Shirley Sherrod Gets Apologies, Job Offer and Call from Obama
Apologies and Job Offer (7-22-2010)
Federal employee Shirley Sherrod was minding her business this week when she found herself in the middle of one big mess instigated by right wing blogger Andrew Breitbart. The short version of the story is that Breitbart published a video excerpt less than three minutes long and Sherrod was forced to resign from her job as a result of the fallout.
The excerpt made it sound as if Sherrod denied support to a struggling farmer, although her employment function was to help farmers keep their property. The actual statement was taken out of context from a 43-minute speech that Sherrod made at an NAACP banquet in March, with respect to a series of events that transpired in 1986.
The point of her story is that she had to put aside personal bias in order to rise above racial prejudice. Once the video excerpt went viral Sherrod said she got a call from a government official telling her that the White House wants her to resign. In the midst of the drama the wife of the farmer appeared on CNN, and said had it not been for Sherrod she and her husband would have lost their farm.
This story does have a happy ending for Mrs. Sherrod but the rest of the players don't look so good. Yesterday NAACP published the full video. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack extended an apology and a new job offer to Sherrod, who said she needs time to think about it.
The best part is the phone call she received from President Obama today. Our fearless leader expressed regret for this week's circumstances and urged the 62-year-old grandmother to accept the job offer. Check the source links below for additional information.
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Call from Obama (7-23-2010)
Source
Apologies and new job offer
YouTube video and transcript
Lifetime of service
Federal employee Shirley Sherrod was minding her business this week when she found herself in the middle of one big mess instigated by right wing blogger Andrew Breitbart. The short version of the story is that Breitbart published a video excerpt less than three minutes long and Sherrod was forced to resign from her job as a result of the fallout.
The excerpt made it sound as if Sherrod denied support to a struggling farmer, although her employment function was to help farmers keep their property. The actual statement was taken out of context from a 43-minute speech that Sherrod made at an NAACP banquet in March, with respect to a series of events that transpired in 1986.
The point of her story is that she had to put aside personal bias in order to rise above racial prejudice. Once the video excerpt went viral Sherrod said she got a call from a government official telling her that the White House wants her to resign. In the midst of the drama the wife of the farmer appeared on CNN, and said had it not been for Sherrod she and her husband would have lost their farm.
This story does have a happy ending for Mrs. Sherrod but the rest of the players don't look so good. Yesterday NAACP published the full video. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack extended an apology and a new job offer to Sherrod, who said she needs time to think about it.
The best part is the phone call she received from President Obama today. Our fearless leader expressed regret for this week's circumstances and urged the 62-year-old grandmother to accept the job offer. Check the source links below for additional information.
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Call from Obama (7-23-2010)
What a week it's been for Shirley Sherrod. In just four days she's been forced to resign, did the media circuit, got apologies from all over the place and received an offer for a new position. The comedy of viral errors culminated with President Obama calling her yesterday morning.
Obama expressed regret for this week's circumstances and asked Mrs. Sherrod to consider accepting the job offer from the Department of Agriculture Secretary. Our prior blog post in the source links below provides background information. We also posted a link to the AP coverage of the call from the President. Good night.
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Update (8-25-2010)
Shirley Sherrod has declined the job offer.
Source
Apologies and new job offer
YouTube video and transcript
Lifetime of service
Are you kidding me? This is a shame!!..
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Left wing rhetoric is getting ridiculous. The White House fired Sherrod before any video was released on any site or news agency. If you claim to be a journalist for the net, tell me how the White House found out the video was "going" to be released. Common sense(I know, a hard concept for the left) says that the NAACP gave the video to Breitbart, then informed the White House of that transaction. Sherrod was fired by the White House without due process, stop trying to make it look like the right had anything to do with this. And Fox never said anything prior to her firing.
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You're entitled to your opinions.
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