NAACP Releases FULL Video of USDA Employee

Meredith Jessup | July 20, 2010 9:18 PM

Since Andrew Breitbart posted a video at BigGovernment.com that seemed to show a USDA official bragging about offering preferential treatment to blacks over whites, the NAACP has unleashed a verbal barrage of attacks and the Obama administration demanded her resignation.

Tonight, however, NAACP President & CEO Ben Jealous is on MSNBC's Rachel Maddow Show backtracking his group's comments as fast as he can and pointing the finger at "tea party activist" Breitbart. The NAACP has retrieved and posted the FULL video of Shirley Sherrod's comments before a meeting of the NAACP which, when viewed in full context, suggests Sherrod was merely an Obama-style Marxist, not a racist. (pained sarcasm)

In a statement this afternoon, Jealous complained that the NAACP had been "snookered" by Fox News and Breitbart "into believing she [Sherrod] had harmed white farmers because of racial bias." Apparently once the NAACP did their own homework and actually consulted the original video, they realized they had accidentally thrown Sherrod under the bus. Whoopsie.

Closing thoughts: I wouldn't have thought Andrew Breitbart would run such a controversial video without first having confirmed both the source and the context in which the statements were made, which is why many of us on the right didn't hesitate much in reporting on the story. But, as

Glenn Beck reminded us all today, "context matters."

And as for the Obama administration... while the story was unfolding this afternoon, the White House was working to distance Obama from his own cabinet secretary. On that front, there's no word yet on whether Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack will offer Sherrod her job back.