In a July 26 Washington Times op-ed, Tony Blankley defended Andrew Breitbart in his smear of Shirley Sherrod, writing that when Breitbart posted his deceptively edited video of Sherrod, “he alerts the viewer, 'Eventually, her basic humanity informs that this white man is poor and needs help.' It's in the video, and it is in the text of Mr. Breitbart's original post on the topic.” Blankley then wrote: “Yet the mainstream media selectively edits out this exonerating fact in virtually every story about Mr. Breitbart. So the subsequent charge against Mr. Breitbart by the mainstream media that his editing was misleading is itself misleading and wrong.”
As Media Matters has noted, a one-sentence reference to Sherrod's “basic humanity” does not “exonerat[e]” Breitbart or put the video in context, especially when framed by misleading snippets of information that underline Sherrod's purported racism. Further, Blankley does not note that, in his post, Breitbart continued to smear Sherrod, the Democrats, the NAACP, and the mainstream media for a “willingness to exploit race for political ends.”
Previously:
Sunday media call out Breitbart, Fox for running with bogus attacks on Sherrod
Circling the wagons: Right-wing media figures rush to defend Breitbart
CNN's Cooper detonates Breitbart's NAACP applause falsehood
Media denounce Breitbart's tactics, highlight his loss of credibility