Untangling Sherrod: When Was The USDA Told?
[Guest post by Lee Stranahan]
You know the story – Shirley Sherrod, the USDA and the White House were all blindsided on Monday, July 19th 2010 when Andrew Breitbart released two excerpts of a speech Sherrod had given to the NAACP months before. That same day, the USDA ordered her to resign at the behest of the White House. The USDA later regretted this rash decision, apologized to Mrs. Sherrod and offered her a new job at UDA.
That’s the basic story you’ve heard every time about what happened to Mrs. Sherrod, right? Video is released 7/19/10 and the USDA / White House make a snap decision to fire her.
But that’s not what happened.
Here’s what really happened. Shirley Sherrod knew about the video excerpt on Thursday, July 14th — five days before Breitbart published it on BigGovernment. She immediately let the USDA know about the video. And she also thought she knew where to get the entire video, five days before the clips went public.
That’s what Shirley Sherrod told an audience in August, 2010. The speech was posted by the NAACP but has only gotten a total of 46 views in eight months.
In order to avoid the ‘heavily edited’ meme, here’s the entire speech as posted. Sherrod discusses when she found out about the video about 9 minutes in.
This means the USDA didn’t make a snap judgment under sudden pressure. They were informed by Mrs. Sherrod herself but didn’t respond. What did the USDA do? Who knew at the USDA? Did they notify the White House and if so, when?
These are questions the press never asked because they didn’t even get the basic facts correct of when Mrs. Sherrod actually learned about the video. Nearly every single reporter who talked to Mrs. Sherrod failed out of the starting gate to get even the simplest information correct. This set the stage for the Sherrod coverage to come.
– Lee Stranahan
I wouldn’t be so quick to reach that conclusion. The people at USDA/White House who made the decision to fire her weren’t necessarily aware of the rest of the story, they may have indeed made a snap judgment. Or, they might have been aware of what she had said, but hadn’t paid any attention to it, so it may not have been as you imply.
I realize you’re determined to beat this with a stick, but why bother? What do you think you’re going to accomplish?
steve (369bc6) — 5/17/2011 @ 5:54 amIt was on a US Agriculture news site, two weeks before Breitbart revealed it.
narciso (72470d) — 5/17/2011 @ 5:58 amWhy bother, Lee? The steves’s of the world don’t give a rip about the truth, nor does the MFM. Why beat it with a stick when it just proves your racisms?
JD (306f5d) — 5/17/2011 @ 6:02 amWhy bother?
steve – Most people I know like to avoid embarrassing their bosses. It’s not good for job security.
In this case steve, would you say that Sherrod made the right move when she became aware the video might get aired or the wrong move by informing her bosses or would you have told her why bother?
daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 5/17/2011 @ 6:49 amThe press will never ever ask questions about racists remarks made by a protected class.
MikeL (a87604) — 5/17/2011 @ 6:55 amFacts? I am not familiar with that term.
Charles Gibson (7b4374) — 5/17/2011 @ 9:07 amSherrod is a douschebag.
DohBiden (15aa57) — 5/17/2011 @ 9:16 amSherrod was a designated sacrificial lamb for the Obama 2012 campaign. The Obama team is engaged in a full-time search for topics to inflame the independent and left leaning voters (and press) in the run-up to November 2012. Nothing better than the ol’ “The right lied using what they claimed was irrefutable proof of something (a video) and we were forced to act. Only later was the truth about the deceiving Conservative lie machine revealed. We immediately tried to make amends to Ms Sherrod, but the Conservatives’ damage was too extensive to make right…”
In other words:
– Don’t believe the Conservatives under any circumstances, even when they show you someone saying something in a video – it is a lie
– We were trying to protect the USDA and the Nation (and all the little children) from a racist, but we found out that the only racists are Conservatives who are liars
Revealing that the Obama administration had all the facts before the release of the video just wouldn’t be helpful to The Won.
in_awe (44fed5) — 5/17/2011 @ 9:27 amSo what happens when something bad happens to Sherrod will it be the right’s fault?
DohBiden (15aa57) — 5/17/2011 @ 9:30 amLee
Thanks for the research and real journalism.
Having at least your two eyes on some of our tax dollars gone astray makes me feel a little less queasy
Steve
SteveG (cc5dc9) — 5/17/2011 @ 2:20 pmThis means the USDA didn’t make a snap judgment under sudden pressure. They were informed by Mrs. Sherrod herself but didn’t respond. What did the USDA do? Who knew at the USDA? Did they notify the White House and if so, when?
These are questions the press never asked because they didn’t even get the basic facts correct of when Mrs. Sherrod actually learned about the video. Nearly every single reporter who talked to Mrs. Sherrod failed out of the starting gate to get even the simplest information correct. This set the stage for the Sherrod coverage to come.
Wow. Just…wow.
I wonder how much the radioactive nature of anything involving possible racism in this country was a factor in keeping these reporters from doing their jobs.
no one you know (325a59) — 5/17/2011 @ 3:04 pm