Media Matters - "Fox News' response to Sherrod fallout: Ignore, whitewash, mislead"

[TomCADem]

Once again, the right wing media is trying to whitewash its role in smearing Sherrod Shirley into a story about the USDA's mistakes in firing Shirley based upon the Fox New's fraudulent stories. Can you imagine a fraud defense where the con man blames the victim of the fraud?

Of course, the media will give itself a free pass on its right wing bias and racism. Rather than examinig the corporate and right wing bias in the media, the media blames the federal government for responding to it! Amazing, after claiming they are the fourth branch of government, the media disclaims any responsibility for its role in this scandal.

http://mediamatters.org/research/201007210066

Fox News spent much of July 19 and 20 ginning up controversy about the false claim that Shirley Sherrod made racist remarks at a NAACP meeting earlier this year. As the claim unraveled, Fox media personalities disappeared their role in the story, continued to smear her as "descriminat" in the face of contradictory evidence, and boldly suggested the network did not contribute to the controversy.

Fox's initial reaction: "Racist" Sharrod "must resign"
O'Reilly: "Sherrod must resign," her remarks are "unacceptable." On the July 19 edition of his show, Bill O'Reilly played the edited portion of the tape and said "that is simply unacceptable. And Ms. Sherrod must resign immediately." He also falsely claimed that "the full transcript of Ms. Sherrod's remarks is posted on BigGovernment.com."

After the tide turned: Fox "didn't even do" the Sherrod story
Bret Baier absurdly claims Fox News "didn't even do" the Sherrod story. On the July 20 edition of Special Report, Bret Baier claimed "Fox News didn't even do the story, we didn't do it on Special Report, we posted it online."

Beck on Fox: "Based on the facts that we have right now, this is something that I wouldn't air and demand a resignation on." On the July 20 edition of this Fox News show, Beck stated: "I don't think Shirley should have been fired -- or, I'm sorry, forced to resign. Based on the facts that we have right now, this is something that I wouldn't air and demand a resignation on." He added that he "wouldn't air" the tape because "context matters."

[myrna minx]

1. K&R n/t

[TomCADem]

2. Right On Cue, The Media Runs A Bunch Of CYA Stories Blaming The White House...

...for believing their fraudulently editted evidence. The media makes shit up through creative editting and editorializing, then blames the government for listening to their fiction.