Gene Lyons at Salon reminds us of this important point: Far from showing reserve, let alone common decency, by not jumping on the Shirley Sherrod smear campaign before the full context of her quotes were made clear, or before he was able to get any kind of quote from Sherrod, Glenn Beck instantly peddled the phony attack against Sherrod.

And he did it on his radio show.

The smear campaign broke on July 19. The next morning Beck was hammering it on his nationally syndicated program (“This is amazing”), airing portions of the wildly out of context Sherrod quotes and demeaning her as a racist bent on revenge.

But Beck didn't have time to hype it on his Fox News show, because by that night the whole story had collapsed, at which point Beck made a dash for the faux high road.

Writes Lyons [emphasis added]:

But something funny happened in between Beck's morning radio program on July 20 and his afternoon TV show. Thanks to the Atlanta Journal Constitution and CNN, Breitbart's little hoax had begun to fall apart. Sherrod had vigorously contested the mischaracterization of her speech to the NAACP. The “white farmer” whose property she saved defended her honor.

No sooner had a craven Obama White House forced Sherrod's resignation than she began to look like an American heroine.

So Beck went on television to cover his tracks. “I don't think Shirley should have been fired -- or, I'm sorry, forced to resign,” he manfully announced. “Based on the facts that we have right now, this is something that I wouldn't air and demand a resignation on.”

*Headline has been corrected. I originally claimed Beck pushed the story before Sherrod resigned. She resigned on the night of July 19, and Beck started pushing the story on the morning of July 20.

It's telling that Beck did so since on the morning of July 20 both CNN and the Atlanta Journal Constitution debunked the smear that Beck spread when he suggested the story Sherrod told about dealing with a white farmer happened while she was an Obama administration official. In fact, that story happened during the 1980's. Beck didn't tell his radio listeners that part.