As a recap, on Monday, Andrew Breitbart, conservative commentator, posted this video of comments Shirley Sherrod made to the NAACP at an event a few months ago. Media outlets (coughFoxNewscough) pick up on it, Bill O'Reilly calls for her to resign, the USDA (her employer) forces her to resign that day via her Blackberry in her car. The NAACP piles on her, she's basically marked as a racist, and that's that.
...Until the full video surfaces, and...my goodness, she's taken out of context! Everyone goes in a tizzy; the White House apologizes for condemning her, and so does the NAACP. Fox News commentators state she should have her job back, and the USDA offers her just that (which she hasn't accepted as of this date). Panic ensues, and fingers point everywhere...I mean, how could this happen??? There's no racism in America, right???
(How does racism happen in 2010 America?
I thought it ended when we gave that Obama guy the election!)
What more is there to say about this that hasn't been said? I'll give my thoughts, just because I know you care:
1) Breitbart needs to fact check (as he said that he got the tape edited already), or he's a race baiter...considering he caused controversy by showing an edited video of people from ACORN, the community action group, giving advice to prostitutes. Although that video was heavily falsified, ACORN could never recover. As a result, I'm leaning toward the latter. This guy is a bigger problem than those Fox Commentators and Rush Limbaugh. They use him for material, making them pawns in the grand scheme of things (big pawns, but still pawns indeed). He's made more of an impact on the Obama Administration as a result. As much as it's B.S., it's smart on his behalf.
(...I don't think he likes my kind.)
2) Obviously, everyone and their grandmothers overreacted. With that being said, let's take a look at the Obama Administration. Well, Maureen Dowd did, and made a great point about how the majority White administration rushed too soon in condemning Sherrod. It seems like they're too concerned with Obama pushing anything for the advancement of Blacks that would come off as racist, to where certain matters like this one are completely botched.
3) When certain chapters of your organization complain about matters like greeting cards, or get enough exposure over time, there's going to be a backlash. Even with the edited video, the reactions of certain NAACP members made this "good" for Breitbart to "use," considering the recent resolution passed by the NAACP condemning racist elements within the Tea Party (which may be most likely is true). That recent exposure made this and unfair, but logical, revenge move.
4) Whether left for right, our mainstream media can easily facilitate this kind of misinformation. with our attention going every which way now in this Information Age, the old guard need something to garner ratings. What a perfect firestorm they picked up!
I'm too lazy to think of anything else. Besides...this story is overkill.
Race-Baiting video editing: A Tea Partying reason why...America is Racist!
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