Sherrod should refuse and sue for defamation.

Not to be obtuse , but who is to say the lady cannot do both .

"It's a forgivable offense"

No, it is not. Not only Vilsack proved that he's a spineless moron easily manipulated by rightwing shitheads, but he has lost any confidence his subordinates ever had that he's a fair and supportive boss. His position is untenable. Stupid, incompetent and disloyal, and therefore objectively unable to continue in his duties.
____________________________________________

If he is so naive that he doesn't realize "just how deceptive conservative smear campaigns can be", he shouldn't be in government.

I do altogether enjoy the idea of dragging this out ala a booschie investigation into how and who on earth leaked the name of a CIA operative to the press's key administration lackey . This is where the gut talking judicial appointee really laid into the presentation of da troot . He commanded , before ascending to decider status , dat all de kings mens cooperate wit de investigatory investigators .

Vilsack should resign immediately, don sackcloth and ashes on his way out the door, and sit in the Dept. of Agriculture parking lot (where they have the farmer's market) for 12 hours a day, using "Iiiiiiii'm Sooooooooorrrrrrrrrrryyyyyyyyyyy" as a mantra.

If he were a private employer, his ass would be sued, and properly so.

This shows that Breitbart is sick and evil, also the talking heads at Fox who were screaming about racism in the government.I can understand the Vilsack move to ask for her resignation, if he had not, then the spineless media would have been on a soapbox saying that if she was white she would have been fired for racism, there was no way they would win on this. Apparently Fox had no interest in verifying this tape for authenticity when they played it. Breitbart should be charged with defamation and entrapment. More ominous, the right (Fox and friends) would love nothing better than to start a race war and blame Obama.

Anyone who would watch a short video and conclude that they understand the situation well enough to request a resignation likely lacks the judgment required to be in that position.

Steve writes:"the video has backfired -- destroying the credibility of those who went on the attack."

-sorry, not true for a large (vast?) majority of the cable news audience. They saw, they believed, and they moved on, to Lindsay Lohan, or some other Next Big Thing.

Remember, please, this is the same source for the Acorn Story- also thoroughly discredited after the fact.

Shirley was on the "Today" show this morning, and said she is not sure she wants to return to the USDA because she is uncertain how she would be treated. Can't say I blame her. This whole story is just sickening.

Did Vilsack have a hearing at which she was allowed to answer any accusations?
From what I've read, she hasn't, in which case I hope she sues Breitbart, Mother Tucker Carlson, FOX News, and the Federal Agency.
Maybe then people will learn to look at THE WHOLE TAPE, and not the snippets a bad propagandist like Breitbart shows you. It wasn't even close to clever propagande, it was plain ol' BS!

Forgiving Vilsack is up to Sherrod, needless to say-- but I love the way Fox/Breitbart have been caught here in a flat-out lie. We need more of this.

"hey, can we back this bus up? I think somebody may be under it."

Obama should ax vilsack. Period.

The Washington Post front page piece on this today is unspeakably awful. What an embarassment for a once-great newspaper. I almost lost my breakfast reading it.

...the video has backfired -- destroying the credibility of those who went on the attack

Respectfully, disagree. Breitbart and Fox did the same thing with the ACORN video and it didn't stop this one from causing an uproar. My guess is that they'll do it again before the November elections.

More than that, it worked, though not in the way Breitbart hoped. The main story this morning is (1) the NAACP rushed to judgement and (2) that Vilsak (read, Obama) fired Sherrod.

The story is NOT that Breitbart and FOX set out to destroy the NAACP for their statement on TEAbagger racism -- and did it with a lie.

Nixon lives, and his psychoses have infected millions.

Is the media going after Fox as if Dan Rather worked for them? I didn't think so.

Here's how the AP story starts:

"The woman at the center of a racially tinged firestorm involving the Obama administration and the NAACP said Wednesday she doesn't know if she'd return to her job at the Agriculture Department, even if asked."

And how the mendacity is addressed:
"Sherrod said her remarks, delivered in March at a local NAACP banquet in Georgia, were part of a larger story about learning from her mistakes and racial reconciliation, not racism, and said they were taken out of context by bloggers who posted only part of her speech."

If this is the kind of coverage this story is going to get in the MSM, I think this is a huge win for Breitbart, even if Sherrod is reinstated - there is no indication from this story that I can see that clearly states that the video was, in fact, edited in a unfair manner.

It doesn't matter what happens now:

- The right-wing smear machine have claimed another scalp.

- They've shown the country that the Obama administration is weak, easily manipulated and scared to death of the right.

- It's given vile racists like Glenn Beck & Fox News a chance to show the country that they're more 'reasonable' than Vilsack & Obama (Beck has denounced the abrupt removal of Sherrod and Fox has announced it was wrong to show the edited film).

- Anything the Obama admin. does now will be (correctly) seen as scrambling wildly to to defuse a PR disaster.

No matter what happens next, I don't see how this is anything but a big win for the right-wing smear machine.

The White House needs to do something about Fox as well. There is limited seating in the Press Room, and those seats should be reserved for professional news organizations only.
And the Dept. of Agriculture can survive the loss of Vilsack.

While I wouldn't wish Sherrod's experience on anyone, this is turning out to be a good thing. The administration has been publicly punked by a cast of clowns we on the left have know about for years, I don't expect to see such naïveté from them in the future. Also, now these players, known to political junkies for some time, have been put in the public spotlight and been exposed as the lying scum they are. All that's needed to put this right, and capitalize on the situation, is for Sherrod to be publically reinstated with much fanfare, demonstrating that the administration supports its good and loyal foot soldiers and again shining the spotlight on the Fox/Breibart liars for the education of the general public.

Seems Brietbart got exactly what he wanted. The story about the TEA baggers being racist is dead and gone. The MSM is scrambling to blame the White House again without knowing the whole story or having facts behind them yet again, most employers blame the higher ups when letting an employee go.

Justice would be to fire Vilsack and appoint Sherrod to Sec. of the USDA or appoint her to head up the FCC.

More then likely she will sue the government instead of the FOX channel or Brietbart.

I have a hunch Vilsack was ordered to fire Sherrod by somebody at the White House. That is what she was told on two occasions. It happened so quickly that it just smells of White House political office pressure. If that is the case somebody in the White House has to go along with Vilsack. Vilsack has to leave because it is clear nobody in the Agriculture Department will ever have any respect for his leadership. The White House toadie has to leave because this isn't the first time they have been snookered by Briebart and Fox News.

Somebody needs to give Sherrod a job with a raise.

I retract my suggestion that vilsack should be fired since the WH gave it's stamp of approval. Fuck this administration. Where is President "I punch back" Grayson?

I feel like I'm in the fucking Twilight Zone. The USDA's "unfortunate history" had nothing to do with white farmers being unfairly treated. That was kind of the whole point of Ms. Sherrod's story. Something like, "Given the unfortunate history of minority and women farmers, you can imagine what I was thinking at the time..."

With the slightest bit of clever editing, MLK's "I Have a Dream" speech could be altered to sound like a hate-filled rant against white people.

But even in today's highly-charged racial/political climate, it's hard to believe someone would stoop so obviously low to do it.

Even by the ACORN "sting" standards, this hatchet job seems utterly surreal to me. Breitbart had to know how easy it would be to discover the true context of Sherrod's remarks and thereby expose his lie. The only reason for doing it that I can see is to simply stir up racial hatred prior to an election among people too hopelessly stupid to know the difference between reality and fantasy by someone without even the vaguest understanding of right and wrong.

I can forgive Vilsack. He can undo what he's done, and in doing so, he can help expose Breitbart for what he is.

@Hoyt Pollard

Well, yes... but that's the point. The winger accusations of racism are counter-factual and absurd on their face-- but that doesn't mean they can be ignored.

People, keep your eye on the ball, you are just doing what Breibart wanted in the first place - ie; to put the government in a bad light - point your anger at the person who did this - Breitbart - also Fox had a hand in this. Don't you see this is the rights agenda this fall, to show the left as being racist. They would like nothing better than to start a race war in this country and blame Obama. That is probably something the administration is aware of and went along with asking the lady to quietly resign.If you did not know the true color of Breitbart during the Acorn controversy you do now. It is time to support the President!

It's a forgivable offense -- if the secretary puts things right quickly, acknowledges his error, and begs Sherrod to come back to work.

Yes. But the clock is ticking. Vilsack needs to act swiftly -- after all, he sure did when it came to overracting to another dishonest conservative smear.

Well, here is a HUGE SURPRISE...our entire media and much of the blogosphere was PLAYED by this scumsucker Breitbart AGAIN!!! GEEZ, Charlie Brown...it wasn't until The Rachel Maddow Show and a little bit Anderson Cooper late into the evening that some SENSE returned to what passes as news reporting here in 'Merica...it is all about getting out there FIRST...seldom about actually finding out what is going on AND THEN SHARING...of course this woman should be reinstated in her well performed job AND, perhaps FINALLY someone out there in newsland will find the balls to do a story on the demise (not just of newspapers) but the news industry in this country...but I won't hold my breath...bite the hand that feeds you...I DON'T THINK SO...that might indicate some integrity...I'll be following up my e-mail to the WH with a call when offices open to add my voice to those who are waiting for President Obama to MAKE THIS RIGHT!!!!

Yes. And meanwhile, the NAACP has no excuse for being "snookered" by Fox News and/or Andrew Breitbart, since both have established histories of doing this in order to smear people. After the ridiculous ACORN escapade, there is simply no excuse for taking a step back when Breitbart presents a video to the media and asking reasonable questions about whether and how the video was edited and what the context was.

No excuse. None. They jumped in with a condemnation before knowing the facts -- based on a FOX NEWS REPORT!

jJS the AP has already given Breibart and especially Fox News a pass.

The White House political office has screwed this story coming and going. Somebody there is a complete fool.

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;

- Rudyard Kipling

Breitbart wins again. With this he has shown that he can yell "jump" and Democrats will ask "how high?"

Then, when exposed as a lie, it also shows that the Administration is open to drastic action at the slightest hint of controversy, taking said action without gathering the facts first.

Once, Obama responded to a reporter who had asked him about something in the news and why he hadn't made comment and he said "because I don't know all the facts." Where is that Obama? Or why has he allowed those who will jump at right wing propaganda to act before fact?

The only guy who can convert this lemon into lemonaid is Obama himself. He sure can't trust his employees to turn this into a teachable moment.

I'm beginning to wonder if the WH political team is tired. These little PR mistakes that they keep making are starting to stack up. I thought these guys were the smartest guys in the room.

The NAACP was spot on with its claim about the tea klux klan being a racist organization and this video smear is proof of that. But shame on them for piling on Sharrod's case without careful review. They totally blew their moral high ground. Vilsak and Obama share equally in this debacle.

Sherrod should sue Breitbart for defaming her by maliciously editing the video to fit his charge!

The White House needs to push back on the swill being flung by our not so friendly folks on the Right. When will the WH learn people and corporate organizations such as Breitbart and FOXNEWS will merely redirect, recalibrate and then re-charge them with crimes against their America all over again, once the inspired outrage has dissipated from their present slanderous smear.

The vicious, unAmerican focus on beating down a duly elected president is not an admirable trait of our fellow citizens who seem to be obsessed that the American electorate chose Mr. Obama to be our nation's leader.

Intervention during an infant's tantrum is a touchy measure. The Right has been throwing a national tantrum since November 2008. The Right's dangerous rhetoric, I believe, has helped spark violence in our nation - just look at Byron Williams in Berkeley, if you dare! -Kevo

p.s. Oh, and I don't think Mr. Williams ever wore a turban in his lifetime. Yes, my non-friends to my Right, domestic terrorism is just around the corner if you choose to continue throwing your tantrums in public!

"lemonaid." Gee,I am right up there with the literary giants--Shakespere and Sarah Palin.

[quote]Andrew Breitbart's initial claim that the video is "evidence of racism"[/quote] Indeed it is, just not by Sherrod but on the part of Breitbart and everyone who jumped on the initial bandwagon.

I'm more forgiving than not. Yes, Vilsack overreacted and wasn't suspicious enough to do due diligence, but any hint of racial favoritism by this administration could be fatal, and overreactions can be walked back, while underreactions or an endless and inconclusive investigation can turn into a ten-ton cement albatross around the administration's neck.

This could be turned into a very good thing, if Vilsack and the administration take responsibility for screwing up and use the occasion to talk about racist assumptions and undertones, how to overcome them, rightwinger lies, and how we all should do better the next time a load of republican hysteria hits the conservative airwaves. Basically, put Obama and Sherrod on TV for a reinstatement ceremony, with flags and as many relatives of the white farming family as can be found, where Sherrod gets to make her point all over again (with the benefit of careful scripting and short catchy soundbites), and Obama says he's committed to setting things right even if the Republicans make him do it one person at a time.

Obama should have Sherrod, Vilsack, and Breitbart to the White House for a beer.

Also, he should poison Breitbart's beer.

Btw, to those who think breitbart should be sued, don't kid yourselves. He may have selectively edited the tape, but he didn't show anything that sherrod didn't say. He has every right to argue that sherrod is a racist even if the argument is pathetic.

No, the price to be paid should be by Fox -- in credibility not legally -- and the WH.

If there is a God, this should sink Breitbart's credibility, even with Fox.

If there is a God, this should sink Breitbart's credibility, even with Fox.

Why would Fox do that? This is playing out exactly in one of the two scenarios they wanted.

Either the administration took time to figure out what was going on in this story -- and Fox runs 24/7 coverage with "Is Obama really racist enough not to fire this racist?" on the chyron. Or the administration rushes to judgment and looks foolish.

Make no mistake: The Obama administration bungled this badly, picking the worse option. (It's evidence that they're feeling the political heat.) But Fox's goal, as Breitbart's, was to put them between a rock and a hard place.

I like the part where Notso Breitbart tells Hannity he does not care what the rest of the video shows, the relevant parts show rampant racism. As if the remaining parts of the video were generally unrelated to the story at hand and not directly tied to what was shown by a slender little thread called "full context."

On the plus side, for him at least, his explanations will be enough for many and completely unnecessary for many more.

"It's a forgivable offense"

Depends. It's fast becoming a tipping point for this progressive. I've watched as this Administration has repeatedly tossed people under the bus for defensible things. If Vilsack does not issue a groveling apology and the White House does not come clean on its role, then they've lost this supporter.

Crenson-Sherrod should pee in Breitbart's beer.

I hope people realize that Fox isn't going to pay a price unless the WH gets the balls to take the network on directly.

Dan Rather's fall didn't happen by magic. The WH set him up. Then the Bushies exerted considerable pressure on CBS to make sure that CBS' internal investigation blamed Rather enough to justify dumping Rather.

Since the WH can't even manage to get Beck -- an unhinged maniac who spouts hysterical, racist nonsense on a nightly basis -- taken off the air, I highly doubt they will make an effort to punish Fox for using Breitbart as a source.

Square1: Since the WH can't even manage to get Beck -- an unhinged maniac who spouts hysterical, racist nonsense on a nightly basis -- taken off the air, I highly doubt they will make an effort to punish Fox for using Breitbart as a source.

The WH can't get Beck off the air — a la Dan Rather's downfall — precisely because he is an unhinged maniac and not an objective journalist.

On a side note, I see on HP that even Glenn Beck is calling for Sherrod's reinstatement.

Fox News Strikes Again Remember that Fox News touted a partially faked video that got governments to denounce and renounce ACORN? Fox False News has now helped to cause an unjustified firing of an USDA employee, Shirley Sherrod.

The video clip at the center of the controversy received widespread attention when it aired Monday night on Fox News, but it was first reported that morning in a story by Brietbart on BigGovernment.com. Taken completely out of contest, the video seemed to show that Sherrod, an African- American, had discriminated against a white farmer, withholding some benefits.

Without hearing Sherrod's side of the story and without viewing the full video, which showed her to be without bias, USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack called for her immediate resignation. his precipitous action was reportedly backed up by the White House.

This injustice may be reversed, but what does it show about Obama's administration.? Afraid of Fox News and Glenn Beck? Is the White House really cool and cerebral? Where is Rahm EmanueL? Isn't he running this administration?

homer www.altara.blogspot.com

It probably took longer to fake the video than it did to decide to "resign" Sherrod over the faked result. I think Agriculture needs a new Secretary just as much as Sherrod needs a new job. More.

The Washington Post front page piece on this today is unspeakably awful. What an embarassment for a once-great newspaper. I almost lost my breakfast reading it.

I agree, Virginia. It looks like they wrote it in the late afternoon and just tacked the late-breaking stuff.

Also, I heard Jim Vanderhei from Politico on Channel 8 news doing the same false equivalency stuff about the Tea Party's racist elements. Everyone has racist elements, he proclaimed, and blamed the NAACP for raising the issue in the first place.

Yep, Breitbart wins.

Why has it taken us so long to catch on? The quote out of context has been the Republican weapon of choice since the 2000 campaign, at least, when they managed to turn a legitimate claim by Al Gore about his sponsorship of legislation into a claim that he "invented the Internet," which some people will believe till the day they die. Remember Nancy Pelosi criticizing the tea party crowd for irresponsibly comparing Obama to Hitler, only to have her words taken out of context and quoted to mean that she was calling the tea partiers Nazis? Rush Limbaugh and Camille Paglia will never stop repeating that no matter how many times the record is set straight.

Fool me once, shame on you, fool me a dozen times and it's evidence that our national media has become drastically disfunctional. Any claim from Fox backed up with a video clip should automatically be assumed to be out of context and probably deceptively edited until proven otherwise, and no one should take any action, especially involving hiring or firing, without viewing the complete tape.

If Vilsack does not issue a groveling apology and the White House does not come clean on its role, then they've lost this supporter.

Yeah, that'll do it. And you'll be stuck with MORE Breitbart and MORE McConnell and MORE Fox and MORE Boehner and MORE Palin and MORE Beck, etc. Brilliant strategy.

Agriculture? Wasn't that Earl Butz's department?

chrenson says: "On a side note, I see on HP that even Glenn Beck is calling for Sherrod's reinstatement."

Of course he is. The same mofos who pushed the story are now taking her side against the admin. Brilliant, really.

Fox and Breitbart wanted something to smack Obama with. You folks are doing it for them!

This could be an excellent teachable moment where the President and Democrats show the country what lying monsters the republicans are and how Fox News lies to their audience to deceive the country. If they handle this right, then this can be a net positive. Use this to show the world and prove to them what republicans are all about!

"It's a forgivable offense"

Not when it happens again and again - Acorn-gate, Climate-gate and now USDA-gate.

All three, manufactured controversies. In all three cases, Democrats in power folded instead of fighting back.

If they keep succumbing to right-wing liars, maybe they deserve to be not in power?

If a right-wing pundit says it, I don't believe it, and that settles it.

IMHO, people should look at the errors in the text framing the edited video and the inconsistency between the text and the contents and ask themselves how they were so easily fooled. No way RD spends $1.2 billion in Georgia alone. No way Chapter 12 bankruptcy was just passed. No way Sherrod is talking about her actions in a federal job. No way the audience is expressing approval for discrimination.

I know that this would enlighten conservatives' heart but Vilsack got to go- I doubt anyone in the USADA would have any trust in his abilities; I would loathe working for a man like that.

It amazes me -- truly, honestly, in my heart stuns me -- that liberals haven't learned the Wingnut Strategy for Fake Controversy, given how long it's been happening.

Republicans will lie about an issue over and over again, or take some comment by a liberal wildly out of context, and do so in the media over and over again.

After pushing the story and getting it out there, they sit back and watch as the story dominates the news cycle, either for a day or several weeks, depending on the need.

And they do this with the knowledge that once the truth comes out, it will be a throw-away line in a newscast, or buried in the 8th graf of a story on page G-78.

Meanwhile, most Americans have moved on to the American Idol finals and have no clue the story they heard for days was actually utter and complete horseshit.

It worked with Clinton (he had people killed, sold coke in the Ark. gov's mansion, etc.) Al Gore's Internet comment, Kerry's non-flip-flop flip-flops in '04, Kerry's botched joke in '06, Obama's ... well, everything so far.

And they've done this for my entire life, and Democrats fall for it again and again and again, never able to get out ahead of the non-issue to diffuse it before it starts.

I honestly thought this would change with Obama, given how well his team did during the campaign. But they've failed in spectacular fashion so far.

If they're that stupid, they don't deserve to be in power.

Hopefully, the NAACP, Vilsack, and the Obama Admin have learned a valuable lesson. Don't ever trust Fox or any of their "newscasters", etc.

They could still create something of a victory out of this if they would do the following: anytime Fox accuses anyone of racism (or whatever) and demands that someone be fired, when an Obama spokesperson is interviewed and asked for a reaction, reply, "We will need to investigate this much more thoroughly before acting. Remember Sherrod? Remember ACORN? Fox has shown itself to be totally unreliable in the past." Or words to that effect.

And I just have to say to all of you who are threatening to withdraw support from the Obama Admin, shame on you. SHAME ON YOU! True, the Obama Admin is far from perfect, but look at the alternative! Please continue to criticize when they screw up. Please continue to hold their feet to the fire. But please DON'T sit on your hands and let the Bepublicans win by default. Do you REALLY want maniacs running the country? Sheesh!

I'm not so sure the White House was completely taken in by Breitbart/FOX's scam. I just don't believe these politicians are that naive.
The administration's response looks more like an effort to make the story go away as quickly as possible to avoid a political distraction. Hence the extreme urgency to get rid of Sherrod. I don't think they were concerned about the underlying truth -- or Sherrod -- one way or the other. This has all the earmarks of a Rahm "the fixer" Emanuel strategy.

If he reinstates her in a way that looks defensive, it will just cause the Right to smell blood and go in for the kill.

When he reinstates her, he needs not only to publicly apologize to her, but to say--in so many words, on national TV--that Breitbart is a despicable liar.

I think the White House needs to take a lesson from Sherrod's life and apologize profusely and use this as an example of how divisive the Rs really are.

"It doesn't matter what happens now:

- The right-wing smear machine have claimed another scalp.

- They've shown the country that the Obama administration is weak, easily manipulated and scared to death of the right..."-Gummo

Wrong. This is what commenters will try to turn it into.

What it clearly shows is that the Obama administration takes racism seriously AND treated FOX etc. like responsible journalists. It clearly demonstrates how much these people lie and cannot be trusted and BLATANTLY outs FOX and Breitbart as deceitful, unprofessional entities.

Now Obama is justified in excluding FOX from press gatherings etc. This is an insult to voters completely eradicating any credibility these organizations claimed to have. VICIOUS LIARS is an earned reputation easily demonstrated which does more to reduce the influence of these organizations than it does to tarnish the Obama administration.

Breitbart has made a laughingstock of FOX Noise cohorts in a way even low information voters can clearly see. Now saying "We told you so" has real substance. Now the only way to not know is to not 'want' to know these are lying partisan propaganda anti-democratic crazies filled with hate and destruction. Kind of like catching O'Reilly on video trying to pay a police officer to let him go down on him...you just would not look at him the same way again.

The republican propaganda media machine continues to self destruct in its own deceit and hypocrisy...just like senate republicans (30hrs more just to be more despicable???)

Fox news and Breibart need to be held legally accountable for initiating this. They went too far.

Breibart isn't smart enough to play with chess pieces, and he didn't intend for the debacle, he wanted the NAACP to fessup because his TParty image had been tarnished with the fallout of the tparty. He adamantly believed Ms Sherrod was racist and the hundreds of blogs and unintelligible rants from Fox verify this.

Not one person on the right has apologized to her. Sherrod has admitted that both Fox and Breibart were at fault.

They need to be held criminally accountable.