Truth.. What Truth ?

The Shirley Sherrod smear and forced resignation on July 19 has over taken the media by storm and it shines a light on a national issue that is as old as the United States..Race.

Shirley Sherrod who was the Georgia State Director of Rural Redevelopment for the United States Department of Agriculture was forced to resign from her position by a White House representative from the Department of Agriculture. The resignation resulted from an online posted video excerpt of a speech Sherrod gave to a Georgia chapter of the NAACP in March 2010. Hunting for a smoking gun regarding racism in the NAACP Andrew Breitbart a right wing blogger and regular guest on Fox News posted the edited video excerpts from the March 2010 speech on his conservative web site "Big Government."

The edited speech was cut in such away as to make Sherrod look like she was a racist and a story she told about an incident that took place over twenty years ago was recent and while serving in the Obama administration. When Fox News decided to run with the story they turned it into a " Stop the Presses Event " Fox News interrupted their programing calling the edited video a "Fox News Alert" giving the deception that this was a recent story.

Breitbart allegedly claims to have been given the video by an unknown individual who doctored the tape but being that he is not a journalist the rules of vetting and or checking your sources do not apply.


How did This Happen ?

At a recent NAACP convention it was voted by the members of the convention that they would ask the leaders of the Tea Party Movement to repudiate the racism in their ranks. Fox News and Andrew Beirbret countered by attacking the NAACP as racisit and began searching for dirt on the NAACP and its members.


Beirbret wanted to prove that the NAACP were racist he was more than happy to immediately post the video. It was given first to Fox News who was willing to air the unsubstantiated smear, it is no secret that Fox News is a 24 hour propaganda machine for the GOP, and an ardent critic of democrats, the president and the NAACP. When the White house discovered that Fox News and Glenn Beck were airing the video they panicked.

In an attempt to preempt the controversy and the press coverage, according to Ms Sherrod in a CNN interview, a White House official contacted Ms.Sherrod by Black Berry and insisted that she resign on the spot, with out giving her the benefit of explaining her side of the smear campaign, truth be dammed and journalism integrity was thrown out the window. Beirbert, Fox News, and not one member of the White House staff took the time to check the facts before destroying this woman's life.

The whole story of her speech that was taken out of context and supposed racist statement was really a story of change. How a young black woman in the rural south helped a white farmer save his farm in spite of her struggle with anger against white men because her father was murdered in 1965 Georgia by white farmers when she was a teenager.

Once the press picked up on the video, Ben Jealous the president of the NAACP also suggested she resign.

Race, Breitbart and Fox News

Two media entities MSNBC and Media Matters have joined with a minority of bloggers and editorial writers call out Fox News for their continued fake bias news. Yet ABC, NBC, CBS,CNN and others have run scared of criticizing Fox News the big question is why?


It is no secret that Fox has a carefully thought out strategy of keeping negative press on Obama before their audience 24/7. Even MSNBC who is touted as having a liberal slant takes a break from politics on the weekend, dedicating their weekend programing to crime and prison stories
but Fox News never sleeps and neither does their President Obama attack Squad.

Money Buys Intimidation Power

It is as plain as the nose on ones face the owner of Fox News is one of the wealthiest men in the world and as such he calls big shots. Rupert Murdoch is an Australian born billionaire who is the owner of multiple media entities, such as News Corp,Fox News, Fox Business News and all things Fox. The New York Post News Paper as well as 174 other papers. He owned as many as 35 Television stations that reach about 40 percent of the country including Direct TV. He owns the ultra conservative "Weekly Standard Magazine."

He process so much power and pull, that he can command a private meeting with politicians and world leaders even President Obama. So the bottom Line is Rupert Murdoch is a billionaire ultra conservative who is an apologist for the powerful and wealthy racial majority.


Even though all of our news is controlled by big business corporations such as Disney, General Electric, Viacom, only Fox News has decided that lies sell better then the truth. What if Shirley Sherrods whole 30 plus minute speech had not been taped and her story of learning to help others no matter what race and her ability to over come her own prejudices had not been revealed to the press? What if the white farmer who's farm and land Shirley helped to save had not been reached by CNN and they stated on air she was responsible for helping them.

Blame Obama " Why Won't Obama Tackle the Race Issue"?

It worked Fox News and even Berbreit escapped the real media scrutiny because the press decided to go after the president and not the real source of the smear and where it all started. On Sunday Morning programs spent all the time discussing "the rush to judgment and placed the issue at the presidents door.

(Here is the funny part) I love how the Sunday Morning political talk shows want to discuss racism in American with a panel of five white guest and one black guest and they see nothing wrong with that. The president does walk a thin line because if he talks about race he is called a racist, if he does not talk about race he is attacked...a simple case of " Damned if You Do and Damned if You Don't "


Even Fox News got on the band wagon and started blaming the White House for not vetting the information on Ms Sherrod that is like shooting some one and blaming them for getting in the way of the bullet.


Bottom Line

Fox News has been scarring the White public for years and recently they have been using the fact that Barrack Obama and Attorney General Holder are black as an excuse for not going after two or twelve loony members of the so called New Black Panther Party for voter intimidation. Fox News whole agenda is to assure that Republicans take control of the house and possibly the Senate in November at any cost even the truth.


What If the media allowed Fox News and Beirbret racism to continue to control the spin and did nothing..... Oh Yeah They Are


K Gerard Thomas