Shirley Sherrod and the smear campaign of Right Wing "News"

[Eilonnwy]

Shirley Sherrod worked for the Depertment of Agriculture and was giving a speech on overcoming racism. She told a story about the first time she dealt with a white farmer and said she did not give her the full force of her help. Andrew Breitbart got a hold of the speech and posted a clip from the speech on his blog. Fox news took this story and ran. Media outrage surfaces and the woman is forced to resign from the White House and the NAACP denounces her.

From Breitbart's blog post:

Context is everything.

In this piece you will see video evidence of racism coming from a federal appointee and NAACP award recipient and in another clip from the same event a perfect rationalization for why the Tea Party needs to exist.

He's right, context is everything and if you watch the FULL speech, Sherrod was actually talking about overcoming racism and how her experience with the white farmer taught her a lesson about race. She said she realized it wasn't about white or black, it was about the poor. And it wasn't, as we're led to believe, a white farmer she worked with at her government job, it was from 24 years ago when she was working for a non-profit. Her father had been murdered due to racism, so this was her story about how she finally overcame that past to help both poor whites and blacks equally, and she actually saved that white farmer from bankruptcy.

On a positive note, the Spooners, the white family Sherrod was talking about in her speech, are speaking out in defense of Sherrod

The NAACP has apologized, and posted the entire speech on their website. Now after all the facts are revealed, Sherrod has received a very public apology and was offered a new job. She has yet to accept it, saying she needs time to think it over.

Now that it's revealed that Sherrod is actually a very gracious woman and was speaking about an experience that helped her overcome racism, the right wing media, including Breitbart, is blaming the liberals for acting so rashly. Breitbart gave a non-apology saying he was sorry the media made it about her, and it was really about the NAACP. The best analogy I heard about it was "It's like an arsonist saying their sorry for the water damage the fire caused". He won't admit he smeared this women using cut up video clips, he won't apologize, and is changing his story to that it was about the crowd cheering in the video at racist remarks, yet if you watch it, they weren't. And the original post was not about that.

This incident reveals are very disturbing part of the media, how right wing media ignites an issue with distorted or completely wrong facts, the liberals react, and then find out later nothing was what it seemed.

Keith Olbermann discussed the issue in a special comment. Meanwhile, Rachel Maddow highlights the common political tactic of making the minority the racists people, of making them seem like the bad guys. She also highlighted the recent ACORN controversy which was removed of federal funding from hidden camera tapes that didn't show the whole story. One man was fired for allegedly discussing ways to bring in illegal 13-year-old prostitutes into the country, despite the fact that he was getting information from them and reported it to the police immediately after. I suggest also watching this video, because despite Maddow's liberal bias, she is big on facts and gets it right.

So what are your thoughts on this incident and the tendency of right wing media to distort facts to fit their bias, resulting in quick, bad, and thoughtless action on the part of the left without getting the full details?

Edit: Brilliant take down by Maddow of Fox News. She shows how they push the story with all their might, demanding Sherrod resign, and then the next day saying "What was the hurry?"