Biased News: Hounding a Good Woman

The following extensive quote comes from an interview that Joe Strupp from Media Matters conducted with Shirley Sherrod, the victim of Breitbart, Fox, and racism. Breitbart is a right wing, self-styled journalist. Fox claims it disseminates unbiased news. These liars in righ-wing clothing swooped their collective strength down on an ordinary hard-working African American woman, destroying her reputation for no reason other than self-aggrandisement. Shame on both and a pox on both their so-called news houses:

Here is a portion of the text of the interview by Joe Strupp and in Shirley's own words::

"But the clear damage to Sherrod comes from Breitbart, who posted the tape without context, and Fox, which ran with the story and did not seek to confirm it.

"The news media should tell it like it is and not the way they want it to be," she said.

Sherrod said Breitbart never contacted her before posting the video clip to ask about it.

"I never heard that name until a few minutes ago," she said Tuesday night about Breitbart. "He never contacted me. I think they intended it to be what it ended up being, a racist thing that could unite even more the racist people out there who follow them."

She also said Fox News never checked the facts with her before posting a story and the video clip.

"Not before they reported it," she said of Fox's negligence. "They have called me today and initially I had said yes (to an interview), but I thought about it and I did not think they intended to be fair in their reporting. They are going to say what they want to say regardless of what I say."

She said Fox showed no professionalism in continuing to bother her for an interview, but failing to correct their coverage.

"I think they should but they won't. They intended exactly what they did. They were looking for the result they got yesterday," she said of Fox. "I am just a pawn. I was just here. They are after a bigger thing, they would love to take us back to where we were many years ago. Back to where black people were looking down, not looking white folks in the face, not being able to compete for a job out there and not be a whole person."

Still, Fox continued to push for an interview with her, Sherrod said.

"It was unbelievable. I am refusing to be on there. They have been calling me and calling me. I have refused to do an interview because they are biased," she explained. "I don't think Fox News does it fairly. It is worse so now. I have sat and listened to the way they cover the news even before this administration and I saw what was going on."

Sherrod said this situation has worsened her view of racism in media coverage.

"I think it is race. You think we have come a long way in terms of race relations in this country, but we keep going backwards," she said. "We have become more racist. This was their doing, Breitbart put that together misrepresenting what I was saying and Fox carried it."

Sherrod said she has gotten no future job offers and believes this will scar her reputation forever, even if all the facts come out.

"There will be people who always think of this," she said. "I can see in the future whatever I do, this story will be recounted, no matter what. This will be brought up. People will constantly be trying to point out negative things."

Have other job offers come up? "No, no one. People are afraid of me now, I guess, with all of this. That is the other fallout from this. Anyone would be afraid of me, maybe I am a troublemaker, a racist."

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said he is reviewing the matter, hinting that Sherrod could possibly get her job back.

Asked if she would return if asked, she said: "I think I would have to go back for a short time, even if I did not stay for a long haul. I would need to prove a point, that I can be bigger than them. I was doing a lot of good things. People had access to that office that never did before. I had reached out to the poorest counties."

As we know, she was offered a job. Like her, I do believe that her reputation has been forever damaged. What strikes me most in this controversy is the number of people who still think that her firing was reasonable and that she is a racist. She owned up to a mistake made years ago, but many think that she still thinks along those veins. Reading the comments on this Hot Air post gave me the willies. Why are these people so vitriolic against someone they have never met? Is common sense debate no longer possible in our country?

To make matters worse, after the farmer and his wife in question were interviewed by CNN, Breitbart's primary reaction on another show was to ask, "How do they know this is really the farmer's wife?" Nice, Breitbart. Really classy.