What Has Happened to the News Media?

Hi Everyone:

Ever since I started this blog, I have been very diligent in giving actual facts involving my weekly topics. One can only truly understand a story in its entirety if you are informed with all of the facts. Today's blog is about what happens when facts are flushed down the toilet.

I am sure everyone has heard about what happened to Shirley Sherrod. Sherrod was an USDA official and was forced to resign from her position by the US Agriculture department over an edited version of a speech she gave. So how did this story go so wrong and get so out of hand so quickly? In order to examine what happened to her, one must look at the facts of this sordid incident. So here are the true facts of what happened:

1- Shirley Sherrod gave a speech at a NAACP gathering and the speech was videoed in its entirety.

2- Andrew Breitbart, a conservative blogger, took her speech and edited it into snippets to try to show a side of Sherrod that was untrue and blatantly a lie. Breitbart knew full well that the edited version would be taken out of context. After posting the edited version, he sat back and watched the s*** hit the fan. Obviously, due to Breitbart's own actions, he showed that he definitely had an agenda to disgrace at least Sherrod and most probably the Obama administration.

3- Fox news took the story and ran with it, showing the edited version of her speech. Fox news made it into big headlines about a black, female, Obama official with the USDA, who is a racist.

4- The NAACP through a spokesperson, said they were very upset and denounced her about what she had said in the edited version.

5- As Sherrod was driving back to her office, from a distance of 3 1/2 hours away, Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack called her and asked her to pull the vehicle over. Then Vilsack told her to resign immediately in writing via her blackberry.

6- During this entire time, Sherrod kept saying that what the video showed was taken out of context and distorted her remarks. She said repeatedly that the entire video of her speech should be viewed and it would show that the story she used was to promote racial reconciliation. Her requests for viewing the entire video fell on deaf ears for far too long.

7- The USDA and the White House finally watched the video in its entirety and realized that a terrible injustice had occurred and that her termination was totally wrong.

8- Tom Vilsack called Sherrod and apologized for his mistake of firing her and offered her a job especially tailored to her skill set from over 20 years with the USDA. Sherrod has yet to give her decision on accepting the new position.

9- The NAACP apologized to Sherrod.

10- President Obama called Sherrod and personally apologized to her in a 7 minute conversation.

11- Even though the USDA, the NAACP and the White House have personally apologized to Sherrod, very mysteriously, neither Fox news or Andrew Breitbart have apologized. I wonder why? Even more curiously, neither the conservative blogger or Fox news have retracted the story. I wonder why again?

12- Without a doubt, everyone rushed to judgement.

13- No one did any due diligence to fact check the blogger's video.

14- It used to be that before a story ran, news organizations would fact check a story prior to running with it to make sure the story was as accurate as possible.

So those are the real facts of this sorry tale, that should have never, ever occurred. So who are the winners in this incident? Absolutely no one!!!! I find fault with the USDA and the White House for not checking the facts and rushing to judgement. But, I find that the NAACP was at the top of the heap for issuing a statement against her when it was at their gathering that she spoke and no one there had any problems with what she said. They even had the whole video that they could have watched to determine that she did nothing wrong.

It is painfully obvious to me that the blogger had an conservative agenda and hasn't been heard from since. But what really pisses me off is that, Fox news has shown its true colors in its conservative agenda. It also appears to me that the conservative movement and Fox news is not interested in principled dialog, but rather resorting to slander, innuendo and out right lies. I really hope that Sherrod sues the idiot blogger and Fox news for slander and defamation of character. There is no way she won't win millions of dollars. Maybe then Rupert Murdoch and Fox news will return to the old ways of checking the facts of a story prior to running it. The blogger and Fox news should be ashamed and should pay dearly for their unprofessional ways. Hey Fox, just so you know, the ends do not justify the means, no matter what you do or say. Where is your retraction and apology? That won't happen because that would admit guilt and open them up for a whopper of a lawsuit. Maybe the court of public opinion will realize that a news media organization that doesn't get all the facts to tell the truth of a story will stop watching their lies and innuendos.

If ever there was an example of not using common sense, this story shows it in spades. No one involved in this story used any common sense what so ever and look what happened to a totally innocent person. Shame on everyone except Shirley Sherrod, you go girl!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Til next week.