Incredibly, it seems however that her firing was less about what she said in the speech, and more about the story being broadcast on Fox News."
4:25 p.m.: "White farmer" Spooner appears on Rick's List, says of those smearing Sherrod as racist: They "don't know what they're talking about." On CNN's Rick's List, Roger and Eloise Spooner -- the "white farmer" and his wife whom Sherrod was discussing in the video -- defended Sherrod, saying that those who were smearing her as racist "don't know what they're talking about," and that Sherrod did "her level best" to help them save their farm, which she was ultimately successful in helping them do.
5 p.m.: Beck devotes first 20 minutes of show to Sherrod story. On his Fox News program, Beck aired a clip of Sherrod's CNN interview and asked if this "was a political assassination from the White House or from the NAACP." Beck then said: "Context matters, but we don't have the full video. Andrew Breitbart is trying to get the full video."
5:13 p.m. (approximately): Fox Nation reposts Big Government's Sherrod article about WH pressure to resign. In a post titled, "Sherrod: White House Made Me Quit 'Because I Was Going to Be on Glenn Beck," Fox Nation linked to Big Government's post of the same title. The link has since been updated and redirects to a different Fox Nation post titled "USDA Reconsidering Sherrod's Ouster Over Racial Comments." The first comments on this post are time-stamped 5:13 p.m., suggesting that Fox Nation originally posted the link to Big Government around that same time:
6:10 p.m.: NAACP releases statement on its investigation into Sherrod case, claims it was "snookered by Fox News and Tea Party Activist Andrew Breitbart." The NAACP released a statement on its investigation into the Sherrod case and concluded that it was "snookered by Fox News and Tea Party Activist Andrew Breitbart":
With regard to the initial media coverage of the resignation of USDA Official Shirley Sherrod, we have come to the conclusion we were snookered by Fox News and Tea Party Activist Andrew Breitbart into believing she had harmed white farmers because of racial bias.
6:41 p.m.: Bret Baier falsely claims, "Fox News didn't even do the story" on Sherrod. On Fox News' Special Report, host Bret Baier absurdly claimed that Fox News "didn't even do" the Sherrod story.
7:15 p.m.: Breitbart refuses to accept Sherrod's "word that the farmer's wife is the farmer's wife." On CNN's John King USA, Breitbart said to host John King: "If the other video is so important to you in order to push this story, why aren't you doing your reporting?" Breitbart then said: "You're going off of [Sherrod's] word that the farmer's wife is the farmer's wife. What type of extra reporting have you done on this?"
7:45 p.m. (approximately): NAACP releases full video of Sherrod's remarks. The NAACP released the full video of Sherrod's remarks at the NAACP banquet, noting that Breitbart's deceptively edited video "didn't tell the full story" and was "selectively edited to cast her in a negative light."
Full timeline: http://mediamatters.org/...
Doocy's deception: "Fox News Channel" did not touch Sherrod story "until she had actually quit"
July 22, 2010 7:12 am ET — 14 Comments
Fox & Friends co-host Steve Doocy once again deceptively claimed that "Fox News Channel did not touch" the Shirley Sherrod story "until she had actually quit." In fact, Doocy's statement ignores that FoxNews.com published a story based on the deceptively edited video before Sherrod resigned; indeed, a subsequent FoxNews.com article reported that she resigned "shortly after FoxNews.com published its initial report on the video."
Full story: http://mediamatters.org/...
Howard Dean: Fox acted "absolutely racist"
July 25, 2010 2:16 pm ET
From the July 25 edition of Fox Broadcasting Co.'s Fox News Sunday: