White House Press Secretary Calls Out Media on Sherrod Story

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The Obama Administration, the NAACP and the USDA have been harshly criticized over their initial treatment of Shirley Sherrod, and as well they should be.  There is a larger issue though, and that is the tactic of FOX "News", right-wing bloggers like Andrew Breitbart, and the way they successfully push bogus stories into the mainstream. 

For a blogger like me, who started this blog in the dog-days of the Bush Era, this all feels like deja-vu.  Back then, though the Karl Rove alternate reality machine was breaking down, the right-wing spin was still leading news cycles.  I sat here knowing that there stories were bogus, I could see what they were doing, but reality just refused to break through.  Now, here we sit, 18 months into the Obama Era.  And what has led the news cycles lately?  Big, blown-up faux outrage stories, sometimes only tangentially true, sometimes utterly false.  And the mainstream media and sometimes the Democratic elected politicians keep falling for it.

I'm glad that Robert Gibbs is calling on the mainstream press to do some soul searching on how they report on these things. I only hope that he and the rest of the Obama Administration are doing the same.

[Excerpt]

Gibbs calls on media to do soul searching about Sherrod mess

The Shirley Sherrod mess has ignited another national conversation about race, but if Robert Gibbs has his way, it will also spark some soul-searching by members of the media about their willingness to legitimize bogus stories, particularly ones pushed by the right. . .

Read more at:  The Plum Line