Patterico's Pontifications

7/24/2010

James Rainey: Breitbart Was Irresponsible for Doing What I Do All the Time

Filed under: Dog Trainer,General — Patterico @ 10:56 am

The L.A. Times‘s James Rainey predictably seizes on the Sherrod story today, in a futile attempt to rehabilitate his reputation after his mishandling of the ACORN story last year.

If I told you that Rainey’s attempt at column is highly dishonest, would you be surprised?

Rainey first deceptively suggests that Ann Coulter has labeled Breitbart a fraudster:

But certain media outlets have played the story and the political ramifications for the Obama administration (and there are questions to be answered) as if they sprang out of the ether. There’s a continuing rush to talk about effect, and very little desire to talk about cause — the steaming pile of misinformation delivered on a platter by one individual with a giant ax to grind.

Andrew Breitbart, the conservative agitator behind websites like Breitbart.com and BigGovernment.com, likes it this way. Stirring the pot, gobbling up chunks of cable television time, doing whatever it takes to further his political beliefs, even if it means putting one woman’s reputation through a meat grinder.

The severely edited video posted on Breitbart’s BigGovernment.com shows Sherrod, who is black, telling an NAACP gathering in March that she had once scrimped on assistance to a white man in danger of losing his farm. Not included in the video posting was the bulk of Sherrod’s talk, in which she recognized the error of her ways a quarter of a century ago and helped the white man, saving his farm. As a result, the farm advocate and the white family formed a lasting friendship.

Breitbart headlined the video as “proof” that “the NAACP awards racism,” when in fact it showed one woman trying to teach a lesson about the shortcomings of racial discrimination.

Conservatives including David Frum and Ann Coulter have acknowledged that the video Breitbart posted is a fraud. But Frum, a former speechwriter in the Bush White House, wrote that he has seen this act too many times to expect Breitbart to apologize for “distributing a doctored tape to defame and destroy someone.”

Reading that passage, any reader would naturally conclude that Coulter has said Breitbart knowingly posted a deceptively altered video. But it turns out Coulter said nothing of the sort. Instead, she has proclaimed Breitbart innocent of fraudulent intent, opining that Breitbart was set up:

The whole key to this story is that Andrew Breitbart was set up. He was sent a tape that, as we now know, was massively out of context. It did look like this woman was saying something racist. When she first said it was taken out of context . . . we’ve heard that before from politicians telling racist jokes. This is the first time in world history it was literally taken out of context.

It was a lovely speech. Of course the White House reacted that way — of course you reacted the way you did. Anyone would have. I think Breitbart ought to reveal his source, because he was set up. This was a fraud. The person who sent the edited tape has to know what the full speech said, and whomever sent only that segment to Andrew Breitbart is the one who should apologize to Shirley Sherrod.

Rainey’s passage is of course technically accurate, but he damn well knows that it is calculated to cause the average reader to conclude that even Ann Coulter thinks Breitbart committed fraud. This dishonest implication is itself a form of fraud by Rainey.

Rainey naturally ties this back to his highly embarrassing missteps regarding ACORN:

Indeed, anyone who has watched television in recent days has seen an unrepentant Breitbart insisting he did nothing wrong. His previous encounters with controversy reveal a similar pattern — make no concessions, savage critics, change the subject and keep attacking. Don’t bet he’s finished with Shirley Sherrod.

I saw this up close last year when I wrote about the “sting” that a couple of young videographers performed on the liberal activist group ACORN. Breitbart posted and touted the videos as proof of liberal evil. He became enraged when I urged him to release the unedited tapes so the public could see everything that happened between ACORN workers and videographers James O’Keefe and Hannah Giles.

Actually, Mr. Rainey, Breitbart took exception to your pattern of journalistic shoddiness and deception. Since you evidently believe that people have forgotten the details, allow me to revisit them.

Regular readers will recall how Rainey uncritically quoted an ACORN worker who suggested that she had ordered Hannah Giles and James O’Keefe out of her office. Rainey (who today lambasts Breitbart for failng to contact Sherrod) hadn’t bothered to contact Breitbart — or Giles or O’Keefe — to ask their side of the story. If Rainey had bothered to do his job, he might have learned that the ACORN worker in question turned out to be only too eager to help Giles and O’Keefe with their purported child prostitution ring.

Above: James Rainey

Rainey then wrote an ass-covering column that minimized his error — and which included a purported quote from O’Keefe. After I investigated the source of the quote, it turned out to be largely fabricated.

Now that’s good journalism!

With this series of embarrassments as background, it’s little wonder that Rainey would seize upon the Sherrod episode as a way to suggest that Breitbart was the villain all along — and Rainey simply the truth-teller battling the wild-eyed partisan.

The fact that Rainey routinely slams his enemies without contacting them for comment (he also did it to Jill Stewart) lends a rich layer of irony to this complaint about Breitbart:

[D]idn’t this self-styled truth-teller have an obligation to get the full speech or a response from Sherrod? He apparently did none of those things.

When Breitbart fails to contact someone for a response, that’s unforgivable sloppiness, according to Rainey. But when Rainey fails to contact Giles, or O’Keefe, or Breitbart, or Jill Stewart, that’s tip-top Big Newspaper Journalism.

I have noticed many people savaging Breitbart for posting an edited video. In my view, Breitbart is not at fault for posting the video, which he says is all he had — but rather a) for overselling it and ignoring concerns about missing context, and b) for failing to contact Sherrod. These journalistic sins are hardly unknown to James Rainey, and as Rainey goes about wildly casting stones at Breitbart, he should remember that his glass house is looking mighty shaky and can’t take too many more blows.

Comments (151)

151 Responses to “James Rainey: Breitbart Was Irresponsible for Doing What I Do All the Time”

The REAL money quote is ignored by everyone.

I was struggling with the fact that so many black people have lost their farmland, and here I was faced with having to help a white person save their land. So, I didn’t give him the full force of what I could do. I did enough so that when he — I — I assumed the Department of Agriculture had sent him to me, either that or the — or the Georgia Department of Agriculture. And he needed to go back and report that I did try to help him.

She was ONLY worried about him being a plant so, she helped a little. Otherwise, she would have kicked him out? Why would she be SO worried about undercover people checking on her?
Jeff S. (b15751) — 7/24/2010 @ 11:03 am
“… in my view Breitbart wasn’t at fault…”

Big surprise there. Sheesh.
Chris Hooten (3a05e5) — 7/24/2010 @ 11:05 am
Note: The above would also explain why she thought he was acting superior to her. Now, with all her cash settlement money, ironically she IS one of the haves vs. the have-nots.
Jeff S. (b15751) — 7/24/2010 @ 11:07 am
He didn’t seem to contact the ACORN people, either.
Chris Hooten (3a05e5) — 7/24/2010 @ 11:08 am
I don’t believe Breitbart thought it necessary to contact Sherrod because she wasn’t the point of posting the video, the NAACP was.

He also probably didn’t contact her as he saw on the video that she mostly redeems her racist attitudes late in her speech. WHICH WAS INCLUDED ON THE CLIP BREITBART POSTED!

That’s the story the MSM has seized upon; that Breitbart edited the clip blah, blah, blah. Like they don’t do that 24/7 on even the most insignificant of events. (plus if you were going to edit a video to make someone look bad, would you include the section where they take it back sort of?)
jakee308 (e1996a) — 7/24/2010 @ 11:09 am
I don’t think he should have posted this video at all. He didn’t do any background checking at all, or any of the normal things journalists used to do to verify “scoops.” I think it was his fault for posting the video out of context, not knowing what he was doing. And now he knows it too. There is no excuse. Have at it, but don’t expect a response from em, so try to make it about the issue at hand.
Chris Hooten (3a05e5) — 7/24/2010 @ 11:12 am
I love how Rainey uses “conservative David Frum” to bolster his side. Why not go the full nine yards and use “conservatives” Andrew Sullivan, David Gergen, and Little Green Footballs’s Charles Johnson to make it case closed? I wonder if someone will incite Rainey to push Breitbart through a plate glass window? Oh, hell. Just call Breitbart (and Fred Barnes … who cares?) a racist. It’s easier, even though it leaves violent fantasies unfulfilled.
LukeHandCool (fa3b23) — 7/24/2010 @ 11:12 am
em? whoops, “me”
Chris Hooten (3a05e5) — 7/24/2010 @ 11:13 am
Chris Hooten deceptively says:

“… in my view Breitbart wasn’t at fault…”

Big surprise there. Sheesh.

Did I say Breitbart wasn’t at fault for anything, Chris Hooten? Or did you deceptively edit my statement to suggest that?

You have learned misleading techniques well from your hero Brad Friedman.
Patterico (c218bd) — 7/24/2010 @ 11:16 am
You want to see misleading editing? All show you misleading editing. Mr. Rainey, you never commented on this. (Oh yeah, because it was MSNBC that did it.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCal06jq4Xg
LukeHandCool (fa3b23) — 7/24/2010 @ 11:20 am
Chris Hooten must write those deceptively edited blurbs for stinker movies.
Brother Bradley J. Fikes, C.O.R. (fb9e90) — 7/24/2010 @ 11:21 am
Andy Breitbart is the Audie Murphy of conservative journalism today. He derailed the media “Tea Parties are Racist” show that they were rolling out, based on deliberate and pernicious lies.

It’s unfortunate that some hand wringers are claiming that the sound of his gun is frightening small children and ought to be silenced. It wasn’t Breitbart that fired Sherrod. He made it clear he was demonstrating that there was racism at the NAACP and hit the bullseye on that one.

If anyone defamed anyone in this incident, it was Sherrod when she claimed Breitbart wanted to enslave black people again. What a whopping lie that one is — yet there is no outcry from the Frums and Dumbs calling her to task for it.
DaMav (6ab8ce) — 7/24/2010 @ 11:21 am
I should have extended the quote to include “for posting the video.” Sorry, that is what I meant.
Chris Hooten (3a05e5) — 7/24/2010 @ 11:23 am
Breitbart wasn’t set up he was malicious and dishonest. The lady mentions that Chapter 12 had just become an option that meant it was the 80s… which you suspected it was in the past cause she was using tenses and word choice that suggested as much. I knew this immediately and blogged it straightaway I did.

Breitbart’s intent was to make of this woman a hated national object of contempt… he tried to orchestrate an orgy of hate to be directed at the uppity black woman for having the temerity to speak as she did. To dis whitey like that can you believe the nerve of that woman? And he lied to try and do this. And he hasn’t had the grace to apologize.

He’s disgusting and he’s dishonest and he certainly exacerbated the extent to which bogus charges of racism directed at the Tea Party will stick. Which is sad cause the Tea Party has absolutely nothing to do with race and racisms.

Or it didn’t used to. This is not how respectable people behave and the Tea Party people should make it clear that this Breitbart loser doesn’t speak for them.
happyfeet (19c1da) — 7/24/2010 @ 11:26 am
if Breitbart got set up he needs to say who did it
happyfeet (19c1da) — 7/24/2010 @ 11:27 am
hooten thinks he should
get benefit of the doubt
irony is lost
ColonelHaiku (6d95fe) — 7/24/2010 @ 11:29 am
I love how Rainey uses “conservative David Frum” to bolster his side.

Frum’s ilk are what the left praises as respectable conservatives, the kind the left wishes there were more of. And no wonder. These watered-down conservatives are perpetually on the defensive, afraid of being associated with those icky racistsexisthomophobic teabaggers and Limbaugh fans. They’re ideological eunuchs.
Brother Bradley J. Fikes, C.O.R. (fb9e90) — 7/24/2010 @ 11:32 am
Chris Hooten, Happyfeet … take a look, look-takers … tell me Breitbart did anything resembling what MSNBC did.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCal06jq4Xg
LukeHandCool (fa3b23) — 7/24/2010 @ 11:33 am
Yes, Brother Bradley. And if I hear the phrase “conservative blogger Andrew Sullivan” one more time, I’ll scream.
LukeHandCool (fa3b23) — 7/24/2010 @ 11:38 am
well jeez… Breitbart screwed up – that’s uncontested… people are going to “seize on” that… that is also incontestable… Breitbart made his own bed he can lie in it I think.

But I will watch your video.
happyfeet (19c1da) — 7/24/2010 @ 11:40 am
hooten try best to
defend indefensible
and the beat goes on
ColonelHaiku (6d95fe) — 7/24/2010 @ 11:40 am
oh. Well see Mr. Cool the dirty socialists like the MSNBC are ate up with meanness and lies… before Breitbart’s stunt on their behalf the Tea Party could say yeah well we don’t roll like that.
happyfeet (19c1da) — 7/24/2010 @ 11:44 am
happyfeet BFF
with squirrel his new name is
david happyfrum
ColonelHaiku (6d95fe) — 7/24/2010 @ 11:45 am
not at all Mr. Haiku Colonel my upsetness has to do with the fact that the Tea Party Issues are super important while race and racism discussions are a silly cul de sac. There was just no clever strategic reason to mire the Tea Party further in a silly and senseless discussion of race while our little country trembles on a precipice overlooking an abyss of debt decline and despair.
happyfeet (19c1da) — 7/24/2010 @ 11:48 am
before Breitbart’s stunt on their behalf the Tea Party could say yeah well we don’t roll like that.

Well, I think you’d agree that comparing what Breitbart did with what MSNBC did is like comparing apples with giant mold-covered rotting oranges. I admit this is not Breitbart’s greatest moment, but if you read all the details, his intentions were hardly nefarious.
LukeHandCool (fa3b23) — 7/24/2010 @ 11:50 am
happy frum colonel
must ask when push come to shove
bass or castrato?
ColonelHaiku (6d95fe) — 7/24/2010 @ 11:52 am
And the tea party doesn’t roll like that. McClathey, AP, Reuters, etc., do when it comes to the N-word hurled at black congressmen 15 times fantasy tale. I wish Rainey would address that. Man oh man Rainey is (predictably) selective.
LukeHandCool (fa3b23) — 7/24/2010 @ 11:53 am
it’s just that it’s at all comparable is why I think we’re in a worser place now than before… and the clock is ticking ticking

That is all I have to say but that no I’m not willing to give Mr. B the benefit of the doubt with respect to benign intentions… even if true true true what would have happened to Shirley?

And for what? Silly political games. It’s silly political games what have already all but doomed doomed doomed our once-promising little country.

and that is all I have to say
happyfeet (19c1da) — 7/24/2010 @ 11:55 am
Breitbart wasn’t careful enough with the video. But it wasn’t forged. It was taken out of context. Breitbart’s fault was not being skeptical enough. Of course Breitbart’s leftist foes like James Rainey will use it to discredit him, while downplaying the bias of leftist reporters.

But that’s the way the world works. Breitbart knows he’s not going to get fair treatment from the James Raineys of the world, so he has to be purer than Caesar’s wife. He should have introduced the video with the caveat that it’s incomplete, and asked for someone to bring in the full video.

Was Breitbart set up? It would certainly not surprise me. The left has desperately tried to find a way to discredit him. A real video, taken out of context, would certainly help. Breitbart would presumably be most concerned about the video being a forgery. Once it had been authenticated, his guard would be down.

Breitbart should apologize for not being more careful, take his lumps, and be gracious about it. And then he can get on with the rest of his work, which has stood up against the toughest criticism the left has thrown against it.
Brother Bradley J. Fikes, C.O.R. (fb9e90) — 7/24/2010 @ 11:57 am
Hey folks, Rainey’s only writing what they told him to on Journolist. It’s not like he was thinking for himself.
Robert C. J. Parry (ebf4c1) — 7/24/2010 @ 12:25 pm
No, nothing was taken out of context.

If I say, “If you enjoy killing Jews, then Adolf Hitler was a great guy”, and you quote me as saying “Adolf Hitler was a great guy”, then you have taken me out of context.

That is NOT the case here.

I’m sorry, but people who are claiming Sherrod’s remarks have been taken out of context are simply wrong.

She engaged in racial discrimination and she made racist remarks…and no amount of twisting and spinning is going to change that, and context has nothing to do with it.
Dave Surls (3281d5) — 7/24/2010 @ 12:26 pm
Breitbart has exculpatory video evidence discrediting the black congressmen’s “N-word hurled 15 times” lie — the MSM can’t be bothered with him. Breitbart slips up once — the MSM can’t get enough of him.
LukeHandCool (fa3b23) — 7/24/2010 @ 12:36 pm
“The REAL money quote is ignored by everyone.”

Not by me. I knew damned well why she helped the guy, because her and her pals were shaking down the federal government for money, and if they totally blew the guy off because he was white, the gravy train comes to a halt, and the DOJ institutes a Title VI lawsuit and takes away everything they’ve stolen from the taxpayers over the years.

“And he needed to go back and report that I did try to help him.”–Shirl

Yup. That’s the truth all right. Shirl needed that to happen or her free ride on the taxpayer’s dime comes to an end. If he goes to the DOJ and complains they refused to serve him because he’s white, she’s pretty much SOOL.

Self-interest can be a powerful motivator.

People can go ahead and believe dear little Shirl is some sort of saint who searched her heart and realized that racism wasn’t the way, if they want to…but, I guarantee you that ain’t the case.
Dave Surls (3281d5) — 7/24/2010 @ 12:40 pm
happy frum says you
missing the large point dave surls
breitbart done her wrong
ColonelHaiku (6d95fe) — 7/24/2010 @ 1:03 pm
colonel say it not
too late happy frum just dont
fuel the goddamn train
ColonelHaiku (6d95fe) — 7/24/2010 @ 1:06 pm
Got to love it. Seems many are following the misdirection used by the left. Breitbart showed racist behavior at the NAACP meeting during Sharrod’s speech. They approved how she failed to provide the white farmer with all she could have done for him, remembering how black people had lost their property. The administration and NAACP sucessfully made this issue about Sharrod rather than the racism that tape shows. Ms Sharrod revealed the jist of her position on the edited version that Breitbart posted to exonerate her from charges of being a racist. It was not until the White House asked her to resign and the NAACP denounced her then had to backtrack because the whole video, which the NAACP had, showed what the last part of the Breitbart posting showed. Sharrod has not only revealed she is a racist, she holds marxist beliefs. Guess that is unusual in this administration. No wonder they want to give her a better job. She is a female Van Jones.
Zelsdorf Ragshaft III (b61dc4) — 7/24/2010 @ 1:08 pm
I continue to be astounded by the people who think this is about Ms. Sherrod. 99% fail to realize it’s about the NAACP and the reaction of the audience to Sherrod’s admitted racist attitudes. Her comments since her resignation show her to be unworthy of sainthood.
Tom Clements (0ac87e) — 7/24/2010 @ 1:09 pm
vanjones in a wig
racist chorus approve say
“that’s right”, you go girl
ColonelHaiku (6d95fe) — 7/24/2010 @ 1:15 pm
Breitbart’s intent was to make of this woman a hated national object of contempt…

He merely selected the wrong part of her speech. He should have focused on when she says that opposition to the recent healthcare legislation was full of hatred and racism. And that anger towards the current White House was a sign of (oh, there’s that word again) racism! Moreover, that such disdain never had been directed to Bush and the 8 years of his administration.

But Sherrod doesn’t just play (surprise, surprise!) the race card. She also says that it’s all about money and power, or a line dripping in class warfare that’s typical of leftists.

In light of all the limousine liberalism (and one does not have to be wealthy to be guilty of that) throughout the left, and the phenomenon of projection, the NAACP really should change the 4th letter of its acronym from “C” to “L.” Because such groups are as much about leftist ideology — and people of the left — as anything else.
Mark (411533) — 7/24/2010 @ 1:18 pm
whatever I don’t care anymore cause of it is a sunny springtimey day and the turtles are basking and I am going to go exploring

but I have musics for Mr. P I do not know where to put them where he will find them so I will put them here and here
happyfeet (19c1da) — 7/24/2010 @ 1:23 pm
Chris Hooten must write those deceptively edited blurbs for stinker movies.

You got to read the following and get a good laugh out of how absurdly disingenuous and transparent is the level of his two-faced, do-as-I-say-not-what-I-do liberal (if not ultra-liberal) bias.

The claim that the documents used [by Dan Rather and CBS News to cast aspersions on GW Bush’s military service] were frauds, because typewriters at the time didn’t have sub and superscript is inaccurate and flawed itself. Even if I was to believe this was some sort of intentional deception, which it clearly wasn’t, that would be one single story in a long career of both the show, and Rather himself. Comment by Chris Hooten — 7/24/2010 @ 12:00 am

^ The inner-workings of the left-leaning mind are a sight to behold. Any indications of common sense are frequently no where to be found.
Mark (411533) — 7/24/2010 @ 1:29 pm
“I don’t think…”
Comment by Chris Hooten — 7/24/2010 @ 11:12 am

There are constants in the universe, after all.
AD - RtR/OS! (9ca489) — 7/24/2010 @ 1:30 pm
have fun happy frum
enjoy exploring basking
turtles but be safe
ColonelHaiku (6d95fe) — 7/24/2010 @ 1:32 pm
happyfeet speak of
intent;

— Oh, sorry! I was gonna finish that haiku, but once the point has been made . . .
Icy Texan (b3e65b) — 7/24/2010 @ 1:32 pm
I love the haikus, btw…especially if I’m honored by being mentioned in one.
Dave Surls (3281d5) — 7/24/2010 @ 1:33 pm
The inner-workings of the left-leaning mind are a sight to behold. Any indications of common sense are frequently no where to be found.

indeed common sense
is not so common hooten
denied his ration
ColonelHaiku (6d95fe) — 7/24/2010 @ 1:36 pm
sun scorches desert
light loafered banded hooten
finds rock crawls under
ColonelHaiku (6d95fe) — 7/24/2010 @ 1:42 pm
ratiocination
evades classic hooten
chris happy like that
Alasdair (205079) — 7/24/2010 @ 1:53 pm
words too long for chris ?
I humbly apologise –
chris doing his best now
Alasdair (205079) — 7/24/2010 @ 1:56 pm
haiku construction ?
start with six happyfeet,
(harder punning surls)
Alasdair (205079) — 7/24/2010 @ 2:01 pm
haiku-onanon
to help to break addiction
who has URL ?
Alasdair (205079) — 7/24/2010 @ 2:04 pm
colonel try the cold
turky method but leave him
jones’n for haiku
ColonelHaiku (6d95fe) — 7/24/2010 @ 2:10 pm
There are too many commenters on this site, on both sides of the issue, who have failed to recognize that Ms. Sherrod is being used as the “matador’s cape” and that they are playing the role of the bull.

From the start, Brietbart was providing an example of the racist attitude of the NAACP audience by showing their responses to Ms. Sherrod’s remarks.

Happyfeet, do a little role-reversal bit. Imagine that the audience was a Tea Party audience and that the speaker was white and the farmer was black. View the original video in that context – what jumps out is not the speaker’s words but the audience’s racist reactions to those words.

I sincerely doubt that anyone would miss the point – that the Tea Party people were a bunch of racists. That is why Brietbart used the video – not because of Ms. Sherrod but because of the NAACP delegates reactions to her remarks.

The leadership of the NAACP had been calling the Tea Party people racists based on less evidence than shown in the video. This was an attempt to point out the NAACP’s ongoing racism not to “smear” Ms. Sherrod.

However, the power of the main stream media still exists. They have mis-directed the story into a minor issue – Ms. Sherrod. The NAACP’s gets another “free ride” from the media.
Longwalker (4e0dda) — 7/24/2010 @ 2:27 pm
Or think about when it is time to defend a woman or call her a “cancer hootchie.”
Eric Blair (07b8c5) — 7/24/2010 @ 2:30 pm
Rainey, reminds one of Mary McCarthy’s line about Lillian Hellman, everything is a lie, including the & and” The only verifiably true statement was thatFrum said it, and the event occurred
ian cormac (d407d8) — 7/24/2010 @ 2:33 pm
feets is still ignoring the continuing adventures of Ms. Race – Baiter; her performance over the last few days has been most telling. While Brietbart may have been wrong, his main POV regarding Ms. Sherrod is spot – on, and her comments about how Brietbart wishes all blacks to be slaves again is beneath contempt. She can rot and stew in her own juices, again.

I should have extended the quote to include “for posting the video.” Sorry, that is what I meant.

You’re not sorry about it at all, Chrissy – sorry about being caught, perhaps. Being a disengenous punk must take a lot of energy, eh?
Dmac (d61c0d) — 7/24/2010 @ 2:34 pm
Speaking of Dan Rather. I remember in the early 80’s when I was either in high school or shortly after leaving hearing Rather do a “Special Comment” type report on CBS radio. In it he quoted Ronald Reagan as saying, “The government of Nicaragua is a threat to the national security of the United States.” I remember feeling my heart sink upon hearing the quote and thinking, “Don’t give them openings like that.” Rather spent the remainder of the five minute segment ridiculing the notion that Nicaragua could possibly be a threat to the US.

Later that night I heard the full original story. The sentence as delivered as part of a much longer talk was, “The government of Nicaragua is a threat to the national security and foreign policy goals of the United States.” Rather’s unacknowledged, dishonest edit of the comment turned an adjectival phrase into the object of the sentence. It also turned a phrase which was manifestly true into an easy object of ridicule.

I specifically bring this incident to mind when I see a conservative “quoted” by the liberal media.
Have Blue (854a6e) — 7/24/2010 @ 2:37 pm
They were pro Sandinista then, as they are pro Baathist and AQ now, mind you we were just talking
about aid to the Contras back then, had we actually
intervened militarily, they would have dialed up to eleventy. So this sad event, is what excuses all her
behavior since, from the CNN linked Wiki

On the night in 1965 when her father, Hosie Miller, a black man and a deacon at Thankful Baptist Church, was shot to death by a white farmer in what ostensibly was a dispute over a few cows,
ian cormac (d407d8) — 7/24/2010 @ 2:52 pm
Who is James Rainey?
Joe Davies (7bd52a) — 7/24/2010 @ 3:20 pm
Probably some hack on the all-white JournoList.
LukeHandCool (fa3b23) — 7/24/2010 @ 3:23 pm
well jeez… Breitbart screwed up – that’s uncontested… people are going to “seize on” that… that is also incontestable… Breitbart made his own bed he can lie in it I think.

But I will watch your video.

Comment by happyfeet

I’ll contest it. He did exactly what he intended and did it well, as usual. He stopped the attacks against the tea parties and turned them to an argument about black racism and the NAACP.

In addition, if Ms Sherrodd plans to sue anybody, she should start with Vilsack. Everything Breitbart posted was her own words.

I am not surprised at a dishinest story by the Times as I have nothing else from them when the subject is national politics. They are even dishonest in local politics, as I have occasion to learn personally.

Happyfeet, you are right a lot of the time but you really screw up about once a month. This is one of the times.
Mike K (0ef8c3) — 7/24/2010 @ 3:24 pm
“I continue to be astounded by the people who think this is about Ms. Sherrod.”

Well, that’s the only thing I care about. I don’t want her working for the federal government, because then I have to pay her salary…and I don’t want to do that.

I don’t care what the NAACP does, as long as they leave me alone.

If they want to do racist stuff like give out awards that only black people can win, and at the same pretend that everyone ELSE is racist (when they’re not)…o.k. by me, as long as I don’t have to be part of it, or pay for it.
Dave Surls (d9ccb1) — 7/24/2010 @ 3:35 pm
Dr. K., I like Mr. Feet. Even when the “odd-talk” schtick gets to be a bit much. But I have long been concerned about how easily he descends into personal attacks on some women, and then tries very hard to defend other women from…what he feels are personal attacks.

It’s not super important. I do think that we are highly neurotic in this country about race. But I was struck by this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SxB75lVN1us&feature=player_embedded

I want to live in that world. Not on Planet Obama. Because this is a New Aristocracy. In the old days, it was all the money that your ancestors had. Now, it is the group to which your ancestors belonged, more and more. In both cases, it has nothing to do with the individual.

The content of their character, as it happens.

Now, Mr. West will be attacked by the Left for his “torture” of an Iraqi in 2003. But when people are trying to blow up men and women under your command, I find it interesting how often the Left defends the terrorist in this kind of situation.

On the other hand, in today’s world, maybe criticism of Mr. West could be deemed racist?

Oh, that can’t happen. He has that “R” after his name.
Eric Blair (c8876d) — 7/24/2010 @ 3:37 pm
Mike K/61:

I’m in the “Breitbart screwed up,” crowd. I don’t think it’s close.

If you’re going to make accusations of racism, they ought to be true. Breitbart shouldn’t have posted the video as-is, and shouldn’t have gone on the offensive in the way that he did. The end of the video was odd enough to draw comment at the time.

Like Brother Fikes, I think a lot of Breitbart’s work has held up well – the defenses of ACORN ran from disingenuous to insane. But this doesn’t. He ought to step up and say he screwed up. And he ought to apologize to a bunch of people.

And the rest of us shouldn’t trust edited videos that come from Andrew Breitbart for a while. Sorry, dude. Burn your credibility like this, and it’s burned. The fact that others have done worse is no excuse.

–JRM
JRM (cd0a37) — 7/24/2010 @ 3:38 pm
“If you’re going to make accusations of racism, they ought to be true.”

Well, they are true.
Dave Surls (d9ccb1) — 7/24/2010 @ 3:49 pm
“When I made that commitment, I was making that commitment to black people — and to black people only.”–the new “Civil Rights Icon”

You can spin, you can twist, you can dodge, you can turn, you can even claim that Jesus whacked her with a cluestick and she saw the light, and when you’re all done doing that…

…that’s still racist.

That’s what racists do, they discriminate on the basis of race.
Dave Surls (d9ccb1) — 7/24/2010 @ 3:59 pm
I think I have told this story before, Mr. Surls, but it bears repeating.

In my first year of teaching at a small college, I attended a workshop for new professors, with more experienced professors giving talks about life at the new institution.

The workshop was held in a beautiful botanical garden about a half hour drive from campus. I drove there on a Saturday, and no one was around as I entered the gardens. Three fellows (who appeared to be Hispanic) came running up, and in broken English, asked what I wanted. I explained the situation, and they gave me directions to the conference center in the gardens. No big deal.

Later that day, a fellow who is a big believer in race (and happens to be of an underrepresented group) had the same thing happen. Exactly the same thing.

He stalked in the meeting, explaining how he had been profiled and treated in a racist fashion.

But as you can, he wasn’t. It’s like the saying: to a carpenter, every problem is solved with a hammer and nails. To a “racialist” everything is seen through such a lens.

Sorry for the long story, but that is our Brave New World.
Eric Blair (c8876d) — 7/24/2010 @ 4:08 pm
“The victims aren’t just government employees — the public as well is hurt. The imperative to immediately and constantly churn out news on even the most minor bit of controversy leads news organizations, and partisans posing as news organizations, to cross the line from responsible reporting to dangerous rumor-mongering.

This is exactly what happened to Ms. Sherrod. Andrew Breitbart, a prominent Internet conservative, promoted a misleadingly edited video of her speech; within hours, news outlets of all stripes were promoting it as truth. The White House and N.A.A.C.P. both overreacted, then back-pedaled with egg on their faces. But they are victims, too. The only real winners were Mr. Breitbart and his colleagues, whose Web hits probably numbered in the millions.”

– Van Jones in today’s New York Times

Breitbart owes no apology.
ColonelHaiku (6d95fe) — 7/24/2010 @ 4:11 pm
CNN Anchor: “Would you like to see [Andrew Breitbart’s] site to be shut down?”

Shirley Sherrod: “That would be a great thing. Because I don’t see how that advances us in this country.”

Shirley Sherrod ‘s a
dangerous combination
a racist fascist
ColonelHaiku (6d95fe) — 7/24/2010 @ 4:16 pm
In some ways, Colonel, I think it is more about politics than anything else (ask Clarence Thomas about how well he was defended on the basis of race).

So perhaps they are “istists.”

The comments that Ms. Sherrod is making about Mr. Breitbart are given a pass by lots of people. I don’t understand that. And more to the point, does she not have any advisors to urge her to, well, not say things like that?
Eric Blair (c8876d) — 7/24/2010 @ 4:23 pm
The most vicious attack dogs appear daily on MSNBC. When Rainey criticizes them, we’ll know he’s serious about protecting reputations.
mhr (d9ecf1) — 7/24/2010 @ 4:24 pm
That’s a good story, Eric. I’ve heard you tell it before, but it’s still good, and I don’t mind hearing it again.

Here’s another story for everyone.

A child molestor claims to be a reformed child molestor and wants to go to work at the daycare center.

Dave Surls says…sorry, child molestors don’t get a second chance. No job at the daycare center for you.

Same thing for racists and government jobs.
Dave Surls (d9ccb1) — 7/24/2010 @ 4:26 pm
what a great piece on Andrew Breitbart, my admiration for him is increased tenfold, he succeeded in showing up the NAACP, I also have to admire the devilish cleverness of the “other side” in twisting the issue, my admiration for “Longwalker is also unbounded, he really is spot-on!
Jeannie
Jeannie (080b4c) — 7/24/2010 @ 4:29 pm
A government official (Shirley Sherrod) engages in race-baiting, class warfare and the NAACP applauds. Sherrod called people who opposed the left’s version of healthcare “reform” racists. She is despicable and her words deserve a full airing, and that is why the media want to make this all about Breitbart, because that airing must be prevented.
ColonelHaiku (6d95fe) — 7/24/2010 @ 4:40 pm
Thank you, Mr. Surls. I work in academia, and participating in sites like this one are a little bit of therapy for me. And I have met some interesting people.
Eric Blair (c8876d) — 7/24/2010 @ 4:53 pm
“Shirley Sherrod’s a dangerous combination
a racist fascist”

She has all kinds of things going for her, aside from her prediliction for racism and her desire to shut down news outlets that had the audacity to tell the truth about her.

She got hired on at the USDA, and her qualifications are that she owned a farm, it went out of business…so she sued the federal government because they did’t loan her money to keep her failing business going.

Yeah, sign that girl up for a government job. She sounds like a real winner. Definitely someone I want on my payroll.

Because my life really isn’t complete unless there are people in government jobs who don’t care for white people, hate Republicans, want to shut down websites they don’t like and can’t run a business unless it’s subsidized by people she can’t stand.

Oh, and I definitely want employees that have a history of suing their employer. That’s right at the top of the must have list, because I’ll tell you, the first thing I look for in an employee is someone who has sued me in the past because I wouldn’t loan them money.
Dave Surls (d9ccb1) — 7/24/2010 @ 4:58 pm
Some additional points on Urgent Agenda.

Anyone who tosses out the “racist” stink bomb should be ostracized. Bigots come in all shapes and sizes, and color.
jeff (26376f) — 7/24/2010 @ 5:09 pm
Rainey is lazy, an ideologue, and a laughably terrible prose stylist.
Kevin Stafford (abdb87) — 7/24/2010 @ 5:38 pm
Rainey is of the limpest of writers.

Lots of opinion, no rationale, objective research or logic. He starts about everything he decides to write about with his conclusion already formed. Then he hides behind words like “nuance” to justify himself.

However, LAT is the perfect home for him. Lots of company, even if they fired Bobby Scheer.
Harry Schell (6c3f1c) — 7/24/2010 @ 6:00 pm
Why are we giving Shirley credit for doing her job, seriously it was a tragic incident that happened with her father, but is that a reason to hold seemingly an eternal grudge
ian cormac (d407d8) — 7/24/2010 @ 6:11 pm
A bit of a different perspective

http://www.therightscoop.com/red-meat-from-macho-sauce-productions-on-shirley-charade-sherrod#comments
ian cormac (d407d8) — 7/24/2010 @ 6:14 pm
How can he call the tape ‘severely edited’??? Breitbart didn’t edit it at all! Rainey is perpetuating a fraud.
George (ee9f62) — 7/24/2010 @ 6:29 pm
Why are we giving Shirley credit for doing her job, seriously it was a tragic incident that happened with her father, but is that a reason to hold seemingly an eternal grudge

Comment by ian cormac — 7/24/2010 @ 6:11 pm

I certainly feel for Ms. Sherrod but, well, you’re talking about people who speak the same way as those who want reparations now for slavery. Of course people who think like that hold an eternal grudge, and not only against the people who actually perpetrated the evil.

Are the Irish owed something by the descendants of the Know-Nothings here, or those who starved the Irish back in their native land?
no one you know (487c05) — 7/24/2010 @ 6:40 pm
Last I saw, the original video posted by NAACP (that they refused to provide Mr. Breitbart before he released what he had) was “severely edited” too. Chunk cut out of Ms. Sherrod, apparently, saying something and then the crowd laughing…

Has the NAACP posted a version that has not been edited yet?
BfC (5209ec) — 7/24/2010 @ 6:43 pm
Plus, you know, I don’t have too much respect for Ms. Sherrod. I will never get over the “his own kind” formulation — NO Anglo would EVER have gotten a pass for using that phrase, no matter what the “context.”

And her subsequent comments about Andrew Breitbart wanting slavery to come back means that she is both a racist and race baiter. Victim? Not so much.
no one you know (487c05) — 7/24/2010 @ 6:45 pm
Chris Hooten’s claims have already been refuted, but he repeats them anyway because that’s what a troll does.
SPQR (26be8b) — 7/24/2010 @ 6:49 pm
I don’t get it. Breitbart posted a video. It wasn’t complete, and he said so. It’s up to whoever viewed it to decide what to do with it: believe it, disbelieve it, wait for more information. Personally, I thought it was pretty corrosive – “his own kind” is the kind of phrase I wouldn’t allow AJ to use – but I also didn’t rush to judgment. No, that was the White House.

To me, the people complaining about the video are kind of like the woman who sued McDonald’s because she spilled hot coffee on herself. If you flew off the handle at Ms. Sherrod and are now upset after seeing the complete video, then I guess maybe you should have waited a moment (hint, hint, Mr. Vilsack). But to slam Breitbart is a little loopy.

Get a grip folks – I want to see more video, even f it’s incomplete. It took the partial video clip to force the more complete video out into the open, and the more we see the better it is. Those who lie behind close doors and on “private” email lists and in coffee shops near the Capitol, these people all need the sanitizing effects of constant sunlight. I’d rather see half a video than none!
AJsDaddie (27f0de) — 7/24/2010 @ 7:04 pm
Mike K/61:

I’m in the “Breitbart screwed up,” crowd. I don’t think it’s close.

If you’re going to make accusations of racism, they ought to be true.

So that wasn’t Ms Sherrod there speaking ? Breitbart hired an actor, sort of like the fake tea partiers in the video being flogged by TPM and the other lefty sites ? Those weren’t real NNACP attendees laughing and applauding about stiffing the white farmer ?

Breitbart shouldn’t have posted the video as-is, and shouldn’t have gone on the offensive in the way that he did. The end of the video was odd enough to draw comment at the time.

Like Brother Fikes, I think a lot of Breitbart’s work has held up well – the defenses of ACORN ran from disingenuous to insane. But this doesn’t. He ought to step up and say he screwed up. And he ought to apologize to a bunch of people.

Not to me. I think he hit the target dead center and that is why there is so much fuss. You just aren’t smart enough to figure it out. Like so many Republicans, you carry a “kick me” sign around. Not me, thank you.

And the rest of us shouldn’t trust edited videos that come from Andrew Breitbart for a while. Sorry, dude. Burn your credibility like this, and it’s burned. The fact that others have done worse is no excuse.

–JRM

You think what you want but you don’t speak for me or 90% of the conservatives that know the story.

This is a little more like it.

Man, Reason is really trying to nail down that cosmotarian thing, isn’t it.

My take:

(1) Breitbart was aiming at the NAACP as a reaction to yet another baseless Tea Party racism charge. Boy, did he hit his target. Sherrod was purely incidental.

(2) Breitbart succeeded in making the NAACP look racist, succeeded in provoking them into making an unfounded charge of racism themselves, and succeeded in stampeding the whole lefty racism industry into suddenly pontificating about the need for context and the horribleness of unfounded charges of racism.

I would say Breitbar has, once again, achieved all his objective. In, you might say, spades.

(3) The more Sherrod is on TV, and the longer this story drags on, the more it reveals the racialism at the core of this administration. Every news cycle that includes this story is one they lose.

(4) Reason needs to get some perspective on JournoList. This was a group of journalists that actively coordinated with the Obama campaign to subvert honest coverage of the campaign. That is very, very serious stuff. They should all be fired. Every one of them.

And every other journalist should be calling for their heads. The fact that they aren’t makes me (and others) wonder why the hell not.
Mike K (0ef8c3) — 7/24/2010 @ 7:21 pm
Hi Mr. Dr. K if I’m screwed up on this it’s cause I’m adamant that it’s very a lot important that the Tea Party stay focused on the handful of issues what are the unitey and important ones. The spendings. The borrowings. The regulatings and the stranglings of free enterprise.

The hour is very nearly at hand and we don’t have time for yimmer yammer bibble babble about a whole hell of a lot, but racisms least of all. The wolf at the door, he can’t tell one from the other.
happyfeet (19c1da) — 7/24/2010 @ 8:11 pm
The wolf at the door, he can’t tell one from the other

happy frum best make
like basking turtle and use
protection of shell
ColonelHaiku (ac3c3c) — 7/24/2010 @ 8:16 pm
Rainey, the other guy who fancies himself an AQ expert, unlike John Miller, they lie without reservation and apparently without consequence,
the DHS based mostly on left wing bloggers and the sPLC, profiles anyone who is philosophically against Obama as a terrorist, they some how missed
AQAP forays in Little Rock, Killeen and over detroit. Also seeming lone wolves like Bedell, Stark and Bishop. Meanwhile they give known AQ
like the latest Al Ghamdi a free trip home.
ian cormac (d407d8) — 7/24/2010 @ 8:18 pm
The hour is very nearly at hand and we don’t have time for yimmer yammer bibble babble about a whole hell of a lot, but racisms least of all. The wolf at the door, he can’t tell one from the other.

Comment by happyfeet — 7/24/2010 @ 8:11 pm

All due respect, I’d have thought that the effect of Breitbart’s work (taking the weapon of false accusation of racism out of the hands of the left) is a huge and important step toward getting us all to the right topics in the current political climate.

Sort of like JD here denouncing everyone here as racist, only in a bigger and a bit more indirect way (ironically, since Breitbart isn’t kidding when he says “racist”, and JD is).
no one you know (487c05) — 7/24/2010 @ 8:21 pm
I see what you mean, happyfeet, but this constant, never-ending “when did you stop beating your wife” nonsense of the media trying to imbue the tea party with racism does need to be met head on imo. The Democrat-media-complex just won’t let up on that narrative. And I think that when we fight back and drag them into the mud that they created, it’s another news cycle contradicting the post-racial utopia the O-zombies promised (fat chance the lefty race baiters will give up their lucrative gig) and people will get really tired of the broken promises. They started this with trying to brand the tea partiers. And I agree with those who refuse to tape a “kick me” sign to their own backs. We have nothing to be ashamed of and much to be proud of.
LukeHandCool (fa3b23) — 7/24/2010 @ 8:23 pm
Meanwhile pooping pigeons force Kings of Leon from St. Louis stage…

Everyone’s a critic…

http://www.cnn.com/2010/SHOWBIZ/Music/07/24/kings.of.leon.pigeons/index.html?hpt=T2
ColonelHaiku (ac3c3c) — 7/24/2010 @ 8:23 pm
Breitbart is not at fault for posting the video, which he says is all he had — but rather a) for overselling it and ignoring concerns about missing context, and b) for failing to contact Sherrod.

OK, Happyfeet, this is an excellent point of Patterico. Breitbart was more than a bit of a jackass if he didn’t attempt to contact Sherrod for comment on a clip of her speech.

I should have admitted as much earlier.

I think Ann Coulter is a complete headcase to say this was a “lovely” speech. That is a nakedly cynical attempt to appear moderate. It’s a disgusting speech from many points of view. IT’s a confession of hatred, it’s an accusation of great hatred, it’s social warfare taken to a ridiculous extreme, and it’s drastically insufficient as a lesson against racism.

But the Sherrod aspect isn’t the only aspect. Breitbart should have done like Patterico said.
Dustin (b54cdc) — 7/24/2010 @ 8:38 pm
As if she was going to say the truth, most likely she would deny it, like the ACORN, Census, and Landrieu’s staff all have done.
ian cormac (d407d8) — 7/24/2010 @ 8:42 pm
At worst, Breitbart was a fool to not make sure he had the entire tape before he posted anything. I believe that he felt the audience reaction to Sherrod’s story of discrimination, “um-humming” and expressing agreement, was the real story. It’s been buried, hasn’t it?, under the storm of controversy. The NAACP won again by the dirty playing of the race card.
So digusted (0a57bf) — 7/24/2010 @ 8:43 pm
Happyfeet, nice work on proving yourself to be one of the only independent thinkers at these blogs. As the Colonel notes above, he knows almost nothing about this story, except who he’s supposed to hate.

I’m wondering if most of these people ever read what Breitbart wrote and watched the video. Breitbart’s still lying, as William Salentan showed
timb (8f04c0) — 7/24/2010 @ 8:45 pm
Did we ever find out if Jealous was in the audience
ian cormac (d407d8) — 7/24/2010 @ 8:50 pm
Hi Mr. Dr. K if I’m screwed up on this it’s cause I’m adamant that it’s very a lot important that the Tea Party stay focused on the handful of issues what are the unitey and important ones. The spendings. The borrowings. The regulatings and the stranglings of free enterprise.

What you don’t seem to see is that the WHOLE strategy of the fall for the Democrats is racism ! They are not going to have high minded debates on spending. They are going to wave the bloody shirt 24/7 until all the lily livered dopes like Frum say “Uncle !”

Breitbart knows that and he has just taken a very large pin and popped that balloon. Every time they yell racism, Breitbart, who is a long way from being through with this theme, will show another tape. Did you think this is all he has ?
Mike K (0ef8c3) — 7/24/2010 @ 9:01 pm
timmah timmah tim… even though he’s from Iowa, Ag Sec Vilsack fired your hero Sherrod in a NY minute. Kind of shabby treatment from Big Zero, too.

Big Zero owns Shirley Sherrod now and she is sure to keep the two subjects he desperately needs to keep on the down-low – race and Big Zero’s incompetence – on the front burner. And that is as it should be.
ColonelHaiku (ac3c3c) — 7/24/2010 @ 9:16 pm
Eric Holder, reached at the Department of Justice, said you are all a bunch of racist cowards.
daleyrocks (940075) — 7/24/2010 @ 9:21 pm
The only thing I have to add, before I take a much deserved (in my opinion) vacation is this:

After passing the health-care bill, a bunch of Congressmen decided to walk through the middle of a Tea Party crowd and when they got to the other side, they claimed racist things were said to them. There is no proof, but then the NAACP got to accuse the Tea Party of racism, which is what everyone wanted, so all is well and good. (Yes, I know the NAACP didn’t accuse the Tea Partiers of racism, they wanted the Tea Party to denounce the racism of some idiots who show up at their protests).

Then Breitbart got to say, ha ha, I’ll show you racism and tried, but failed, not because he had a point, but because for some reason, he still doesn’t understand that the Alinsky tactics only work for the Alisnkyites (Yes, I know that his original report only showed a small portion of Sherrod’s talk and it was really a redemption speech).

Without getting into all the arguments and nuances and accusations, and adding in the idiot natterings of the JournoList crowd, all we are left with is a new Godwin’s Law, incomplete due to a name.
Ag80 (ccead7) — 7/24/2010 @ 10:01 pm
“Breitbart succeeded in making the NAACP look racist”

Well, heck, anyone can do that. The NAACP is supposed to be racist. All they do is pursue the interests of black people.

Hence the name of the organization: The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

They engage in racial discrimination all day, every day.
Dave Surls (778732) — 7/24/2010 @ 10:14 pm
‘I think Ann Coulter is a complete headcase to say this was a “lovely” speech.’

Nobody’s perfect. I still like her. She’s a good looking blonde, she’s feisty, AND she’s a Grateful Dead fan.

She’s o.k. in my book.
Dave Surls (778732) — 7/24/2010 @ 10:26 pm
Hey, you’re right, nobody’s perfect. I am just kinda amazed anyone who doesn’t believe in socialism enough to have hearts in their eyes over the racism of the speech would use the word ‘lovely’.

I’m glad she helped the farmer too, eventually, and I’m glad there’s something more important to Shirley than race even if it’s the class warfare, but lovely? Even with the ‘you can’t dislike Obama if you’re not racist’ idea?

I’m sure, her head, there’s been a calculation that it’s better to just pretend the speech is lovely. I don’t get it, though.
Dustin (b54cdc) — 7/24/2010 @ 11:27 pm
And you’re exactly right about the fundamental nature of organizations like the NAACP. That they would call the Tea Party racist is just insane. And now they can’t do so very effectively (I think).

Breitbart could have done a better job, but that’s something I’ve come to expect from media. He messed up and I hope this doesn’t become the norm (I think he’s a pretty straight shooter for the most part). But that’s a side issue to me.
Dustin (b54cdc) — 7/24/2010 @ 11:30 pm
The whole thing is comedic for how quickly she was thrown under the bus without checking the context or even asking her for her side of things, which suggests that there’s more to her history with the USDA than we’re being told, and for the whiplash change when she explained the story in groveling to her and denouncing Fox News which hadn’t even covered the story when she was fired.

I nominate Breitbart for the first ever Cat Among the Pigeons Award.
flataffect (b6610c) — 7/25/2010 @ 12:39 am
“Breitbart was more than a bit of a jackass if he didn’t attempt to contact Sherrod for comment on a clip of her speech.”

Yeah, I wouldn’t get too worked up about that one.

The NAACP just released a hit piece video on the Tea Parties, portraying Tea Party members as racist, violent and offensive, and kindly showing their pictures.

I have a funny feeling nobody contacted any of the people they show in their little propaganda video before they attempted to paint them as “violent” “racists”.

And, I also have a funny feeling that there aren’t going to be any howls of outrage from the lefty media because the high and mighty NAACP didn’t bother to call these folks before they were accused.

Here’s a link to the video.

http://www.naacp.org/news/entry/slideshow-tea-party-signs/

Now, someone show me where any of these folks were contacted before their faces were splahed all over the internet by the racists at the NAACP.
Dave Surls (778732) — 7/25/2010 @ 1:15 am
Comment by timb — 7/24/2010 @ 8:45 pm
98. Happyfeet, nice work on proving yourself to be one of the only independent thinkers at these blogs.
— Nice work on proving yourself to be the non-thinker at this blog.

As the Colonel notes above, he knows almost nothing about this story, except who he’s supposed to hate.
— Your ad hominem attacks really are getting tedious.

I’m wondering if most of these people ever read what Breitbart wrote and watched the video.
— Yes, we have. We actually gather info before commenting. You should try it some time.

Breitbart’s still lying, as William Salentan(sic) showed.
— Does someone need to show you AGAIN that Sherrod is race-baiting?
Icy Texan (78ad00) — 7/25/2010 @ 3:38 am
Breitbart used a “minnow”, Shirley Sherrod, as bait to catch the USDA, the NAACP, and the White House, the big fish.

But I agree with happyfeet. Shirley Sherrod is not bait, she is a person, and I’m sorry she was eaten.
nk (db4a41) — 7/25/2010 @ 3:54 am
I am not so willing to give Ms Sharrod a pass.

She is still eager to engage in the politics of “us against them”, the “haves” versus the “have-nots”, class envy. There are no bad guys in the story she told, yet she insists on searching for the guilty where there are none. And her audience eats it up.

Indeed she is one of the haves in her story and is still too blinded by bigotry to see it.
quasimodo (201d30) — 7/25/2010 @ 5:48 am
nk – Ms. Sherrod was eaten by the USDA and White House’s stupidity and rush to judgment along with their allies in the media, all of whom ignored her message of redemption contained in the video which Breitbart posted in their effort to pillory Andrew. Further video evidence from the same speech and additional media appearances by Ms. Sherrod make it perfectly clear she has not gotten over her us vs. them, rich vs. poor thinking. Such attitudes are not qualifications for political appointees to government service IMHO.
daleyrocks (940075) — 7/25/2010 @ 6:01 am
Since the Breitbart clip was released, Sherrod has committed an own goal.
daleyrocks (940075) — 7/25/2010 @ 6:09 am
Where exactly was Breitbart lying in this excerpt as opposed to Rainey, and the other folks every day

11:18 a.m.*: Breitbart posts Sherrod video,
We are in possession of a video from in which Shirley Sherrod, USDA Georgia Director of Rural Development, speaks at the NAACP Freedom Fund dinner in Georgia. In her meandering speech to what appears to be an all-black audience, this federally appointed executive bureaucrat lays out in stark detail, that her federal duties are managed through the prism of race and class distinctions.

In the first video, Sherrod describes how she racially discriminates against a white farmer. She describes how she is torn over how much she will choose to help him. And, she admits that she doesn’t do everything she can for him, because he is white. Eventually, her basic humanity informs that this white man is poor and needs help. But she decides that he should get help from “one of his own kind”. She refers him to a white lawyer.

Sherrod’s racist tale is received by the NAACP audience with nodding approval and murmurs of recognition and agreement. Hardly the behavior of the group now holding itself up as the supreme judge of another groups’ racial tolerance. “””
ian cormac (d407d8) — 7/25/2010 @ 6:10 am
The last time that I had to caution a white male government employee working for me not to allow his racist attitudes to become discriminatory behavior was 28 years ago. Not only did he never actually engage in racist behavior (at least under my supervision), he has described that caution as an epiphany for him that caused him to rethink his core values (and that is evident in his behavior today).

The last time I was discriminated against by a black female employee of the federal government because I am a white male was less than a month ago.

‘Nuff said.
EW1(SG) (edc268) — 7/25/2010 @ 6:26 am
Shirley Sherrod didn’t know who Breitbart was as of last Monday, but now knows him well enough to say that he wants “to put all blacks back into slavery”.

If I were advising Big Zero, I’d be begging Shirley Sherrod to shut her big yapper.
ColonelHaiku (ac3c3c) — 7/25/2010 @ 7:41 am
Howard Dean: Fox News “racist”

The Fox News Channel’s handling of the Shirley Sherrod controversy “was absolutely racist,” former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean charged on Sunday.

Appearing on “Fox News Sunday,” Dean, who’s also a former Democratic national chairman and hero of liberals, asserted Fox News failed to vet video footage of a speech misleadingly excerpted to make it appear that Sherrod was boasting of using her post as an Agriculture Department official to discriminate against a white farmer.

“I don’t think Newt Gingrich is a racist, and I don’t think you’re a racist,” Dean told Fox News host Chris Wallace, “but Fox News did something that was absolutely racist. They took a – they had an obligation to find out what was really in the clip. They had been pushing a theme of black racism with this phony Black Panther crap and this business and this Sotomayor and all this other stuff.”

When Wallace interrupted Dean to point out that Fox did not air the excerpted Sherrod footage until after the Obama administration had fired her based on it (the excerpts were featured on Fox News’s website prior to her firing), Dean shot back “It was about to go on Glenn Beck, which is what the administration was afraid of.”

And Dean mildly rebuked the Obama administration, as well, saying, “We’ve got to stop being afraid of Glenn Beck (a Fox News host) and the racist fringe of the Republican Party. But Fox News was not blameless during this. You played it up.”

Dean dismissed Wallace’s point about timing, asserting “you didn’t do your job,” and charging that Fox News has helped the Republican Party foster racism by focusing on allegations of reverse racism.

“The tea party called out their racist fringe and I think the Republican Party’s got to stop appealing to its racist fringe. And Fox News is what did that. You put that on,” Dean said. “Continuing to cater to this theme of minority racism and stressing comments like this – some of which are taken out of context – does not help the country knit itself together.”

http://www.politico.com/blogs/politicolive/0710/Dean_Fox_News_racist.html?showall#
ColonelHaiku (ac3c3c) — 7/25/2010 @ 7:55 am
Dean and hootie subscribe to the Ackerman school of calling people racists instead of actually having a grasp of facts. Hodean’s comments are noxious on many levels.
JD (b9269a) — 7/25/2010 @ 9:12 am
The roar of cognitive dissonance would be deafening, if only Hooten, TimB and other libgressives had anything between their ears to engage.

There… I said it.
GeneralMalaise (ac3c3c) — 7/25/2010 @ 9:48 am
When the controversy first came up, I didn’t think Sherrod fit the story that was being presented by Breitbart. However, after watching more of the video of her speech, it’s obvious she’s a typical leftist (or “lefty”) who loves playing the race card and promoting paranoia among income groups. IOW, my first impression was that she perhaps was a somewhat innocent do-gooder expressing mea culpas. But I should have known better. After all, the NAACP is pretty much a group dominated by ultra-liberal sentiments and biases, and virtually everyone attending its functions aren’t exactly going to be chock full of common sense.
Mark (411533) — 7/25/2010 @ 9:48 am
‘“I don’t think Newt Gingrich is a racist, and I don’t think you’re a racist,” Dean told Fox News host Chris Wallace’

Well, that’s big of you, Howie.

I know I’d be relieved if a member of the political organization that brought you John Calhoun, Jefferson Davis, Lester Maddox, George Wallace, Theodore Bilbo, Shirley Sherrod and about a million other racist swine graciously conceded that I wasn’t racist.

Yup, I can hardly wait until I too am absolved of racism by the membership of the Jim Crow Party.
Dave Surls (a71d76) — 7/25/2010 @ 10:03 am
Hodean is crissyhooten’s idol.
JD (e7c77f) — 7/25/2010 @ 10:26 am
I agree with happyfeet. Shirley Sherrod is not bait, she is a person, and I’m sorry she was eaten.
Comment by nk — 7/25/2010 @ 3:54 am

— I hereby volunteer myself to be “eaten” to the tune of $300k.
Icy Texan (ea1329) — 7/25/2010 @ 10:33 am
Yeah, I slipped on peepee at MegaloMart, I got a $53,000 settlement, and I will never have to work another day in my life. Call me “Lucky”.
nk (db4a41) — 7/25/2010 @ 10:39 am
BTW, “Lucky’s” new album is still in the top 20, 5 weeks after it’s release. Pretty good for an old man.
Icy Texan (ea1329) — 7/25/2010 @ 10:48 am
Always liked Tom Petty.
nk (db4a41) — 7/25/2010 @ 10:55 am
Better late than never

Corrections
New York Times, by Staff Original Article

NATIONAL The Political Times column last Sunday, about a generational divide over racial attitudes, erroneously linked one example of a racially charged statement to the Tea Party movement. While Tea Party supporters have been connected to a number of such statements, there is no evidence that epithets reportedly directed in March at Representative John Lewis, Democrat of Georgia, outside the Capitol, came from Tea Party members.
ian cormac (d407d8) — 7/25/2010 @ 11:23 am
there is no evidence that epithets reportedly directed in March at Representative John Lewis, Democrat of Georgia, outside the Capitol, came from Tea Party members.

as reported by John Lewis(D), civil rights icon… yada…yada…yada…
GeneralMalaise (ac3c3c) — 7/25/2010 @ 11:29 am
ian cormac – The NYT hasn’t accepted the fact that there is no evidence that any racial epithets were actually directed at Lewis.

Baby steps.
daleyrocks (940075) — 7/25/2010 @ 11:30 am
#122 Dave Surls:

Yup, I can hardly wait until I too am absolved of racism by the membership of the Jim Crow Party.

Consider that stolen.
EW1(SG) (edc268) — 7/25/2010 @ 12:05 pm
#122 Thank you Mr. Surls for saying what so many people have forgotten (or pretend to forget):

Yup, I can hardly wait until I too am absolved of racism by the membership of the Jim Crow Party.
Pious Agnostic (b2c3ab) — 7/25/2010 @ 12:08 pm
“Consider that stolen.”

Feel free. I’m a hippie at heart, and I’ll share pretty much anything without charge.

Especially, my intellectual property…which is obviously, of little or no value anyway.

😉
Dave Surls (a71d76) — 7/25/2010 @ 12:26 pm
The other day there was a photo of Sherrod’s two adult children, one named Russia, the other named Kenyatta. Does anyone know if these children are indeed named in honor of Russia and Kenya, and if so, what this signifies?
Kevin Stafford (abdb87) — 7/25/2010 @ 12:56 pm
Kenyatta, a Kikuyu unlike Obama or Mboya. was a LSE educated founder of the Mau Mau guerilla movement
that took power in Kenya
ian cormac (d407d8) — 7/25/2010 @ 1:16 pm
Yup, I can hardly wait until I too am absolved of racism by the membership of the Jim Crow Party.

Surls, care to tell us what party Strom Thurmond belonged to? What made him switch and why did you vote for him, you South Carlina paragon of neo-secession
timb (449046) — 7/25/2010 @ 2:04 pm
Thank God that timmah NEVER resorts to ad hominem attacks and non sequiturs within the same sentence!

Because if he did? Well then, he would be quite insufferable, ya know.
Icy Texan (ea1329) — 7/25/2010 @ 2:16 pm
So according to Howard Dean’s logic, the O-administration, peeing in its pants and firing Sherrod at the prospect of Sherrod possibly going on Glen Beck’s show … means Fox News is racist. Wow, liberal logic (oxymoron alert) makes even less sense when you write it out. I hear the crashing sound of 1,000 plate-glass windows in Howard Dean’s mind.
LukeHandCool (fa3b23) — 7/25/2010 @ 2:17 pm
Here’s an easy one for ya timmah, Hooten, JEA and (regrettably) happyfeet:

Are Sherrod’s post-firing comments race-baiting? Yes or No? And if “No”, Why not?

Go!
Icy Texan (ea1329) — 7/25/2010 @ 2:21 pm
Oh, c’mon, IT. You know the answer to that question.

Not that I think you are wrong, with where you are going. Racism is racism. Except when it isn’t, apparently.
Eric Blair (c8876d) — 7/25/2010 @ 2:36 pm
timb – Care to tell us which party Fred Phelps belonged to and raised money for?
daleyrocks (940075) — 7/25/2010 @ 3:08 pm
Mark williams represents all of your racist ideals and all of you are responsible for anything he says. Period. He is your hero and you are scum.
JD (06f82d) — 7/25/2010 @ 3:24 pm
timmy timmy tim
tim J William Fulbright was
one more racist Dem
ColonelHaiku (ac3c3c) — 7/25/2010 @ 3:42 pm
Colonel give thanks, O
Lord for all blessings on this
hooten free Sunday
ColonelHaiku (ac3c3c) — 7/25/2010 @ 4:13 pm
lol
SPQR (26be8b) — 7/25/2010 @ 4:21 pm
Surls, care to tell us what party Strom Thurmond belonged to? What made him switch and why did you vote for him, you South Carlina paragon of neo-secession

Comment by timb

That’s easy, he was a Democrat.

What made him switch ? I don’t know, Tim. Why don’t you tell us?

I don’t know why people voted for him. Why did all those blacks vote for him?

Here’s another question, that isn’t ancient history. Why couldn’t any of the networks find Shirley Sherrod to interview her on their Sunday shows today ? Lost her phone number ? After all, she was the story of the week. Couldn’t they be sure of what she would say ?

Howard Dean blamed Fox for her firing even though they had not mentioned her before she was fired by a panicked White House.

Maybe this gambit hasn’t worked out too well for the DNC ?

I have another question for the guru of the moment. Tim, who segregated the Civil Service and the US Military ?

Any guesses ?
Mike K (0ef8c3) — 7/25/2010 @ 4:57 pm
The explicit lie that Sherrod’s firing was because of a network that did not cover the story before the White House and Vilsack was pushing her to resign is just another of the many brazen lies that Democrats have been telling during this administration.

Why is it that Democrats feel the need to lie so much and so crudely during the Obama administration?
SPQR (26be8b) — 7/25/2010 @ 4:59 pm
SPQR, because they know that many people will reflexively support the lies. As we will all see.
Eric Blair (c04985) — 7/25/2010 @ 5:08 pm
“Surls, care to tell us what party Strom Thurmond belonged to? What made him switch and why did you vote for him, you South Carlina paragon of neo-secession”–a doltish lefty

I’ve never been in South Carolina in my life, dopey.
Dave Surls (a71d76) — 7/25/2010 @ 6:14 pm
http://dailycaller.com/2010/07/24/van-jones-stop-worrying-about-the-deficit-the-government-can-just-take-more-money-from-rich-companies/
ian cormac (d407d8) — 7/25/2010 @ 7:55 pm
You gotta like Tim, though. He’s a typical lefty. Wild accusations, that are totally untrue, accompanied by constant claims that right wingers are lying.

He’s like a walking, talking right wing validation machine.
Dave Surls (829642) — 7/25/2010 @ 9:33 pm

7/24/2010

James Rainey: Breitbart Was Irresponsible for Doing What I Do All the Time

151 Responses to “James Rainey: Breitbart Was Irresponsible for Doing What I Do All the Time”

Favorite Sites

Links

Patterico Sells Out