“I feel bad that they made this about her, and I feel sorry that they made this about her…. Watching how they’ve misconstrued, how the media has misconstrued the intention behind this, I do feel a sympathy for her plight.”
This is what Andrew Breitbart had to say of Shirley Sherrod’s firing once she had been exonerated. Yes, Andrew Breitbart – the man who initially published the race-baiting, heavily edited, out-of-context clip of Sherrod – feels bad for her. The same man who framed Sherrod as a racist within Obama’s administration under the headline, “Video Proof: The NAACP Awards Racism–2010”, thinks “the media” has misconstrued the event. This heartfelt apology comes from the man who questioned the legitimacy of the farmer’s wife who came to Sherrod’s defense.
Given Breitbart’s history of smear tactics and journalism as warfare, it comes as no surprise that he’s quick to remove the burden from his shoulders and place it on those of “the media”. I don’t expect him to ever lose sleep over this affair or feel a shred of remorse.
But he’s not totally wrong that the media, as well as the White House, is in part to blame for this reflexive firing by the USDA. From the firing of Van Jones to the defunding and disbanding of ACORN, the media and the White House have been enabling this kind of behavior by continually acquiescing to pressure from the right ever since Obama took office.
Hopefully, these parties are capable of introspection, unlike Andrew Breitbart. Maybe they’ll see the error of their ways and not accep talking points from Fox News at face value. Maybe we won’t have to listen to warnings of death panels opposite legitimate defenses of health care reform, as though these viewpoints had equal weight. Maybe we won’t have to be warned of the impending doom posed by deficit spending from a senator who thinks “you should never have to offset [tax cuts]”. Maybe members of the non Fox News press will start doing their job and forget about maintaining their reputations as unbiased centrists.
A Shirley Sherrod Teaching Moment for the Non-Sociopathic Members of the Press
“I feel bad that they made this about her, and I feel sorry that they made this about her…. Watching how they’ve misconstrued, how the media has misconstrued the intention behind this, I do feel a sympathy for her plight.”
This is what Andrew Breitbart had to say of Shirley Sherrod’s firing once she had been exonerated. Yes, Andrew Breitbart – the man who initially published the race-baiting, heavily edited, out-of-context clip of Sherrod – feels bad for her. The same man who framed Sherrod as a racist within Obama’s administration under the headline, “Video Proof: The NAACP Awards Racism–2010”, thinks “the media” has misconstrued the event. This heartfelt apology comes from the man who questioned the legitimacy of the farmer’s wife who came to Sherrod’s defense.
Given Breitbart’s history of smear tactics and journalism as warfare, it comes as no surprise that he’s quick to remove the burden from his shoulders and place it on those of “the media”. I don’t expect him to ever lose sleep over this affair or feel a shred of remorse.
But he’s not totally wrong that the media, as well as the White House, is in part to blame for this reflexive firing by the USDA. From the firing of Van Jones to the defunding and disbanding of ACORN, the media and the White House have been enabling this kind of behavior by continually acquiescing to pressure from the right ever since Obama took office.
Hopefully, these parties are capable of introspection, unlike Andrew Breitbart. Maybe they’ll see the error of their ways and not accep talking points from Fox News at face value. Maybe we won’t have to listen to warnings of death panels opposite legitimate defenses of health care reform, as though these viewpoints had equal weight. Maybe we won’t have to be warned of the impending doom posed by deficit spending from a senator who thinks “you should never have to offset [tax cuts]”. Maybe members of the non Fox News press will start doing their job and forget about maintaining their reputations as unbiased centrists.
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