Browsing: Shirley Sherrod

Shirley Sherrod, the Agriculture Department employee who got caught in a ginned-up racial controversy last month, just said she will not accept another position at her old department. Sherrod lost her job after conservative provocateur Andrew Breitbart posted a heavily edited video that appeared to show her bragging about turning down a white farmer because of his race. But once the full video surfaced — showing she was actually talking about the importance of moving beyond race when dealing with others — almost everyone from the White House to the NAACP realized they had gone off half-cocked. Agriculture Secretary Tom…

The Daily Show returned from vacation last night and weighed in on the Shirley Sherrod foofaraw. Jon Stewart, as always, gave the whole absurd episode the gravitas it required by editing the video of her speech to make it look like she was admitting to ruining the environment (the gold-plated Air Force One and alpaca fighting ring were also particularly nice touches). Stephen Colbert then took it one step further by splicing Mel Gibson’s latest racist and very NSFW rant into a quote from White House press secretary Robert Gibbs. But why should Stewart, Colbert and Andrew Breitbart have all…

USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack just said that he has apologized to Shirley Sherrod and offered her a civil rights job at the agency. CNN reports Sherrod has not yet decided whether she will accept. Vilsack will also meet with the Congressional Black Caucus later today in his effort to rein in this rapidly spiraling snafu.

What a difference a day makes in the Shirley Sherrod fiasco. According to three sources who spoke to Politico’s Ben Smith, White House deputy chief of staff Jim Messina praised the speed at which the administration acted, and reportedly said Tuesday morning: We could have waited all day — we could have had a media circus — but we took decisive action, and it’s a good example of how to respond in this atmosphere. And here is White House spokesman Robert Gibbs, just a few minutes ago: Without a doubt, Ms. Sherrod is owed an apology. I will do so on behalf…

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said today he is further reviewing the case of Shirley Sherrod, who resigned under pressure Monday as part of a growing racial controversy. The conservative website Biggovernment.com, run by Andrew Breitbart, on Monday posted an edited video of Sherrod, who is black, telling a story about a 1986 incident where she didn’t help a white farmer as much as she could have. But the full video shows Sherrod’s story was meant to illustrate the importance of moving beyond race. In it, she describes how she first steered the white farmer to a white lawyer who could…

CNN has an interview with Shirley Sherrod, an Agriculture Department official who stepped down yesterday after a video surfaced where she describes a 1986 incident where she didn’t help a white farmer as much as she could because of his race. The NAACP applauded her resignation, but Sherrod — who was USDA’s director of rural development in Georgia — said the comments in the video don’t tell the whole story, and said the incident took place before she joined USDA. What do you think? Did Sherrod cross the line? Or is this a puffed-up controversy?