Sherrod Coverage Ranked Second Among News Stories

Coverage of Shirley Sherrod, the former Agriculture Department official forced to resign after Andrew Breitbart's edited video of her sparked controversy, ranked second only to economic news among the most reported news stories of last week.

The Pew Research Center's Project For Excellence in Journalism weekly News Coverage Index found that 14% of news coverage between July 19 and July 25 was devoted to the Sherrod story.

The Sherrod story was beaten only by economic news, which accounted for 17% of news coverage. Sherrod stories beat coverage of the gulf oil spill, terrorism, and the 2010 elections, the report found.

After Breitbart posted the video clip, which he attempted to use to paint Sherrod as a racist, the entire context was revealed and showed quite the opposite. The story initially led Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to force Sherrod to resign. He later offered her a new job, which she has yet to take.