In a White House press conference on Wednesday, Robert Gibbs was slammed with questions regarding the firing of Shirley Sherrod, Georgia Director of Rural Development at the USDA, after a video of her was released by conservative blogger, Andrew Breitbart, which surfaced on Fox News.
The 3 minute video clip made it sound like Sherrod had discriminated against a white farmer over two decades ago, but her speech in its entirety revealed that she telling a story of an epiphany about poor people of all colors and her own personal growth as a result.
Gibbs said no one at the White House directed her to be fired. He said a lot of people made determinations and judgments without considering all the information available.
Gibbs was asked if the president felt she was owed an apology and he responded:
"I would do that on behalf of this administration," Gibbs said at the daily White House press conference. "A disservice was done. An apology was owed. That's what we've done. Decisions were made based on an incomplete set of facts. Members of this administration, members of the media, members of different political factions ... have all made determinations and judgments without a full set of facts."
Gibbs also said the White House asked Secretary Vilsack to review the situation and he agreed to do so. Gibbs told the media members that it was Vilsack's intention to contact Ms. Sherrod and apologize to her.
Shirley was watching the press conference from the stage of CNN and she was asked how she felt about the apology from the White House.
"It made me feel better," Shirley responded.
Rep. Anthony Weiner, (D-NY) was asked by CNN's Rick Sanchez how Breitbart's video could have caused so much trouble so fast.
"There is a right-winged echo chamber in this town," Weiner responded. "Fox News treated this issue like a major news event, not just a matter of commentary of opinion and they were wrong. They should learn from this and apologize."
Secretary Vilsack held a news conference late in the day on Wednesday and he discussed his conversation with Shirley Sherrod. He took full responsibility for the decision to fire her, due to the hypersensitivity of zero tolerance on racism, because the USDA has "tens of thousands of claims against it." Vilsack said he made the commitment to "close the chapter" on such a high degree of racism claims and he over-reacted to the edited video released by Breitbart and promoted by Fox News.
Tom Vilsack said he accepted responsibility for the pain and discomfort that he caused a "good woman" to go through over the past few days. Vilsack said he offered her the opportunity to express her emotions over her treatment, but she was "extraordinarily gracious." He acknowledged her long history of helping people in trouble and identified a unique opportunity for Ms. Sherrod to rejoin the USDA in a different capacity. She asked for a few days to think about his offer and he agreed.
Andrew Breitbart has been asked by CNN to give his side of the story, but he has not responded and has stayed underground quietly watching the fall out from his edited video that was released to Fox.com and picked up the same day by several Fox News commentators. None of whom, have apologized to Ms. Sherrod or recanted their story.
However, it would appear that Breitbart, a Tea Party activist, who promotes conservative agendas on his blog, biggovernment.com, had the intention of proving reverse racism by releasing a 3 minute video taken out of context and it back-fired on him. His credibility has been hurt even with conservatives.
Shep Smith was one of the few Fox News commentators that didn't report the story on Shirley Sherrod, because he didn't trust the source. Turns out he had good reason.
After a day of discourse among media commentators about what lessons were learned by this unfortunate incident, it's most likely that Ms. Sherrod, who has finally been vindicated and regained some sense of honor, would agree with the old expression:
A lie can travel half way around the world before truth can get its boots on.
***Jean Williams 2010
Comments
You know what... I think that Andrew Breitbart may not be a nice person. He may even be a poor journalist.
Just a hunch.
I actually saw an interview with Brietbart today early on, on MSNBC. I was only barely awake but he was blaming everyone else but himself for the whole fiasco. The stunt he has pulled proves he himself is a racist at heart, just searching for material that would show some reverse racism proves that. And of course he isn't a journalist. Nobody at Fox infotainment network is. That is why they don't check sources and they can produce any lie they want to and present it as news. The FCC should ban them from calling themselves a news channel. Let's call it what it is: a right wing propaganda media outlet. Over at Fox, they like to use the term "liberal media" or even mainstream media. There is no liberal media. And they make mainstream media (media that tries to be unbiased) sound like it's a bad thing. This is outrageous.
This incident reveals the importance of those who blog or are involved in citizen journalism in any way to behave responsibly. Breitbart has besmirched us all with his racist agenda. For professional journalists to behave so irresponsibly as FOX News did in this case is inexcusable.
We have BO once again jumping to ignorant conclusions. Just like with the white cop and Gates, he jumps to conclusions without knowing any facts. Then like the hypocrite that he is, he says he has zero tolerance for race issues ... that is of course unless they are Black Panthers intimidating whites at the polling booths with clubs. Even after they win the case, he and his racist man Holden force the DOJ to drop all charges.
Lets face it ... the most racist people we have today are running this country. BO and the Black Panther crime. BO and the white cop. Appoints a brown racist that is wiser then ANY white male. 20 years in an anti-white and anti-America hate church, that even Oprah said after two days she couldn't go back to his racist church. This man is an ignorant racist. And he seems to be appointing no one but his own ilk.
"Gibbs said no one at the White House directed her to be fired."
Of course not. She is BLACK. Just as in the Black Panther voter intimidation case, the Obama DOJ does not prosecute black on white crime. And its a good thing because Barry would become a defendant immediately.
Michael O and White minority. The whole Black Panther wanna-be thing was a total non-event. This hand full of losers tried to intimidate a few people. It happens every day. There are bullies out there of all colors. Even the real Black Panthers did not want to be associated with them. Fox News did what they always do...exaggrerate and blow everything out of proportion. People who depend of Fox "News" for their information are just loading their head with ignorance and lies. Bravo...
Jerry Utterbach says in reference to Balcak Panther voter intimidation: "It happens every day."
Trying to pass this off as a common occurance of bullying is not only patently false but wildly misleading. Two things make this profoundly important:
1. It occured at a polling place - which you CANNOT honestly say "happens every day."
2. The men were dressed in quasi-military uniforms, weilding weapons and making racially derogatory and threatening comments to white voters.
If two white men in survivalist garb wielding batons and making racial comments at BLACK voters on the grounds of a polling place you and your little "social justice" minions would be on them like dogs on a bone and you damn well know it.
You say the "real" Black Panthers wanted nothing to do with these two men. But where were you to stand up for the Tea Party when they were falsely accused of harboring racists?
crickets chirping.....
Hypocrite!
Hey Jean: I noticed you deleted my comment, even though it followed the rules of Examiner.com, focused entirely on the topic at hand and did not include any personal attacks; unless of course one considers holding writers of publicly available opinion accountable for their blatant bias and hypocrisy an attack.
Maybe you want only those who tell you how right you are to comment here. Maybe you expect that some magic power should protect your blatant hypocrisy and wildly skewed Leftist propaganda from the light of reason and factual analysis.
Maybe you think that contrasting opinions should be silenced. But then of course that would justify others in wanting your lies silenced as well.
You see; the intellectual violence you employ to delete my appropriate comments merely reveals the actual violence you justify in the process. Where does it stop, gulags and gas chambers? That worked for Stalin and Hitler.
In the end ALL Leftists are the same. Killers.
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