Sherrod case: media and government fail to do their jobs

The headline of a news agency media writer’s story regarding the Department of Agriculture official wrongly fired for comments she made during an NAACP speech 24 years ago says: “Sherrod case shows power of conservative media.”

That’s one way of looking of what happened to Shirley Sherrod. A more accurate headline should have said: “Sherrod case shows media and government failing to do its job.”

Or the story could be written on how the main-stream media, the Justice Department, the NAACP and the Obama administration over-reacted to the Sherrod case after all had shirked its responsibilities in a case against two members of the New Black Panther movement, that had been allowed to slide by, according to a Justice Department official because the government does not want to prosecute racial discrimination cases when the victims are white.

Take your pick.

One thing is certain, calling someone a racist is the equivalent of yelling fire in a crowded theater. It can have serious unintended consequences. And it all began during the 2008 campaign when a group of liberal media professionals suggested that the best way to detract away from Barack Obama’s close ties with the Rev. Jeremiah Wright was to pick on any conservative commentator and start calling them racist.

Despite the discovery of the Journolist in recent days, Obama has not been the first post-racial presidency. Racial epithets are now cropping up all over and increasing frequency. Not since the days when the Republican Party helped President Lyndon B. Johnson pass the 1964 Civil Rights Act against strong opposition from segregationists, most of which were in the Democratic Party has there been a battle of racial epithets as the one being waged in the Summer of 2010.

Sherrod’s case was the most recent, but not the only one where the topic of the story was racism. There was the story of the New Black Panther civil suit and now the investigation of why the Justice Department dropped it. This story is not getting much attention even though The Washington Post’s ombudsman last Sunday said his paper was wrong in being so late to write about it.

Then came the NAACP’s accusation that the Tea Party movement was racially motivated and that its members were responsible for calling black members of Congress the “n” word. It also pointed out a billboard that compared Obama to Hitler and Lenin. How is that any different than the signs and billboards that appeared in many marches during George W. Bush’s presidency where people had pictures of Bush with a Hitler-like mustache? In both cases the signs are offensive. No doubt. But racist?

No one in the main-stream media has picked up on the story and challenged the NAACP of showing concrete evidence that the Tea Party movement is racist. There is no doubt that there are racists in its fringe elements. As it is undeniable that there are black movements with a strong racist, anti-white feeling. All one has to do is hear the tirade of one of the New Black Panther party’s tirade yelling to “kill cracker babies.”

That has been dropped along the way. That story is not worthy of a thorough airing.

But the Sherrod case is; as it should be.

There is no need to rehash everything that was said and done wrong in the Sherrod case. There is more than enough blame to go around.

The AP writer said that Paul Levinson, a journalism professor at Fordham University, said those cases — and the attention they received on Fox — were likely on the mind of Obama administration officials when Breitbart’s story on Sherrod first appeared.
“They panicked,” Levinson said. “They’re giving the media far more power than they should have.” Levinson should have added that the NAACP also panicked, as did most of the main stream media until 24 hours later when the full story came out. All share the blame.

In issuing his apology, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said the government, media and interest groups on all sides made quick determinations without knowing all the facts involved. “One of the great lessons you take away from this is to ask all the questions first and come to a full understanding,” Gibbs said.

For once, Gibbs is right. But then, only when all — government and media — apply the same standards to all accusations of racism. Only then will the political marketplace will be free of these horrible accusations and the repercussions that come with it.

see: The Americano