In the great pitch battle between the NAACP and the Tea Party movement over politically motivated charges of racism, USDA Georgia Director of Rural Development Shirley Sherrod got caught in the crossfire.
After viewing the full video of Sherrrod’s remark it becomes clear that her story wasn’t one of black vs. white, but rather a shift in attitude from black vs. white to rich vs. poor. Ms. Sherrod also makes clear that this story happened before the USDA employed her. Ms. Sherrod goes on to state that she became good friends with the white farmer in the end and the white farmer’s family confirms Ms. Sherrod’s claims.
Before the full video was made available, Ms. Sherrod was asked to resign her position from the USDA. In a CNN interview, Ms. Sherrod says the request for her resignation came from the White House and that she was disappointed that the NAACP did not bother to hear her out.
With regard to the initial media coverage of the resignation of USDA Official Shirley Sherrod, we have come to the conclusion we were snookered by Fox News and Tea Party Activist Andrew Breitbart into believing she had harmed white farmers because of racial bias.
Having reviewed the full tape, spoken to Ms. Sherrod, and most importantly heard the testimony of the white farmers mentioned in this story, we now believe the organization that edited the documents did so with the intention of deceiving millions of Americans.
This is complete nonsense. The NAACP was in possession of the full video before anyone else yet they did not bother to view it before condemning Sherrod. They only people who snookered the NAACP was the NAACP themselves when they decided that covering their own ass was far more important than defending Sherrod.
Regarding the administration, their actions were completely political. In typical Obama administration fashion their goal was to take a hot subject off the front burner any way they can. So Shirley Sherrod was tossed under the bus just like Rev. Wright, Van Jones and Yosi Sargent. The administration’s claims that it had no input into the request for Sherrod’s resignation and that the decision came from Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack alone. This is baloney. The Sherrod story was top news and whatever decision was made about her was going to reflect on the administration one way or another. Are we to believe that the White House did not care about the outcome?
Regarding Andrew Breitbart, his goal was to launch a broadside at the NAACP. Mission accomplished, they made fools of themselves and pulled the administration along with them. Where Breitbart can be faulted is for using the edited clips without knowing what the full story was about. In doing so, he has left himself open to criticism from the left and has caused most of the focus to go to Ms. Sherrod rather than the NAACP.
Each and every day, both the Democratic Party and the NAACP put themselves out there as great defenders and champions of the black community. Yet when a black person needed some defending, neither this Democratic administration or the NAACP defended her. Instead their first instincts were to defend themselves by throwing Sherrod under the bus. So in the end, the very people Ms, Sherrod is still putting her faith in are the very ones who betrayed her.
Via: The Washington PostVia: Media Matters
