Breitbart . Dishonest Right Wing Hack.

So, Andrew Breitbart, incensed that racism has been condemned in the Tea Party movement, releases a highly edited video which appears to show that Shirley Sherrod did not do all that she could do to help white farmers.

The end result was that Sherrod was forced to resign.

Now the NAACP have admitted that they were "snookered" by Fox News and Breitbart, and that the video did not properly represent the views of Shirley Sherrod.

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.

The fact is Ms. Sherrod did help the white farmers mentioned in her speech. They personally credit her with helping to save their family farm.

Moreover, this incident and the lesson it prompted occurred more that 20 years before she went to work for USDA.

Finally, she was sharing this account as part of a story of transformation and redemption. In the full video, Ms.Sherrod says she realized that the dislocation of farmers is about “haves and have nots.” "It’s not just about black people, it’s about poor people," says Sherrod in the speech. “We have to get to the point where race exists but it doesn’t matter.”

This is a teachable moment, for activists and for journalists.

I don't know how anyone could fail to view any video released by Breitbart with anything but the highest suspicion. Let's be frank. This is not an honourable man we are dealing with here. This is the man behind the Acorn videos, so he has a track record as a duplicitous little toad. So why was anything released by him treated as if it was not highly suspicious?

Joshua Green:

But what's galling to me--gut-wrenching, really, like watching old news footage of blacks being beaten and clubbed at lunch counters--is that Breitbart obviously understood the powerful effect his tape would have, posted it anyway, and then assumed the role of ringmaster, expertly conducting the media circus, fanning the flames. It's hardly the first time. But the moral ugliness of what's just happened is glaring, and it's hard for me to see how the media can justify continuing to treat Breitbart as simply a roguish provocateur. He's something much darker.

Indeed, he is. Nor is he in any way apologetic for what he has done.

"I think the video speaks for itself," he said. "The way she's talking about white people ... is conveying a present tense racism in my opinion. But racism is in the eye of the beholder."

He also takes issue with how the audience, many of them members of the NAACP, respond positively to her comments -- proof, he says, of prevalent racism.

For Breitbart, it's all a case of the pot calling the kettle black (no pun intended). Last week, the NAACP passed a resolution asking the Tea Party movement to repudiate racism in its ranks. According to Breitbart and other conservatives, that's the same as labeling the tea party racist -- an accusation he's railed against for months. He claims that reports of racism at a tea party protest in the final days of the health care debate, for example, are completely fabricated.

The moment that the NAACP passed a resolution talking of racism amongst the Tea Party movement, it was inevitable that someone like Breitbart would set out to prove that there was racism in the NAACP.

It is truly galling that the NAACP fell for his trick before thoroughly examining the "evidence" he was presenting to them.

Andrew Breitbart is a dishonest right wing hack. That has already been proven. How many times does he and Fox News have to "snooker" people before they realise that Breitbart and Fox have a highly politicized agenda?

UPDATE:



Breitbart seeks to defend himself on CNN, and comes across as a border line nutcase. He accuses CNN of putting a woman on-screen "purporting to be the farmer's wife". Is he seriously arguing that the woman they screened was an imposter?

“If it is the case and it can be shown to me that the incident that she’s talking about was done many years ago and not in her current context — but as a reporter, you tell me how you confirmed that the incident that she’s talking about was 24 years ago. You tell me as a reporter how CNN put on a person today who purported to be the farmer’s wife. What did you do to find out whether or not that was the actual farmer’s wife? I mean there has– if you’re going to accuse me of a falsehood, tell me where you’ve confirmed that this incident happened 24 years ago?”

Breitbart also takes no responsibility for Sherrod being fired, despite the fact that the video he posted on his blog, which ignited this entire episode, was highly edited.

UPDATE II:



Even Glenn Beck has come to the conclusion that "this woman deserves her job back."

Tags: Andrew Breitbart, NAACP, Tea Party protests