Thursday, July 22, 2010

Shirley Sherrod caught in the crossfire

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.


Between the administration and the NAACP, the NAACP’s actions are most egregious. The NAACP’s initial reaction was to condemn Sherrod without hearing her side of the story. Once the full story got out, the NAACP claimed that they were snookered by Fox News and Andrew Breitbart.
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?

Again, in order to remove the hot glare of attention from the Sherrod incident, the administration did a 180 just like the NAACP and is offering Sherrod her job back.

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.

That being said, the left and Ms. Sherrod herself seem to think that all this is the fault of Breitbart and Fox News. Nope. Neither Breitbart nor Fox News fired Ms. Sherrod. It was the administration that chose to do that.

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: CNN
Via: NAACP
Via: The Washington Post
Via: Media Matters

7 comments:

Just a conservative girl said...

According to the timeline, Fox didn't even discuss the tape until 8pm. So how exactly did they snooker anyone? I had the tape up before then. According to her they were saying Beck would be discussing it, which he did not until the next day.

I feel bad for the woman, but she needs to look at the situation as it really is; she was disposable to further another agenda. But, I guess in politics most of us are.

Chris said...

How is those that have vs those that have not any difference then black vs white? One is classism and the other is racism. If I was prejudice against the poor shame on me and still shame on her for that. The fact is she will get rich off of this and yet she still could have gotten fired over her left wing political speech as a government employee.

billd said...

coherent and decent perspective, thanks

to jacg: a welcome added, salient point... also -
the left's useful idiots and even wannabes don't understand the cynical, callous, often brutal nature of their ideology; leftism depends on "obedience enforcement"; ie, fealty to the leadership is the ultimate law of that jungle (the elites/leadership own the keys to the rules of "correct thinking") ; witness the great purges of all the leftist "utopian" attempts - they will eat their own without hesitation, mercy, conscious... no exceptions

Angie Lee said...

She apparently didn't learn that lesson very well she felt God was trying to impart upon her, by falling back on the typical cries of RAAAAACISM.

Anonymous said...

And on a related note, Ben Jealous claims the New Black Panther Party is a creation of FOX News, "just 20 folks". http://ht.ly/2fkXz

Gorges Smythe said...

You have to remember, you can't expect the the First Muslim and his flunkies to watch the whole video when they didn't even know what is in their own legislation!

Dean said...

Great summary.

I think the left believes that they are putting the heat on Breitbart. He seems like one stubborn and focused man, I don't think he will be phased and he'll come out with something else against the NAACP.

Sherrod should probably start thinking about getting out of the spot light before she and her husband are arrested for fraud against the government with that Pigford settlement.

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