Pathological? Sociopathic?

Has anyone looked at the studies of personality types that dominate most American businesses?

And I don't think any of us needs a lesson in the different, but equally unbalanced, personalities that dominate entertainment and politics.

This is about kicking up a fuss, attracting eyeballs, and shaping a narrative Lying, manipulation, and a lack of a conscience are assets in this business, not liabilities.

The only surprise here is that "truth got its boots on" rather faster than usual.

Projection. Just like always with right-wingers.

Yesterday I had the sudden thought, "Rove and his minions must be behind this," because it seemed so like his MO to put Obama in this trap. I have no idea if there's any truth to that, but the racist blaming others for racism, the media manipulator blaming the media for being manipulated, is classic Rove.

Time for me (seriously) to pray for this country to be delivered from the unjust. It's almost as though they have no soul.

My fellow countryman.... and teabaggers...

Yes they really are a force that much apart.
They've no desire at all to "play country" with you or me or Barack.

Can you imagine what these traitorous teabaggers are going to pull if they get control of Congress?
Let Shirley Sherrod be the warning shot across the bow...

He feeds the trolls that live in that alternate reality you regularly sniff out and post about. I work with one and it is bizzaro world. They get fed by Brietbart and Fox and off they run. Pure insanity and never a need to apologize it is always someone else's fault.

The man is truly delusional and pathological. He has done with a camera and editing software what Byron Williams tried unsuccessfully to do with a car full of guns and ammo.

Time for a massive defamation suit. Breitbart has to pay.

Of course the media is to blame. They trusted Breitbart. And I predict they will again.

apparently, the currently popular right-wing response is to point to some alleged approval in the audience when sherrod's story came up, not that anyone can explain how they know what was in the audience's mind.

but more seriously, breitbart is a typical denizen of the rightwing swamps. what i want to know is how come tom vilsack still has a job? he should be canned, immediately, with the exact same due process concerns he gave sherrod.

As sad as it is that Breitbart is beating up the press for mainstreaming his story, as he wanted them to do, it is not nearly as pathetic as it will be to see those same journalists come back to his blog for more.

Isn't this the same guy that was behind the 'pimp' and Acorn story? Are there no legal angles to pursue?

The right wing's problem (among multitudes of course), is similar to that of a misbehaving adolescent that never really get's punished for bad behavior. By not facing any consequences, the behavior is passively condoned.

Joe Buck's idea is actually a good one. The standard in these cases is that Breitbart must be shown to have acted with actual malice or a reckless disregard for the truth. His actions appear to meet that standard perfectly.

With any luck at all Breitbart will get his ass sued good. He is acting like he is the victim, but he clearly lied about when the speech was made. He claimed it was when she was working for the Fed and she was actually working for the state. An easy fact to find.

This whole thing has really spoke a lot about our country. She 'resigned' before the story even really broke-out. Not too many white men, republicans especially, step-down w/i a day, none that I can think of.

If you are black in this country and there is even a hint of racism, you are a plague that needs to be gone yesterday. It sickens me they way my own party responded, the party of equality and diversity is so gutless they would rather toss a black woman to the curb then take a breathe and figure out the truth.

Ditto for Acorn.

I am tired of this bullshit villainizing of everything liberal, so that when there is anything peculiar, boom and it's gone, fired, whatever, the action is swift and relentless.

FOX has also rubbed their noses in it for falling for their schtick by running the headline "Video Backs Up Sherrod's Claim Obama Administration Overreacted."

I'm just wondering if he'll get away with it. I don't think he's delusional; I think he's following a rational strategy to push his own agenda.

At first I thought he was using his video (according to his version on GMC this morning) to show how the NAACP audience was racist for cheering and clapping when Ms. Sherrod first told them how she felt about helping the white farmer. He then tried to equate it with the spitting and shouting of the N word during the healthcare incident (which he claimed didn't happen) and how the liberal media made this a prime example of showing racism among Tea Party supporters. It was very convoluted reasoning...but he was even dishonest when describing the audience reaction. After I viewed the entire video, the audience cheered and clapped loudest and most robustly when she came to the end of her heartening story. He meant to do an injustice and he succeeded.

A TRUE journalist right now would be confronting Breitbart and demanding that he name the source of the video he received. Breitbart is himself guilty of airing it without any research and tweeting it to keep it going, but if he didn't do the editing, he got it from someone who did. That someone had to know exactly what they were doing because you can't look at the original footage and sustain an argument that Sharrod is a racist. You had to deliberately cut up the full talk and use just those pieces that created that impression. Whoever did that had no compunction about creating a piece designed to destroy Sharrod's reputation while knowing it was a lie.

Who did that Andrew....and who are they linked to? What are their motives. As noted in another post, names like Rove, Armey, and the ACORN Slimers come readily to mind.

How can you possibly be surprised? Breitbart is like an arsonist that is sorry you're homeless after he burned down your house.

I'm with Joe Buck - sue the fucker within an inch of his life.

I'm sure Breitbart's pathetic statements today are just part of him trying to protect himself from such a lawsuit.

Breitbart really puts the rat in ratfuck.

What does the SOB mean they. He is the guy who released the misleadinig clip. I get the feeling the lying sack of manure thinks he has seen his career go up in smoke. He is afraid that he going to go join the ranks of the unemployed, never to be heard from again.

Not an employment lawyer, or a First Amendment expert by any stretch of the imagination, but I am guessing that Ms. Sherrod has a pretty strong libel claim to bring against this scumbag and his organization, and perhaps, against Fox and other outlets who further broadcast and published it. Take your apology out of his wallet Ms. Sherrod, please!

"almost sociopathic."

Almost?

I dunno about a lawsuit. It would be martyrdom, which is glorious. And it would be a fundraising windfall for the Right, out of which any settlement would be only a small part.

I prefer the idea of a "teachable moment." Obama should take responsibility for the situation, take credit for setting it right, and in the course of his explanation describe in sober, clinical detail the gross distortions, exaggerations, and misleading claims made by the entire right-wing food chain. Most people, hearing that succinctly presented, will be rightfully disgusted.

"Sunlight is the best disinfectant."

Breitbart is like an arsonist that is sorry you're homeless after he burned down your house.

And who, when questioned, blames the company that made the matches.

Wow. That was distrurbing.

Sociopathic &Pathological: The British Journal reported on a study done by the University of California that did mRI studies on Pathological liars, those predisposed to lie and cheat.

What they found was those that lied so easily had less gray mater in their prefrontal cortex of their brains than normal people.

The radical extremist republicans and their supporters have adopted the "Big Lie" of Hitler's propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels. Goebbels perfected the "Big Lie" and repeated it over and over to brainwash the German citizenry.

The really big lying started under the illegal administration of covert president cheney and puppet bush. Over 980 lies were told to get the US citizens prepared for the invasion and occupation of Iraq. They must have told tens of thousands of lies in the 8 years of their miserable failure administration.

During the 2004 general election bush/cheney and their supporters used fear on the American people. Cheney and bush would make a statement that Al Qaeda might attack America, Condi Rice would affirm, and then Michael Chertoff/Homeland Security Chief chimed in and stated "I have a gut feeling that Al Qaeda was going to attack."

That helped them to get elected along with voter fraud in Ohio. They could not use Florida for the second time to steal an election so they chose Ohio.

Where does Tom Vilsack fit in? He says he's trying to reach Shirley Sherrod to apologize. Well, if he's trying to apologize, he knows he did something wrong. But he's still, I gather, "conducting a review" of his own actions. If he knows he did wrong, undo it, don't piddle around with a "review" of your own stupid actions. Don't 'try to reach' Shirley Sherrod. Apologize publicly. Come completely clean. Admit that you panicked and did something really stupid. In front of TV cameras.

Maybe then Shirley Sherrod will take your call.

Breitbart pushed a deliberately misleading video that went after Shirley Sherrod for no reason. He proceeded to label her a "racist" who "racially discriminates against a white farmer,"[...] --Steve Benen

...and who, when the same farmer (and his wife) publicly denied that charge, started pushing the idea that they're fake. I wouldn't be surprised to hear that, as we speak, he's looking for marble countertops in their farmhouse. Paid for by Sherrod, to bribe them into confirming her side of the story, of course.

He's a poor imitation of a human being.

Libs got played. No shock there...

I've seen the original, Breitbart-edited version, and I can't see the racism in it. Ms. Sherrod says something like, This white guy comes in and acts like a jerk to show he's superior to me, and as he does so, I'm thinking, I'm not going to do everything I possibly could for this guy. I'll take him over to this white lawyer, let him take care of one of his own.

What am I missing? Is being turned over to a white lawyer some sign of inferior treatment? Do white individuals have the right to act like jerks to black people and not suffer any consequences for it? At no point does Ms. Sherrod say anything like, He's white, therefore I will treat him differently. She says, He's a jerk, there I will not go out of my way for him.

In any case, Ms. Sherrod did go out of her way to help this guy after she saw him getting short shrift from the white lawyer, and even says so in that little clip.

i still don't understand why vilsack still has a job: breitbart simply behaved according to type, but vilsack had a choice....

David Kurtz calls the remarks "almost sociopathic."

There ain't no "almost" about it. He is, in my opinion, a sick man, and the press is enabling him.

How can you possibly be surprised? Breitbart is like an arsonist that is sorry you're homeless after he burned down your house.

More like an arsonist who burns down your house and then blames you for not putting out the fire.

Unless and until there are real repercussions against this behavior, it will continue. Loss of credibility - when no established media follow that tune, when lawsuits succeed, when there is vilification in the court of public opinion.

Short of these kinds of repercussions, this MO will happen and happen and happen.

Just as planned. They will hide behind a free speech banner at the same time they block others from using it.

Obama should ask for Tom Vilsack's resignation for really bad judgment. It's analogous to McCrystal.

Shirley Sherrord should sue Andrew Breitbart and Fox News for everything that the law permits. Pathological liars must be confronted. People who lie and get away with it are emboldened to lie again.

And progressives should start harping on this, over and over. This is such a clear case that we can use it to help those who have been blinded. "The right wing--including Fox news--lie to you. It's a demonstrated fact. The right wing lies." It is this last consequence that has Breitbart trying to bluff his way out of responsibility. He should be on everyone's blacklist now--liberal and conservative--like something radioactive.

Sorry, I know this isn't PC, but I hope this MFing creature dies a long, painful, cancerous death. That no one will mourn him, goes without saying.

"the media is to blame. They trusted Breitbart. And I predict they will again."

I agree. It's about selling eyeballs. Maybe the best we can hope for is for the majority of people to stop believing what they see and read. Like the Pravda during the USSR, citizens just assumed everything they read was put there for a reason, and any relation to the truth was coincidental.

"The right wing--including Fox news--lie to you. It's a demonstrated fact. The right wing lies."

Completely correct. They've lied for years, since 9/11. And the Tea-Bagging stooges have slurped it up. Time for the MSM to step up and tell the truth. Not that it's going to happen, but episodes like this exemplify what's wrong with the 'media' these days. Old Wally is rolling in his grave....

This incident is a libel-suit-in-the-making. Public figure can win if the publisher demonstrates a "reckless disregard for the truth." Sounds like Breibart's MO to me.

Hmmm. Does Breitbart have the intelligence to time this thing so that it would step on the news about Obama's Wall Street Reform bill? I don't mean to get all tinfoil-hat here, but inquiring minds want to know.

@Russell: "This incident is a libel-suit-in-the-making. Public figure can win if the publisher demonstrates a "reckless disregard for the truth." Sounds like Breibart's MO to me."

From your lips to a jury's ears. Breitbart should enter a world of litigation hurt for this one.

That he said this with a straight face is disconcerting.

Psychopath. No conscience. No empathy. He lies like a carpet, his lies cause a woman to lose her job, and he sleeps like a baby afterward.

He doesn't feel sorry for Shirley Sherrod. Couldn't care less.

The bigger problem here is that -- with the exception of FOX, who can always be counted on to run with this type of garbage -- the media picked this story up at all. Breitbart didn't just come out of nowhere; the Acorn flap proved he was a liar, a loutish drunken right-wing bomb thrower who should be taken about as seriously as a three-year-old throwing a tantrum. Would it have been too much trouble for some enterprising reporter to at least do a cursory check to see what the actual facts were in Breitbart's latest ginned-up "controversy?" One would think after falling for his crap once they'd have wised up.

I hope Shirley Sherrod sues his miserable ass for all it's worth, and sues FOX at the same time.

This is one of the biggest differences between the right and left. The right gets something wrong and quickly apologizes many times and tries to get it fixed (many conservatives calling for Sherrod to get her job back) and the left, love them or hate them, simply digs in their heels and worries about the instant political damage and denies denies denies they did anything wrong. Seriously, what has the modern left admitting getting wrong in the past few years? Anything?

Breitbart has moved on from asshole to just plain prick.

Mark E will simply be told to shut up in 5, 4, 3, 2,...

Oh poor little victim, Markie E. Makes a comment OT, demonstrably not true (YOUR Homework assignment: try and disprove your own lazily thrown out thesis) and designed to incite and then cries in preemptive complaint.

If you want to have people discuss what you deem to be important, start up your own blog. I'm sure the two or three readers you'd attract will never tell you to STFU.

Steve - ending with "disconcerting" sounds like an upper-class dork stock movie character. Can you sound more like a real person?

Can you sound more like a real person?
Posted by: Neil B' on July 21, 2010 at 8:55 PM |

Geez Neil, isn't that a little harsh? Really, what should he have replaced "disconcerting" with? "Totally fuckin' whack?"

That's why I like reading this blog because, like Digby's, it's very well written.

T-Rex, I was thinking the same thing. Not only would it steal the news cycle about Wall Street Reform, but it would also make the NAACP look bad.

Just another prep school douche bag--Breitbart is about a 1/2 step removed from Robert Chambers and with even less regret for his actions.

electrolite: The bigger problem here is that -- with the exception of FOX, who can always be counted on to run with this type of garbage -- the media picked this story up at all. Breitbart didn't just come out of nowhere; the Acorn flap proved he was a liar, a loutish drunken right-wing bomb thrower who should be taken about as seriously as a three-year-old throwing a tantrum. Would it have been too much trouble for some enterprising reporter to at least do a cursory check to see what the actual facts were in Breitbart's latest ginned-up "controversy?" One would think after falling for his crap once they'd have wised up.

"Some enterprising reporter"? How quaint.

The MSM "falls for" the crap churned out by Breitbart and his ilk because it's now their job to do that very thing.

David Kurtz calls the remarks "almost sociopathic." Simon Maloy labels Breitbart's response "pathological."

"ALMOST sociopathic"? Brietbart is a classic sociopath. Including the part about being so much smarter than everybody else there is no way he'll get caught.