L'Affaire Sherrod

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Kaiser goes right after them: "A completely discredited right-wing blogger posts an edited video which seems to convict a black Agriculture Department official of racism. Fox News runs the distorted clip continuously on all of its shows Monday. Before giving Shirley Sherrod a chance to tell her side of the story, the Agriculture Department demands and receives the resignation of the head of its rural development office in Georgia."

Secretary of Agriculture Thomas J. Vilsack met with members of the Congressional Black Caucus to discuss the forced resignation of Shirley Sherrod, 07/21/10. (photo: Getty Images)

Comments

+14 # Guest 2010-07-22 20:14

The Secretary of Agriculture obviously has no vills in his sack. Does ANYone in the White House. Folks, now's the time to show 'em if you've got 'em.

As for the National Association for the Capitulation to Fox Network, what a falling off there has been since the days when the NAACP had a spine. If the organization can fall any lower than this, I don't want to know about it. President Jealous of the NAACP ought to be jealous, or at least envious......of anyone with the guts to stand up to liars, racists, and slanderers.

+15 # Guest 2010-07-22 21:02

Mr. Kaiser is right on, and Rachel Maddow is the best reporter on TV, and the best educated.
What nobody has mentioned though is WHY Mrs. Sharrod was smeared? I will bet big money it was done to TRAP THE WHITE HOUSE, anger black voters,and thereby depress the black vote in November and in 2012.
The right wing is hard at work to take over by ANY means. Their goal is to win in November and to smear and ruin President Obama, in ways as dirty as possible.
We must fight back. TURN OFF Fox, Beck, Breitback and Limbaugh. Do not help them spread their hate messages.

+2 # Guest 2010-07-23 11:24

You are absolutely right - er, probably I should say "correct", "right" being a bit pejorative. Ms Maddow is the best!

+7 # Guest 2010-07-23 00:31

This story is an especially poor reflection on a White House/President Obama that did little if anything to defend ACORN or Sherrod yet fell all over itself to immediately defend Skip Gates. While I support the President on many other things, I believe he has acted 'stupidly.'

+10 # Guest 2010-07-23 00:35

and that is why intelligent folks love her! FOX news needs an enema, soon. Wash out the crap and stop calling it news.

+9 # Guest 2010-07-23 04:10

TURN OFF Fox, Beck, Breitback and Limbaugh
Fox News seems to represent nothing more than a negative "Pit of Slim" and NOW Quebecor Canada a media conglomerate is attempting to incorporate this "Pit of Slim" into the lives of the people of Canada..IT IS ALL ABOUT the bottom line "A CREED OF GREED" that has infected the N.A. Medias and has no place in a world that is on the brink of catastrophic repercussions brought on by Corporate entitlements given by the (Republican packed) U.S. Supreme Court over the years

+11 # Guest 2010-07-23 04:39

Is ouro duly elected President considering changes in his own staff? Somebody has got to start thinking smart - and keeping him from the kinds of gaffes that the Repug (Karl Rove) thugs keep setting up for him to fall into. He needs to be the President - not the Repugs' punching bag. (Maybe Maddow shoud replace Emanuel.

+5 # Guest 2010-07-23 08:08

Shirley Sherrod should be offered Cheryl Cook's job. After all, it was CC who made several calls to SS's cell pressuring SS to resign before the (doctored) clip aired on Glenn Beck.

+8 # Guest 2010-07-23 04:44

But as you well know, Charlie, being that Rachel Maddow is liberal -- and therefore "biased" in the eyes of the "Mainstrem Media" -- her words are to be ignored. By contrast Conservatives ( or more to the point in Breibart's cas fascists) are never to be ignored. Their every word and deed must be regarded with utmost seriousness. The situation is so bad that the offhand snark of a Conservative writer , Dave Weigel, comically dissing other Conservatives, cost him his job at your brother's paper.

+5 # Guest 2010-07-23 07:06

You are right on the mark. Obama's administration suffers from a mentality that is desperate to please the other, in this case, it's own own foe in the name of resigned friendship. Rachel and Keith are constantly ignored by this administration, because they are not the enemy of this administration, so they can be conveniently ignored. But Limbaugh, Beck, Breitbart, O'Reilly are too precious to be ignored. The Obama administration, led by Emmanuel, the worst among the lot, is a closet Republican and friend of the other, can only see its reflection in the mirror held by its arch enemies.

+4 # Guest 2010-07-23 09:55

What about Hannity! He's much worse than O'Reilly!!! He never lets up on Rev. Wright & Obama's close connection to him, and is still ranting about it just last week. He spews hatred every night, and if the liberal guest says anything he disagrees with, he just interrupts him & we hear nothing but Hannity's negative comments. He refused to show Ed Schultz' video of the vile racist signs of the teaparty members because he knows they are racist.

+7 # Guest 2010-07-23 04:53

Will this disgraceful episode and it's humiliating exposure result in any changes at Fox? Don't bet the farm on it. As long as the evil Roger Ailes, Nixon's sleaze artist, runs Fox, expect them to continue to smear good people and to lie about it when caught.

+6 # Guest 2010-07-23 05:09

Breitbart claims (perhaps falsely but perhaps honestly) that he was never provided the full video but simply aired what his "source" had provided him. He refuses to release the name of his source (who appears to have set him up if Breitbart is speaking honestly) so the implication (at least to me) is that Breitbart is not telling the truth. If he were set up by his source, he shouls have no compunctions about revealing his source's name.

It should be noted that a portion of that video that was aired on FOX did imply that Sherrod had overcome her initial racism to discover that the real divide was not between black and white people but between haves and have-nots. O'Reilly nonetheless initially was hard on her and called for her resignation (which had already been tendered by the time his show aired) but, when the full story came out the next day, O'Reilly abjectly apologized, matching Vilsack for tone.

Lee Nason
New Bedford, Massachusetts

+12 # Guest 2010-07-23 05:14

They have Fox News. We have Rachel Maddow. We win.

+5 # Guest 2010-07-23 06:04

If the white house falls again for one of these red herrings coming of the right wing, I will cheer when Obama loses. he will no longer deserve any support from anyone sane.

The MSM knows well that Breitbart's word is never as good as the average used car salesman's assurance that the rust bucket he is selling you is really worth ten times as much as you are paying.

Believing anything that comes out Faux News is like betting you will win the powerball before you retire totally broke.

+7 # Guest 2010-07-23 07:58

Peacedragon said: "They have Fox News. We have Rachel Maddow. We win."

Even better, we have Rachel Maddow AND Keith Olbermann. We win BIG.

+11 # Guest 2010-07-23 08:01

I hope this story about faux news gets the publicity it deserves. Maybe some people will begin to get that message.
I am also disappointed in the White House for reacting to this without checking anything. Fox should never be given any credibility especially if it is denouncing people.
The White House failed here, in the ACORN case, in the Van Jones case--probably others we may not know about. Why? None of these people are going to like anything Obama does.
More backbone, Obama!

+5 # Guest 2010-07-23 08:41

I watched this story all the way through from the beginning, and from a journalist's point of view, I must add something that may not be sufficiently emphasized in your coverage.

The first and most important public check on the Breitbart outrage came from CNN, which had effective, nonstop coverage beginning with an extended Rick Sanchez Show (http://ricksanchez.blogs.cnn.com/).

Not to take anything away from my MSNBC favorites, CNN should get some major kudos for handling this story.

+2 # Guest 2010-07-23 13:55

As so often happens,the right-wing media is acting to reinforce white folks' fear that if people of color get power, they will want to do to "us" what we have done to "them". The scary thing is that so many supposedly intelligent people fall for this nonsense.

+2 # Guest 2010-07-23 14:08

The real problem is that the Obama administration thinks it has to respond quickly to put out fires before they turn into full-fledged conflagrations. This means that they screw up. In this case it was Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, and he should be reprimanded for not doing his job. I hate to say it but it is the incompetent white guys (Geithner, Emanuel, and Vilscak) who get this administration in trouble. Now the right-wing can call me racist.

+1 # Guest 2010-07-23 17:20

If we ever needed more serious evidence of the "dumbing of America" this situation would serve it plenty. At a time when nothing in our "adventures" overseas is working out, when the Administration keeps playing directly into the hands of Big Oil (still), when Americans are stupid enough to believe the Republicans (again) and seriously think about a Sarah Palin ticket, Obama et al do something like this. This is dumbass p.c.ism run amok, and no one has the balls to call it like it is.

0 # Guest 2010-07-25 14:50

Goebbels is rising from his grave.

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