 |
| Erick Erickson agrees: Why haven't we learned not to trust these people? |
Can we all now agree that Andrew Breitbart completely lacks any credibility whatsoever?
Initially, she said, "I didn't give him the full force of what I could do" and only gave him enough help to keep his case progressing. Eventually, she said, his situation "opened my eyes" that whites were struggling just like blacks, and helping farmers wasn't so much about race but was "about the poor versus those who have."
Sherrod said Tuesday the incomplete video appears to intentionally twist her message. She says she became close friends with the farmer and helped him for two years.
In the full 43-minute video of her speech released by the NAACP Tuesday evening, Sherrod tells the story of her father's death in 1965, saying he was killed by white men who were never charged. She says she made a commitment to stay in the South the night of her father's death, despite the dreams she had always had of leaving her rural town.
"When I made that commitment I was making that commitment to black people and to black people only," she said. "But you know God will show you things and he'll put things in your path so that you realize that the struggle is really about poor people."
Sherrod said in the speech that working with Spooner, who she does not name, changed her entire outlook.
"She's always been nice and polite and considerate. She was just a good person," Eloise Spooner said. "She did everything she could trying to help."
Thank you. Even right-wingers are distancing themselves from the Assclown of Asshattery.
And the NAACP has retracted its initial statement and issued a new one:
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 than 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.
“Teachable moment,” indeed. How many "teachable moments" do we need? I’m sorry, but after the whole ACORN thing was revealed to be a sham, and then the whole trying-to-bug Sen. Mary Landrieu’s office thing, I just have to ask: why would anyone take Breitbart seriously? He has established that he has a political agenda.
Duh, people. He thinks you’re stupid. And unless this wrong is righted, he’s been proved correct. Because you don’t ask someone to resign when it’s been established that they were set up. You give them their job back and beg for forgiveness. The assholes here are Tom Vilsack and Andrew Breitbart: two different sides of the same coin.
I mean for crying out loud, they aren't "teachable moments" unless someone finally learns a fucking lesson.
