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Monday, July 26, 2010

Howard Dean Labels Fox News Channel as Racist over the Handling of the Shirley Sherrod Controversy

YouTube - Howard Dean, Newt Gingrich on 'FNS'

(Politico) On Fox News Sunday Chris Wallace had as his guests on his show former Vermont governor and National Democratic Party chairman Howard Dean and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.  Wallace was covering the controversy over Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack firing Shirley Sherrod over statements she made about helping out a white farmer 20+ years ago.  Howard Dean said that the Fox News handling of the Shirley Sherrod controversy "was absolutely racist."  Dean, who ran for president in 2004 and is a hero of liberals, asserted Fox News failed to vet video footage of a speech misleadingly excerpted to make it appear that Sherrod was boasting of using her post as an Agriculture Department official to discriminate against a white farmer. 

"I don't think Newt Gingrich is a racist, and I don't think you're a racist," Dean said to Fox News host Chris Wallace.  "But Fox News did something that was absolutely racist.  They took a---they had an obligation to find out what was really in the clip.  They had been pushing a theme of black racism with this phony Black Panter "story" and this business and this Sotomayor and all this other stuff."  Here's where Wallace comes in:  Wallace pointed out to Dean that Fox News didn't air the excerpted Sherrod footage until after the Obama administration had fired her based on it.  It wasn't until after 8:00 p.m. EST when the clip was shown.  Bill O'Reilly was the first host to mention about the Shirley Sherrod controversy.  Dean shot back and said, "It was about to go on Glenn Beck, which is what the administration was afraid of."  Beck pointed out that he didn't cover that story when it first broke out that evening.  It was alleged that Sherrod was supposed to be on the Glenn Beck program on Fox News, however Beck said that she wasn't scheduled to be on his program.

Dean mildly rebuked the Obama administration, as well, saying, "We've got to stop being afraid of Glenn Beck and the racist fringe of the Republican Party.  But Fox News was not blameless during this.  You played it up."  Dean dismissed Wallace's point about timing, asserting, "you didn't do your job," and charging that Fox News has helped the Republican Party foster racism by focusing on allegations of reverse racism. 

"The tea party called out their racist fringe and I think the Republican Party's got to stop appealing to its racist fringe.  And Fox News is what did that.  You put that on," Dean said.  "Continuing to cater to this theme of minority racism and stressing comments like this--some of which are taken out of context--does not help the country knit itself together."

The truth is the Fox News website didn't post the Breitbart clip before the administration fired Sherrod.  Andrew Breitbart was the man responsible for airing this clip.  No evening program for Fox News starting covering this story until Bill O'Reilly covered it from the O'Reilly Factor, which was after 8:00 p.m. EST.  Howard Dean and all these liberals are engaged in race baiting to marginalize those that opposed President Obama's agenda.  They also want to discredit Fox News and make them out to be an extension of the Republican Party.  I do admit that was a foolish mistake for the Obama adminstration to fire Sherrod, considering that she had apologized at one time with the comments she made that at one time she wouldn't have been as likely to have helped white farmers.  It was foolish.  I don't doubt she's liberal in her politics, but let's not make a race issue out of what she said around 28 years ago.  I believe this whole scenario was a setup.  Ever since president Obama's been elected, there's been charges of racism in one form or the other.  President Obama claimed that he desires a post-racial presidency.  Who's he fooling?  The media and the phony civil rights leaders are trying to bring up allegations of racism any chance they can to polarize the American people.

The issue about the Black Panther Party's racism is a legitimate story.  That's not false racism.  The situation with Shirley Sherrod is false racism.  She shouldn't have been fired over the comments she made about helping a white farmer several years ago.  I don't understand what purpose Andrew Breitbart had in showing that clip. Is Breitbart trying to engage in race baiting?  The Left is guilty when it comes to race baiting.  We don't need conservatives engaging in that same tactic.  STOP THE RACE BAITING!  America is in flames right now and the last thing we need is false charges of racism.  There is racism from both sides of the aisle.  I believe the Left likes to spring charges of racism more than the other side does.  Regardless which side engages in race baiting the most, it needs to stop NOW!

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