Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
And it was not just the administration that dropped the ball, it as also the NAACP who failed to support this woman and allowed the jackals from Big Government.com and Fox News to rip her apart, so that they could further their agenda of "proving" that Obama officials were engaging in racism.
President Obama has shown that he has a backbone when it comes to calling out Republican for their obstructionism why isn't he willing to call out Fox news on their lies and obfuscations?
How truly sad for Shirley Sherrod. To think that the White House bought Fox Propaganda hook, line and sinker is just pathetic. Rachel is right - when is Obama going to STOP TRUSTING anything; A-N-Y-T-H-I-N-G, that the Faux BS Clowns utter since every one of them is another dumb Scarah Paylin talkin' shit - words they make up and don't have a definition for, and stories they put out that have the most important portions completely and deliberately left out????
ReplyDeleteMy comment encompasses all of these types of stories. The welling up of hatred is becoming more and more pronounced every day. Some days bring several stories.
ReplyDeleteSometimes, the subjects are of major significance: mosques (religious freedom), racism, or the hurling of insults over things like the handling of the Gulf oil debacle.
Some days, smaller things, such as David Letterman jokes, imaginary slights of no consequence, or the mangling of the English language.
Common thread? SARAH PALIN
No one reading this blog needs to be reminded of what a major threat Sarah Palin is to our form of government envisioned and set forth by our Founding Fathers. Yes, "All of them".
Heartbreaking. What has happened to our country? Fox can lie and the world believes them? Where is the journalism of the past? I cannot condone the action of accepting the resignation so fast but I can see that the administration would understand that just to fight these things fox brings up would take months and detract from the work of government.
ReplyDeleteSarah does the same in reverse. She puts up tidbits to detract everyone from her incompetence and lies. Every time she is close to being found out something like Bristal's marriage pop up, or a fence is built to cover the windows of a "pedifile" peeper and the media follow the more interesting and less difficult to follow story.
What a major screw up! The knee jerk reaction is ridiculous. Some heads should roll over how this was mishandled. David Gergen's comments sum it all up: "This has ripped away the veil and shown us all that is wrong with politics today," he began. "An ideologue injects poison into the internet, other people rush to judgment on camera, and an administration gets stampeded and commits this travesty of justice. The NAACP has at least had the courage to come back and say 'we were wrong' and apologize. Now the administration needs to to the same thing. The president -- tonight -- ought to order the Agriculture Department to reopen this case, give this woman a fair hearing, and -- if the facts are as they seem -- reinstate her with an apology. Indeed, I think she deserves a whole lot more than an apology. I think she deserves honor for her attempts to bring people together."
ReplyDeleteGryphen,
ReplyDeleteWalk in a black man's or woman's shoes for just two hours of your life, and you'll have all the insight you need.
The issue isn't Obama; it's the culture of racism and cynicism that permeates discourse these days. I'd love to see more thoughtful pieces about a culture that spawns Fox News, Glen Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, and Sarah Palin. What is happening in homes and communities throughout America wherein vengeful, debilitating hatred has become the norm?
Just who is going for the sensationalism here?
ReplyDelete"Why isn't he (Obama) willing to call out Fox news on their lies and obfuscations?"
In fact, "he" did. I saw a few references when reading through various sources on the story this morning, and this is but one I found:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=113803593
How do some people make the leap from Sherrod being fired by a USDA official, condemned by the NAACP, and Obama being directly responsible? In my view, it is Obama's job to directly "call out Republicans for their obstructionism" but it is not his job to monitor and comment on journalism -- it is journalists who are responsible for keeping tabs on each other, as Maddow does with facts and intelligent insight.
The Blame Game has gotten way out of hand on both "sides." I despise the snark and spin that seems to surround so many issues. It is MY responsibility to sort what I believe. Journalists and bloggers and everyday people can "call out" Fox and others, and tell their friends and neighbors and elected representatives, and stay informed. Government officials and employees can do the same. Please stop asking "Obama" to make everything right and blaming "the administration" when things go wrong. When it stops being "us" and "them" it just might become "we."
One lesson here is that we all need to be aware, and beware of our own knee-jerk reactions.
I am furious that both the NAACP and Vilsack bought this Fox Propaganda travesty. Shirley Sherrod was hijacked by Breitbart (of trashing Acorn by selective video editing, too).
ReplyDeleteI hope she sues both Breitbart and Fox for defamation and wins big.
On NBC this morning, she said she wasn't sure how she'd be treated if she went back to her old job, after this whole affair.
It pisses me off that the bigger story here is not being reported. Fox news should be sued for slander and the FCC should investigate. How many times is Fox going to get away with this before someone says enough.
ReplyDeleteThis looks bad, but I've got to wonder if there is more to the story. As a one-time employer I wonder if Sherrod's superiors already wanted to get rid of her for some reason unknown to us and this served as a good excuse. While she looks heroic and wonderful to us, it's possible that she had already rubbed someone the wrong way in the agency. It's hard to fire a federal employee, especially a long time one. There could be more to this than we're seeing.
ReplyDeletebeing without t.v. i am not up to the minute on any of this, but it sure seems like a plethora of knee-jerk reactions from everyone, and that to me is interesting. we are an instant gratification society, so Gryphen, in this case, I think you are being hard on Mr. Obama. He is under enormous pressure to react/not react to all that happens, every minute of every day; and he is doing a GREAT job of not falling into every trap set by both sides. The issue isn't Obama, it's Brightbarf's offensive act of racial and anti-human treachery. Let's hammer that, and let Mr. Obama handle the important stuff.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Anonymous @4:43, it isn't POTUS who should be calling out FOX. Any reference he ever makes towards the media creates a major backlash and detracts from the issues he continually deals with. MSM needs to *police* their own.
ReplyDeleteA poster at Mudflats provided the following link and offers that this is Mrs. Sherrod's husband. The article doesn't directly state that, but whether he is or not, he is a mighty special person and has made a great impact in the civil rights movement.
http://www.blackpast.org/?q=aah/sherrod-charles-1937
I wouldn't blame Mrs. Sherrod if she refused to go back to her position if it was offered to her. IMHO, I think she should be offered something bigger and better. She now has the visibility (to say nothing of her education and experience) to hold a better position and hopefully make a difference.
Fox "News" at most should have their FCC license revoked - and at least have to remove "News" from their title.
ReplyDeleteI agree that Mrs. Sherrod should sue Andrew Breitbart as several chapters of the now-defunct ACORN are currently doing.
I've been an Obama supporter since about the end of Sep 08. I originally supported McCain until he lost his mind (ie picked Palin). For awhile I considered not voting, but then decided I would jump on the Obama train. Why not?
ReplyDeleteSince the election, I've understood the massive problems he's faced and I cut him some slack. He may be smart enough to face the real problems like the economy, healthcare, financial reform, and immigration, but he doesn't have enough of a mean streak to stare down those mangy yard dogs on the Right whose life it is to stir the pot of bullshit.
Ironically enough, while Palin would be a massive fail in trying to deal with the actual major problems we face, she would most excellently rip those BigGovt/Fox assholes a new one, but pronto. This is schoolyard politics we are seeing and she's one of the best at it.
Alan Grayson for POTUS. He has smarts AND balls.
Barack has to fire vilsak and rehire Sherrod. Or I'm done with him.
ReplyDeleteThey're all jerks!
ReplyDeleteSherrod should sue Breitbart and Fox News for slander. Congress should force both Breitbart and Fox News to testify on how they do their fact-chcking and then revoke their licenses to operate. President Obama should give Sherrod her job back with a personal apology.
The problem is that the legal system in our country has already said that it is ok for Faux news to lie,they do not have to report the truth. It will take some law suits suing them to change that.Ms Sherrod should sue them for something,defamation of character maybe? Acorn employees as well as management should sue them en-mass .More court rulings are needed to reverse the original. If you think about it,Faux news has added to the unemployment figures by all of the Acorn employees,and all of the employees lost at businesses supported by them,like local coffee shop owners,etc.
ReplyDeleteFunny that none of the media seem to have noticed that the reason Sherrod got the job in the first place was a condition of her winning a multi-million dollar settlement from .... USDA.
ReplyDeleteNo wonder Vilsack wanted to get rid of her - first, USDA had to pay $13 million, then give her a cushy job, then she mouth of so bad she is condemned by the NAACP - who had the full tapes.
Now Sherrod says she may not take her job back if it is offered. No big surprise, she's going to file another big lawsuit against USDA, this one for wrongful termination.
While this is going on, USDA wants to pay out another $1.5 billion to black farmers who were supposedly discriminated against and can't find enough Democrats to support funding this...
Grrrr! I hope the ACLU...someone...helps Shirley Sherrod sue the pants off Breitbart and Fox.
ReplyDeleteYou probably already know by now that the White House has called for a review of the firing. They need to go farther and stop the nonsense that is Fox. Perhaps the federal government can sue since she was a govt employee.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/22/us/politics/22sherrod.html
I believe in its efforts to be evenhanded in its approach to perceived racism, the federal government and the White House bent too far over backward. They should have realized that FOX has an agenda to sow the seeds of racial division and make Obama look bad. For that very reason, there should have been a thorough investigation in which Ms. Sherrod would have been permitted to give her side of the issue. The truth would have been discovered in time to keep from firing this woman for an offense she did not commit.
ReplyDeleteFOX plays into the grievances of some whites by using issues like this to stir up resentment and anger. The guy on FOX edited the video, so that its meaning was completely lost. What Ms. Sherrod demonstrated was that her own bias against whites--formed by bad experiences like her father's murder by the KKK--affected her initial response to this white farmer who came to her for help.
She did give him a little help at first, but later found that it hadn't been enough. So, then she went all out to save his farm, and he was grateful for the rest of his life. She learned from the experience that it was about class and not race. She was honest enough to admit her initial bias, but then move beyond it. For the rest of his life, they remained friends.
There are people like Breitbart who cannot conceive that people can overcome biases that hold them back, and who thrive on fomenting racial hatred. I have encountered people like that on the internet who accuse others of the very racism they are plainly guilty of themselves. They have made sweeping generalizations about whites, while accusing me of racism when I don't generalize about any race. I have a large extended family that includes almost all races, including whites.
That fact alone has helped me to give thought to anything I say about race.
In any case, the very least they can do is offer her an apology and reinstate her. FOX also represented this incident as if it had happened recently, instead of 1986. But in their case, this is par for the course. Obama should not give credence to anything FOX says, especially without research.
They hate him and want to see him fail.
I hope Shirley Sherrod cleans the clo of that creep Breitbart and Fox News.
ReplyDeleteShame on the flinchlings (those who do without thinking) in the Obama administration. She was given a bums rush and not allowed to even defend herself.
The story she tells on that video is inspiring.
Shame on Fox, Breitbart, NAACP and Obama administration flinchlings.
I knew a long time ago that Obama has no balls. Now Alan Grayson, on the other hand, will punch back. I hope Grayson runs for president. He's smart, strong, and diplomatic.
ReplyDelete