FLASHBACK: When Breitbart Claimed He Never Asked For Sherrod To Be Investigated

Written by Eric Boehlert

Published

If you haven't read the court papers filed on behalf of Shirley Sherrod who is suing Andrew Breitbart and blogger Larry O'Connor for defamation in the role they played last summer in launching a failed smear campaign against her (she's racist!), you really ought to take a moment to give them a read. The fact is right-wing smear campaigns come and go so quickly and begin to blend into one another that it's easy to forget how nasty and hateful they really are. It's easy to forget how mindlessly irresponsible they are and to forget about the victims in play.

Plus, if you give court papers a read you'll be able to recall just how much difficulty Breitbart had telling the truth last July and how challenging it was for him to keep his crumbling storylines straight. For instance, here was Breitbart on Twitter just as he was launching the doomed Sherrod escapade. Filled with false bravado, he wanted to world to know he had the goods on the unknown civil servant:

And:

Pay particular attention to the second Tweet, where Breitbart wants to know if the United States Attorney General was going to launch a Department of Justice investigation based on Breitbart's video caper. (Ego, much?) So yeah, Breitbart clearly called for Sherrod to be investigated.

Now fast forward just three days and in the wake of the crumbling Sherrod crusade (turns out she's not a racist), here was Breitbart being interviewed by CBS [emphasis added]:

So I believe that Shirley sees things through a racial prism. She has the right to do that. I'm sorry that the White House threw her under the bus. I did not ask for her to be investigated. I did not ask for her to be fired.

And Breitbart on CNN that same day:

Did I even ask for an investigation of her? I am not the one that threw her under the bus. The Obama administration and the NAACP, which was in possession, according to itself, of the full video.

Oops. Breitbart went from taunting the US AG, to suddenly claiming he never suggested Sherrod should be investigated. Like I said, you really should read the court papers which nicely capture the Gang-That-Couldn't-Shoot-Straight vibe that permeates Breitbart's misguided operation.