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crossposted on Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters
The Shirley Sherrod debacle was bound to happen sooner or later. With the 24-hour-media constantly buzzing and “senior analysts” of thinktanks constantly tossing out inaccurate talking points to fit their positions rather than educating the public, someone was bound to get stung.
The only thing that kept this situation from becoming worse was Sherrod's will to stand up herself rather than crumble under the glare of negative media attention.
Now despite the need to constantly harp on the White House and NAACP for the Sherrod debacle (and some of the harping is very legitimate), one cannot deny that the two entities got overcome by a coordinated right-wing swarm that made their heads spin before they even had time to assess the situation.
A timeline by the group Media Matters details how quickly the Sherrod story moved through right-wing circles. A brief excerpt is as follows:
Monday
11:18 a.m.*: Breitbart posts Sherrod video, calls her “racist,” claims “Context is everything.”
Fox News amplifies Breitbart's deceptively edited video
12:13 p.m.: Hoft runs with Breitbart video.
12:55 p.m.: HotAir's Morrissey: “Breitbart hits NAACP with promised video of racism.”
1:40 p.m. (approximately): Fox Nation accuses Sherrod of “discrimination caught on tape” before she resigned.
1:49 p.m.: Ace of Spades picks up Sherrod story, calls it an example of “your government, working for you.”
3:31 p.m.: Elizabeth Scalia of the blog The Anchoress raises questions about the editing of Breitbart's video.
4:01 p.m. Ace of Spades reports that CBS' NYC affiliate picked up Sherrod story, declares, “Breitbart gets results.”
4:28 p.m. (approximately): Sherrod story hits Drudge.
4:50 p.m.: Breitbart tweets to Media Matters: “Tomorrow's gonna be a long day.”
7:51 p.m.*: Big Government links to a FoxNews.com article reporting that Sherrod had resigned and USDA repudiated her remarks.
8:21 p.m.: Allahpundit questions the video's editing, but says he will “assume Breitbart's edit is fair to the spirit of her remarks.”
8:50 p.m.: O'Reilly airs Breitbart's Sherrod video
9:04 p.m.: “Fox News Alert”: Hannity reports that Sherrod has resigned and discusses the incident with Gingrich.
Say what you will about the right-wing, they know how to coordinate. And I don't think a “we have to investigate this further” explanation would have stood up under the constant, coordinated buzzsaw of innuendo from talking heads and bloggers eager to take revenge for so-called left-wing abuses.
This wasn't an attempt to get a story – it was deliberate move to score points and the facts be damned.
And yet the rest of the media seems to be intentionally sidestepping any conversations about this interlocking of dubious bloggers and supposedly legitimate newsmen and women to the point of absurdity. Talking Points Memo had this to say today:
It's much easier to focus on Obama or Vilsack or 'what it says about race in America' or whatever other nonsense. Because most reporters are simply cowed by Fox and Breitbart and Beck and the rest of the organized forces of bamboozlement — too afraid, too bewildered, too hapless to apply anything remotely approaching standards in analyzing the fourth estate of which they are the nominal custodians. So what we get is this 'see no evil, hear no evil, speak not at all' routine from reporters and journalists who should know better.
It shouldn't be a surprise. These same people who are sanctimoniously calling out the White House for falling for the conservative blog/Fox News coordinated blitz were some of the same ones who actually defended the so-called news organization last year when the White House took it to task.
Still irregardless of the how this entire thing ends, progressives would be wise to not miss the forest for the trees.
The right-wing blitz consumed the White House and the NAACP with the skill of an army of fire ants consuming a grasshopper. And if those two entities fell so easily, imagine who else can be put in a harsh spotlight of lies and innuendo. Who else will fall under the right-wing buzzsaw before they have time to gather up a defense?
There is a small silver lining to the situation. My guess is that this incident will be Breitbart's signature moment, forever scarring his already highly questionable reputation. That link is severed.
But like some monster out of Greek mythology, the right-wing noise machine remains strong because for every one Breitbart, there are probably two or three others willing to stoop even lower to take his place.
17 Comments
ConfusedI am so confused. I thought Fox said they did not pick up the story until late in the day which would be the 8:50 video airing on O’Rielly.
Since I don’t watch Fox…I don’t know when all their various right wing blatherers are on. However, when our goddess Rachel Maddow (one of the few to take on Fox directly) talked about this act of cowardice and deceit, she replayed a video from one of the Fox “news” shows that supposedly had just received the video of Sherrod’s taken out of context racial remarks. The three “news casters” sitting on a couch, feigned horror and amazement at the utterly racist remarks that were made and then each in turn called Sherrod a racist. It was sickening to watch how this acting unfolded. How these folks sleep at night is beyond me. I’m guessing lots of Ambien. The following day, these same three turkeys were aghast at how the administration had so quickly fired Sherrod. But you know in the station background there is a scoreboard with a big check on it in the Gotcha column. I really despise these people. On the other hand, I cannot comprehend the power the right wing still maintains over this administration. Despite being in the minority, they are still calling the shots and having things fall their way.
more important: Why can’t we coordinate like this?
Wrong Tactics“And I don’t think a “we have to investigate this further” explanation would have stood up under the constant, coordinated buzzsaw of innuendo from talking heads and bloggers eager to take revenge for so-called left-wing abuses.”
If anyone in the White House had half a brain, they would have scripted a response on the order of “Taking into account Andrew Breitbart’s record with deceptively edited videos and the blatant bias of Fox News, we don’t feel these allegations are credible. We are waiting to see the actual facts before we come to a conclusion.”
But then, I’m sure Fox News and its minions would get all huffy and say mean things.
This is typical American Journalism today……edit things the way you want to spin them for your own selfish profit. Professional journalism has just died.
Ummm… duh?It’s clear that the Fox News people, not having to spend any precious time at work actually getting anything done, have plenty of time to just troll the net until they find shit to blow out of proportion.
They don’t have to spend any time actually researching anything. I think it’s a given that people like Breitbart have connections that they can twitter or email to give them a heads up, but even if they don’t, all they have to do is troll the usual suspect blogs.
Since they don’t have to spend any time fact-checking, they can get these “scandals” on air immediately.
We can’t coordinate like this because making sure that there’s some truth to the story before breaking it and taking some time to verify before rushing to judgement takes time.
The day we CAN coordinate like this – knee-jerk, fact-free, consequences be damned, and who cares who gets hurt in the process – is the day we should all walk away in shame.
Way to miss the pointsorry, I’m grumpy again, and after my last response, I’m just fed up with whiny bullshit that ignores what’s in front of their faces.
I think the right wing’s 30+ year investment in strategizing has paid off.I am very frustrated that liberals/progressives/outsiders have not been able to create or support our own media and intellectual institutions for any considerable amount of time.
I can’t prove it, but I think conservatives and liberals think differently, and not just on political or social issues. I’m talking about approaches to engaging the public, financially supporting their initiatives, and coordinating their actions.
“This wasn’t an attempt to get a story – it was deliberate move to score points and the facts be damned.”If this incident doesn’t add up to a fact pattern that should yield a defamation action that gets the Supreme Court to reconsider the all-but-impossible-to-meet New York Times v. Sullivan standard, nothing will.
FEAR ”Because most reporters are simply cowed by Fox and Breitbart and Beck and the rest of the organized forces of bamboozlement — too afraid, too bewildered, too hapless to apply anything remotely approaching standards in analyzing the fourth estate of which they are the nominal custodians. So what we get is this ‘see no evil, hear no evil, speak not at all’ routine from reporters and journalists who should know better.”
Of course they know better but, if ANYONE speaks out AGAINST this noise machine they become the TARGET. It’s as simple as that. They don’t want to become the next target.
And don’t forget that this noise machine includes print media, newspapers, magazines, internet sites and blogs, paid posters to troll progressive sites etc….they have got it covered.
Why is Fox News the problem here?Everyone knows what they are and what they do. The problem is that the Obama administration rolled over for them, quickly and unquestioningly. Every story I’ve seen about this debacle has said that Sherrod was ordered to resign because the story was going to be on Glenn Beck that night. How can that be interpreted an anything but an admission that Glenn Beck has authority over this administration’s personnel policies (and Christ knows what else)?
I loathed George Bush more deeply than I can say in a short posting. But despite his innumerable shortcomings as a president and as a human being, he at least deserves credit for standing by his people. Can you imagine his administration summarily firing somebody simply because Rachel Maddow or Dylan Ratigan was going to do a story about them?
The Obama administration is a shocking waste–of time, of energy, of political capital, of, humanity, of everything I can think of. Unfortunately, the coming GOP majority in congress, while it won’t change any of his policies (which, for all intents and purposes are Bush’s policies), will give him a ready-made excuse for still more dithering, inaction and betrayals of the people who elected him.
That’s exactly it.And it has been proven — why do you think the churches are so heavily involved in this? They are the fundraising organs, the captive audiences.
And thank you. You just redeemed some lost faith in the LGBT community.
Sullivan shouldn’t be that hard….Just have to prove actual Malice on the part of Faux and Breitbart.
It’s a slam dunk. Sherrod’s Black and a Democrat.
That’s a lie on the part of Fox News – no surprise. O’Reilly started talking about it immediately.O’Reilly and Fox News ran with sound bites all day – “Racists at the Agriculture Department – your tax money – film at 11.”
I think that we’re ignoring the big white elephant in the room. The corporations are calling the shots.The Democrats are almost as beholden to corporate interests as the Republicans. We don’t have a situation where the Democrats are on the side of the angels and the Republicans are the devils. If that were true it would be a lot easier to show people the truth. The Democrats would have their own networks and pundits etc.
But they can’t do that, because that would annoy Exxon and Big Pharma and the insurance industry and GE and etc. So the Democrats have to sneak around kinda sorta trying to do the right thing in a half-assed way that doesn’t annoy the corporations that fund their reelection campaigns. This makes the Democrats look weak and half-assed (because they are) and allows the Republicans to be all-out evil lying scum (because their base will believe anything and the Democrats will never really call them out about it.)
This incident sums up everything wrong with having corporations run politics in this country.
…I think we do coordinate to a point, but I also think we’ve been playing the same broken record for far too long…
Our typical knee-jerk reaction is to boycott any business or even state that isn’t gay-friendly, but isn’t that essentially playing right into their hands… giving the bigots exactly what they want; fewer homosexuals in their midst.
It makes us even less visible and pretty much ensures that we’ll never change their ignorant impressions of the homosexual community.
What would happen if we, instead, actually threatened to increase our presence in any state or business that discriminates against our community?
What if we made sure that any discriminatory laws or policies would always backfire on those who adopt them?
Imagine, for example, how quickly the Tea Party movement would die if homosexuals, immigrants, and African Americans started joining their ranks en masse, lol
Except for one thingBrownie – you’re doing a heck of a job! – sorry but I couldn’t resist. lol