Media Matters has a video of Shirley Sherrod’s full speech, with a transcript of the essential parts, and it is now beyond a doubt that Andrew Breitbart shamelessly slandered this good woman, and I hope she sues him for everything he’s worth.
Breitbart’s excuse, that he didn’t see the full video before he publicized the edited version, ought to give Breitbart no legal shelter. Seems to me that for a professional media figure to publish something damaging to an individual without properly vetting it first falls under the purview of “reckless disregard for the truth.”
I really hope the Obama Administration gives her her job back. If they don’t, this will not only perpetrate the injustice but would be a huge wasted opportunity.
What else do we know?
Will this episode hurt Andrew Breitbart’s reputation among his rightie admirers? Of course not.
Will Fox News use more caution about using videos from Breitbart in the future? Nope.
Will some elements on the Right dig up whatever they can find to further slander Shirley Sherrod? Certainly.
Update: Breitbart is now claiming the farmer and his wife who spoke up on Sherrod’s behalf are “plants.”
Update: Salon: “Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack apologized to Shirley Sherrod for her unnecessary firing. He also offered her an unspecified new job with the USDA. According to CNN, Sherrod will think the job offer over for a few days before making a decision.”
You know, just once I would like our highly paid Democratic political consultants to realize what the Righties have known for years:
Nothing much in the way of real news happens in summer. But the cable news networks run 24/7 anyway. So they’ll run with pretty much whatever you give them.
Every summer, especially in an election year, this kind of stuff is what we spend our time talking about. Just once, you’d think a $150-kajillion-a-year consultant could think ahead and get some Republican scandals on the air.
I’m not suggesting we sink to their level and make stuff up. But why isn’t this The Summer of John Ensign, for example?
Rick,
The way the Democratic political consultant’s act, I really think they’re Republican wolves in Democratic sheep’s clothing. And if they’re not, they should be. Either they give shitty advice, or the Democrats don’t listen to them. Do you ever watch ANY of them on any of the gasbag TV shows? I want to throw a brick through my TV. So, my guess is, the former.
Republicans know how to use radio and TV to move their message.
I don’t think the Democrats yet know how to move theirs via telegraph.
. . – – dumb dumb.
Power and control happy “conservatives†are so eager to feed meat to their wingnut sycophants they don’t bother to consider if it’s rotten. “If Alinsky, Soros and Clinton do it then so can we†they say. Of course, they don’t even bother to consider if even that rational is rotten.
So much for the argument that smaller government is deserved by these “moral†people. They want to privatize checks and balances, prove it, don’t mindlessly bark it.
It seems to me I remember during the bush decade the republicans changing the laws so they could have control of the tv and the radio. Maybe this is the result.
Nobody but us remembers that ACORN turned out to’ve been framed, too, so… sigh.
I do find it telling that the victims of Breitbart and his pasty young minions, e.g. James Whozit O’Daddysboy, are always African American. Something the teevee talking heads seem to have missed.
FOX and the MSM owned by corporations are right-wing propaganda machines. It does not serve the White House to constantly be throwing right-wing victims under the bus. Rachel Maddow is an example of how a thinking person can use the computer and the media to expose propaganda. Yes, the changes in the rules from the FCC helped plus the commitment to “freedom of speech” when it benefits multi-national corporations or the Tea Party. The Dems need to reregulate the media, use it better or run up a white flag.
Keep diging Brietbart.
It probably is hope beyond hope that this whole sad scenario would be a teaching moment – that political ads, pundit babble, in-depth news analyses, and ‘breaking’ news are seldom means to find out the truth about any issue or person or event.
A high tech lynching? What I find disturbing is the speed at which she was forced out of her job. Not even a hearing or an attempt to sort out the truth. I think it’s commendable that Shirley Sherrod could examine her own heart in retrospect and speak publicly of the human frailties she found therein. She did all she could do to help that white farmer..it was her personal conflict with injustice expressed through the vehicle of skin color that Brietbart decided was racism. Racism only becomes racism when it’s put into action…like Brietbart did.
It is amazing to me to watch the cable newsers spin this fucking story right out of control. This whole thing is a continuance of race baiting that FAUX news and other wing-nut establishment media outlets have been pulling ever since the colored fellow got elected. But I must admit I am astonished at how an obvious racist (with a track record of pulling this before) is able to get a women fired and the entire media puts 100% of the blame on the Obama administration. It is the media who is to blame, they are the ones who fucking love this race baiting shit, they are the ones who have created the teabaggers a party where no party exists, they are the ones who constantly give the Glen BecKKKs and Rush’s of the world free PR by reporting on their every word. And then when one of the media’s own distorts a story and purposely edits video tape they fucking blame the administration. Un-fucking-believable. They are the ones who demand immediate responses for every fucking perceived injustice real or imaginary, the administration was foolish to give the media what it wanted, but I certainly don’t put all the blame on them, this is the environment they are forced to operate in.
As for Breitbart claiming that the farmer and his wife who spoke up on Sherrod’s behalf are “plants,†I find that amusing coming from a mental vegetable.
Actually, I apologize to mental vegetable all over the world, he’s a notch below compost. And two below maggots.
There’s a common thread to other current events – if liberals are willing to learn.
At the beginning or the BP blowout, Obama believed what MMS and BP were telling him – that it’s under control – let the expers shut down the well with the least interference. According to something I read yesterday in WSJ – the administration is now TELLING BP what to do and not trusting them one iota. Why? They turned out to be a bunch of lying scumbags.
Now we have this incident – and guess what. THe media AND the administration – you guessed it – BELIEVED what they were told. Guys, there’s a trend here and you have to get wise soon. If it comes from a multinational oil company, a bank, GOP Senator or FOX news – don’t TRUST. It might be partly true – or completely true – the law of averages has to kick in sometime – but check it out thoroughly. Put out the memo – make sure everybody gets the word. CHECK IT OUT!
Breitbart is on the ropes! Big time. It seems his racism has bite him in the ass. And I think he’s done… I’ll bet Fox will drop him like a hot potato..nothing worse than a sloppy racist who can’t keep his racism subtle.
“I’ll bet Fox will drop him like a hot potato..nothing worse than a sloppy racist who can’t keep his racism subtle”
I’ll take that bet, I predict FAUX will give him his own show, this is what their “viewers” demand, look at BecKKK his show is one of the highest “rated” on the network, his racism is quite obvious and sloppy most of the time.
uncledad …We’ll see. I know Fox is racist, but it’s always been a dog whistle kind of racism. Only those racists or those who understand racist code talking who are in tune can hear it or see it. Breitbart blew his racist cover and exposed Fox to an undeniable charge of fostering racism. And the only way they can refutiate it is to throw Breitbart overboard. Just my guess!
“but it’s always been a dog whistle kind of racism”
Well maybe before Obama became a serious candidate, but they have been pretty out front about the bigotry, beginning with Rev. Wright, Acorn, Van Jones, New Black Panthers (did I miss a couple, something out of order), up to this latest example. The thing that I find fascinating is that all they really do is fabricate situations where scary black folk look just as racist as themselves, they don’t ever really deny the fact that they are racist. That seems sufficient for their consumers, easy way to hate without compromising your hatred.
That’s exactly it. They are trying to justify their own racism. They feel that if they can demonstrate they are victims of racism also, they are exonerated. It’s like a permission slip to hate without feeling guilty about it.
I have a nickname for this fellow who creates so much trouble–“not-so-breitbart.”
The apologies are not good enough in my opinion. Sure offering her the job back saves them face but I would not work for such spineless idiots because they will do it again. They suck at their jobs. Plain and simple. They aren’t good bosses and they have no idea what management responsibility is all about. They aren’t even respectable colleagues.
Sure they can offer her the job back, but they still blow and have no business being in their positions. They can not handle it.
Foolish and cruel is how the white house reacted, but evil is what brietbart has done.
Breitbart is now claiming the farmer and his wife who spoke up on Sherrod’s behalf are “plants.â€
Volunteer corn?
(Too Midwestern?)
What I find most telling is how fast Vilsack fired Sherrod.
It seems that Obama has issued standing orders to instantly obey orders of the far-right, no matter how obviously false.
Obama’s moderate-right Administration is clearly terrified of being identified with any thing even remotely ‘liberal’, and has been ingratiating themselves to the far-right since inauguration.