| I try to avoid getting caught up in echo-chamber news cycle "controversies" - and when Andrew Breibart's video of USDA worker Shirley Sherrod making "racist" remarks - comments on how she discriminated against a white farmer - first surfaced, I ignored it, considering it the usual Breitbartian manufactured crap.
And then Sherrod was forced to resign from her job by Ag Secretary, Tom Vilsak.
Frankly, it wasn't surprising to learn that Breitbart's video clip was snipped from a longer speech in which Sherrod was actually making the exact opposite point that Breitbart and conservatives were accusing her of. In the full speech, Sherrod ends up helping the white farmer and was forced to confront and overcome her own racism, allowing her to "'realize that I needed to work to help poor people' regardless of whether they were black, white, or Hispanic."
The revelation of the full context of the speech made the NAACP, which initially condemned Sherrod's remarks, to admit they were "snookered" by Breitbart.
In fact, the gulf between Breitbart's accusation and reality was so large that even some conservative bloggers noticed it. Jonah Goldberg: "I think she should get her job back. I think she's owed apologies from pretty much everyone, including my friend Andrew Breitbart." (Goldberg goes on to claim Breitbart didn't edit the clip, and wouldn't have run it if he had known the full context. Of course, that didn't stop Breitbart from airing his infamous ACORN videos. Breitbart is a partisan hack of the worst magnitude, a lying sack of sh*t, and could use a boot in his *ss. Of course, we always overlook the faults of our friends, don't we?)
The real story isn't Breitbart making sh*t up. That's old news. Nine times out of ten, when you see some "breaking" scandal from a conservative blog, it's crap. (Like the recent Journolist "conspiracies.") It's not rocket science. Krugman:
I mean, there's a history here: ACORN, Climategate, Vince Foster, Whitewater, and much much more. (Someone recently reminded me that the GOP held two weeks of hearing on the Clinton Christmas card list.) When the right-wing noise machine starts promoting another alleged scandal, you shouldn't suspect that it's fake - you should presume that it's fake, until further evidence becomes available.
The real story is the craven reaction to Breitbart's clip. The DC crowd caved. Even if Sherrod is offered her job back, it won't change the initial cringing.
Digby, as always, nails it:
They are telling wingnuts everywhere that all they have to do is gin up a phony controversy (especially about a black person, apparently) and the administration will fire them so as not to shake confidence that they are "fair service providers."
This is sheer cowardice.
Backbone has always been an issue of contention between the netroots and DC insiders as long as I can remember. Personally, I've often argued that if you shout your progressive values - and fought for them, even amidst conservative chest-thumping - you will be surprised at the results. People will like you. And the Obama presidential campaign was the triumph of that claim. The president ran on an open, progressive platform centered around healthcare reform, climate change legislation, fair taxes, and an end to the war in Iraq and Bush's unconstitutional anti-terror policies, and he won. Handily.
In some ways, I blame the quick transfer of power from the GOP to Democrats between 2006 and 2010. Too many Democratic veterans - journalists, staffers and politicians - are left over from the 1990s and beyond, and have the all-too familiar habits from that era. If anything, this should underscore that our movement is still young; we need to work to put good candidates in office whenever possible, and change the temper of debate and policy-making in Washington. |
