Yesterday, Andrew Breitbart released heavily-edited video of a speech that Shirley Sherrod, then-USDA Georgia Director of Rural Development gave at the NAACP Freedom Fund dinner in Georgia this year. Breitbart writes that in the video, "this federally appointed executive bureaucrat lays out in stark detail, that her federal duties are managed through the prism of race and class distinctions." But Breitbart's suggestion that Sherrod was describing actions that she recently took as an Obama administration official is clearly false. In an interview with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Sherrod said that her comments had been taken out of context, and that the story she had described took place decades ago, when she worked for the Federation of Southern Cooperative/Land Assistance Fund: 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." The facts corroborate Sherrod's statements about when the story she described took place. In the video, Sherrod describes her work helping a "white farmer save his farm." Sherrod says in the video that she took the farmer to a lawyer who "had attended some of the training that we had provided, because Chapter 12 bankruptcy had just been enacted for the family farm." Chapter 12 bankruptcy was enacted in 1986. In a June 2009 press release touting Sherrod's appointment to USDA, the Federation/LAF states that Sherrod had worked for them "Since 1985." Breitbart has still yet to release the full video of Sherrod's speech. In a CNN interview today, the wife of the farmer called Sherrod a "friend" and praised her for having "helped us save our farm." http://mediamatters.org/blog/201007200030
Does this sound like the ACORN story? Sherrod was speaking to a Georgia chapter of the NAACP. In the speech, according to Breitbart's characterization, Sherrod is explaining how she refused to help a white farmer as much as she could have because she preferred to help black people. Breitbart: 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. The speech wasn't to an all-black audience (though the specter of black people revealing their contempt for whitey in closed-door meetings of fellow black people seems to drive a lot of conservatives into a paranoid frenzy), as the mayor of Douglas, Ga., was among the white attendees. And the story Sherrod told was about her work 24 years ago for the Federation of Southern Cooperatives/Land Assistance Fund, not "her federal duties." So, that's a lie. Andrew Breitbart is lying in this paragraph. Just for the record. Andrew Breitbart lies. If the White House or the USDA had bothered to actually look for facts, they might have discovered that Sherrod had ultimately befriended that white farmer she talked about, and helped the family save their farm. The story Sherrod told was one of redemption, not prejudice. But Breitbart twisted it around into a story that never existed and the White House/USDA took the bait. As the President so often says, "You're entitled to your opinions, but not your own facts." It might have been good for the folks in the White House to actually think about that before reacting to a lying liar scum like Andrew Breitbart. http://crooksandliars.com/karoli/white-house-you-were-punked-andrew-breitbar
As expected, the left was/is spin, spin, spinning. All day yesterday afternoon and evening they were falling all over themselves trying to explain this. As usual they miss the point. The point ain't Breitbart. The point is why did the Obama Administration and the NAACP throw this woman under the bus so qiuckly? Well, let's take a look at the last few days. The NAACP and the left in general has been all up in arms about some supposed racism coming from a Tea Party member writing a letter. They take out their broad brush and do their best to paint the entire Tea Party as racist. Then this little story comes out and in an effort to demonstrate how completely intolerant they are of racism, they throw the woman to the dogs without doing the least bit of research into the story. Another knee jerk reaction from the left, no surprise. A little fact checking after the fact, and now they've got egg all over their faces. The story is, the point is, how quiclky the left is ready to label someone a racist, facts be damned. Ok, you can go back to your spin cycle now.
Beck is now a leftist <iframe src="http://videos.mediaite.com/embed/player/?layout=&playlist_cid=&media_type=video&content=XV00KR1TCB1BFWP3&widget_type_cid=svp" width="420" height="421" frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" allowtransparency="true"></iframe>
Perhaps Shirley Sherrod is too conservative for the white house or not black enough for the NAACP & New Black Pantie Party. Now we get to not only roll with laughter at the act of throwing her under the bus , now we get to laugh at the poor schmuck they are going to also throw under the bus to pretend "the nappy headed ONE" had nothing to do with it. Quick! who wants to be the next rat to (volunteer) jump the obama ship?
Without distortion, the Right has next to nothing. There can be no meaningful discourse with people imbued with the belief that the end always justifies the means. By their very nature, they are disingenuous because their means are as malleable as their ideology is steadfast. It is impossible to reach an equitable solution with someone whose only objective is to defeat you.
"White farmer" Spooner: Sherrod smearers "don't know what they're talking about," Sherrod did "her level best" to help <object width='320' height='260'><param name='movie' value='http://cloudfront.mediamatters.org/static/flash/player.swf'></param><param name='flashvars' value='config=http://mediamatters.org/embed/cfg2?id=201007200058'></param><param name='allowscriptaccess' value='always'></param><param name='allownetworking' value='all'></param><embed src='http://cloudfront.mediamatters.org/static/flash/player.swf' type='application/x-shockwave-flash' flashvars='config=http://mediamatters.org/embed/cfg2?id=201007200058' allowscriptaccess='always' allowfullscreen='true' width='320' height='260'></embed></object>
No, Beck waited for the facts so that her words could be evaluated in the proper context. Had the radical left done that, they would not be looking so foolish today. But waiting just isn't in the genetic make up of the radical left. Knee jerk, jump to conclusions is what they're all about. It's why their so good at spinning. When you get caught with your hand in the cookie jar so often, you get really good at making excuses and fabricating wild explanations.
And just who are the Sherrod smearers? Seems that the Obama administration and the NAACP fit that profile seeing how it is they who threw her under the bus.