David Frum: Shirley Sherrod and the shame of conservative media

The Week ^ | 07/21/2010 | David Frum

[Flightdeck]

Breitbart’s falsehood? Frum thinks if you repeat it enough, that makes it true.

[rhombus]

Awwww did Davey get embarrassed in front of his liberal friends?

[E. Pluribus Unum]

What happened, Mr. Fwum, is that the state-run media and Obama himself did not look at the entire set of videos "in context," just as they take every "racist" thing said by a conservative out-of-context.

You got hoisted on your own demagogic petard.

[Lurker]

When Andrew Breitbart unveils a selectively edited tape to defame a federal employee,

Yep, Frum's still an idiot.

[chris37]

I don’t agree with David frum on this or anything else.

[ozzymandus]

Oh, screw you, Frum, you RINO ass.

[LS]

Frummy is such a little tweak. If you saw Brietbart on Hannity last night he was absolutely right. The audience was LAUGHING and saying THAT’S RIGHT and APPROVING of what she did long before she ever got around to her mea culpa. In other words, what the tape shows is even worse than that Shirley Sherrod is a racist-—it shows that the whole NAALCP is a racist organization and should be registered as a “hate group.”

[massgopguy]

The tape isn’t edited. It shows the NAACP applauding her racism.

[stormer]

Quite right.

[SeekAndFind]

The video of Sherrod’s entire speech to the NAACP can be found here :

http://www.naacp.org/news/entry/video_sherrod/

[WilliamofCarmichael]

By the morning of July 20 the Sherrod-as-racist narrative had collapsed.

Memo to Mr. Breitbart: Please pass along a copy of "Journalism For Dummies" for Mr. Frum. Perhaps a couple of conservative commentators could also use a copy.

It was the audience reaction, stupid!

[A_perfect_lady]

It’s called “a taste of your own medicine.” How is it? Like it?

[KarlInOhio]

Even in full context, it amounts to a confession of racism and violation of civil rights laws... but she's feeling much better now. It's like Robert Byrd claiming that the ashes from the cross burnings have all been washed away with time. Maybe you can argue that her crime isn't prosecutable after the statute of limitations has expired, but that still doesn't excuse the NAACP crowd cheering at "sticking it to whitey".

[Vigilanteman]

When Dan Rather succumbed to the forged Bush war record hoax in 2004, CBS forced him into retirement.

Yeah, wasn't it about two or three years later after they could no longer deny the obvious? Also, Breitbart never anchored a major network desk and presented himself to the public as an unbiased journalist. As I understand, he is also a young man and not a seasoned journalist who should know better.

I'm not going to excuse him, but we do need to give him at least equal benefit of the doubt to what CBS gave Dan Rather.

Oh yes, the Bush files were not the first time Dan Rather got caught in a lie either, were they?

[sodpoodle]

Hilarious!!!!

The Journ0list is listing starboard (or is that leeward)? Don’t matter - their ship is hitting the fan;)

[jimbo123]

Typical gay rage rantings from Miss Frum...

[donna]

Sen. Trent Lott called. He wants his leadership position back.

[equalitybeforethelaw]

Damn those conservative racists!!! I kind of knew we would be blamed for Mr. Skittles actions and Shirley’s speech. Damn, I hate myself.

[NavyCanDo]

Frum may be right on this one. FOX missed a classic Rope-a-Dope on this story.

The WH fired her only because they knew FOX was going to run with a racist in the WH cabinet story. Glenn Beck was the only one to say her comment was taken out of context and her firing was not warranted and was a desperate act by a panicked Obama.

On the other hand you have O’Riely, Hannity, and the rest doing exactly what the WH suspected they would do and aired the out of context remark and they stated she should loose her job. And now they are the ones looking like they jumped to a conclusion to early.