Fox smears Sherrod as racist, Sherrod cancels Fox interview
July 20, 2010 5:19 pm ET by Matt Gertz
Late in her program today, Megyn Kelly announced that her interview with former USDA official Shirley Sherrod -- which Kelly had touted throughout the show -- was off. Kelly said that Sherrod had "changed her mind," even after Fox had "offered her a considerable amount of time" to "clear the air" and "tell her story."
Boy, I wonder why that happened? Maybe it had something to do with Fox's initial coverage of "her story," in which numerous Fox figures responded to Andrew Breitbart's heavily edited clip of Sherrod's speech by claiming it was evidence that Sherrod was a racist.
- FoxNews.com's first report on Sherrod reported her statements made in the clip, but gave no indication that it might have been taken out of context. It reported that Fox was "seeking a response from both the NAACP and the USDA," but not that they had attempted to find the full version of the tape or contact Sherrod herself.
- In Fox News' first on-air mention of Sherrod, Bill O'Reilly aired a portion of the Breitbart-pushed clip, then called her comments "simply unacceptable" and said Sherrod "must resign immediately."
- In the next hour, Sean Hannity led off with the Sherrod story, which he called "Just the latest in a series of racial incidents." Fox contributor Newt Gingrich then said that she had displayed a "viciously racist attitude."
- Later that evening, subbing for Greta Van Susteren on On the Record, Dana Perino said Sherrod had been "caught on tape making racially charged comments to an NAACP audience," and said the video "adds fuel to a growing controversy after the NAACP approved a resolution condemning the tea party movement for not denouncing racist members."
- The next day on Fox & Friends, Steve Doocy said Sherrod had been caught "making a speech to the NAACP that sure sounded racist." Then Alisyn Camerota accused her of "touting this in this anecdote as though this is, you know, a feather in her cap, somehow, for her to be congratulated." Then Camerota and Doocy agreed that the comments were "Exhibit A" as far as "what racism looks like."
no less. You're getting opinion and lies confused.
'O'Keefe Journalism.'
What I'm actually waiting for now is for these guys all to start attacking the administration for acting before all the facts were in. That would be their usual course, and one they can easily adopt with absolutely straight faces.
Kudos to CNN for -- for once -- actually making enough effort to go out and find the reality in this story.
You got it. Beck apparently has managed to both attack the administration for making Sherrod a "sacrificial lamb" AND point to her as proof that far deeper and more disturbing reverse-racism exists in the Obama admin...I can't quote directly because listening to him that long made me throw up in my mouth a little, but it was along the lines of the WH being so quick to throw her under a bus because they think that getting rid of her will make the story go away, but oh no, it won't. It just proves that the WH is so afraid of free journalists, that they'll be trying to shut him up, look how quickly they got rid of .. yeah, you get the idea.
Ms.Sherrod would not step a foot on any fox news set!
i was shocked, SCHOCKED, to turn on my t.v. today and find Glenn Beck defending the woman, and the panel on Special Report saying she should be given her job back. what the hell is going on here? since when did something being proven false mean that convervatives don't just go ahead and push it anyway?
and who looks the worse from all this? Brietbart? The NAACP? The White House? something just isn't making sense here.
Who will stand up for you when you are deal a wrongfull blow?
Just desserts
But honestly, folks, Fox does slant conservative, while the mainstream media slants liberal. Neither means to slander or misrepresent, both do. When it happens, they need to correct, apologize, and move on.