A hoax by the farmer's wife, that is. Or, rather, "farmer's wife":
Speaking with CNN’s John King, right-wing provocateur Andrew Breitbart challenged Eloise Spooner’s “purported” story, accusing King of trusting Sherrod “that the ‘farmer’s wife’ is the farmer’s wife”:
You tell me as a reporter how CNN put on a person today who purported to be the farmer’s wife? What did you do to find out whether or not that was the actual farmer’s wife? I mean, if you’re going to accuse me of a falsehood, tell me where you’ve confirmed that had this incident happened 24 years ago. [...]
You’re going off of her word that the farmer’s wife is the farmer’s wife?
Yes, that "farmer's wife" is obviously not really the farmer's wife, since she has defended Shirley Sherrod:
Sherrod, "kept us out of bankruptcy," said Eloise Spooner, 82, of Iron City in southwest Georgia. Spooner, in an interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, added she considers Sherrod a "friend for life." She and her husband, Roger Spooner, approached Sherrod for help in 1986 when Sherrod worked for a nonprofit that assisted farmers.
But since we all know that Sherrod is the Worst Racist Ever, obviously this "farmer's wife" is lying. That's clearly the simplest explanation. Sherrod found some broad to go on TV, pretending to be Eloise Spooner, spinning a yarn about how Sherrod helped her family save their farm -- all so that Sherrod could continue to cover up the Most Heinous Act of Racism Ever, which is all part of the Obama administration's larger agenda to retroactively discriminate again white farmers in the '80s.
Or maybe Breitbart is just a lying asshole.