Fox News officials, who had contended for more than a week that they did not post any information about the edited video of Shirley Sherrod until after she was fired, admitted tonight that a web story did run.

Politico reports that Fox News Senior Vice President of News Michael Clemente said a “breakdown” had occurred among news staffers, which allowed a story about the edited video to run online before the full context was known and before Sherrod's firing on July 19.

“As far as Fox's television broadcast is concerned ... The first mention of the Sherrod video, which surfaced on Monday, July 19th on Andrew Breitbart's BigGovernment.com, was made later that day on Bill O'Reilly's 8 p.m. show. O'Reilly later apologized for how he characterized Sherrod,” Politico reported. “But FoxNews.com did run a story about the existence of the video, titled 'Video Shows USDA Official Saying She Didn't Give 'Full Force' of Help to White Farmer' at 5:58 p.m. on Monday, an hour before the Agriculture Department announced Sherrod's resignation. And Wednesday, Clemente told Politico that was a mistake."

Media Matters documented the posting as well in a timeline of events related to the
Sherrod video.

“There was a breakdown in the system, and it is being addressed,” Clemente told Politico. “But it must say something about the power of Fox, that a week after she resigned, we're still talking about this.”

Politico added: “The breakdown occurred following Fox's afternoon news meeting that day, when Clemente, according to The Washington Post's Howard Kurtz offered the following advice: 'Let's take our time and get the facts straight on this story. Can we get confirmation and comments from Sherrod before going on-air. Let's make sure we do this right.'

“Clemente said he gave the advice in the meeting, not in a memo to staff, and his guidance clearly did not make it down to the reporter and producers who put the story on FoxNews.com”