Ridiculous claims still being made
In case you’ve already forgotten him, Andrew Breitbart is that self-described “journalist” who has an uncanny talent for exposing vicious racists who just happen to give speeches about racial harmony. Breitbart got caught tossing facts out of the way of his pre-digested narratives.
If the NAACP had a “Racist of the Year” award, Andrew Breitbart would easily win it.
Not only is he the person who ignited a racially tinged fire-storm a couple of weeks ago, he’s the only participant in it who hasn’t offered some sort of an apology.
He did, however, claim that the person he’d snared in the middle of his little journalistic sleight-of-hand – Shirley Sherrod – wasn’t really the target.
Oh, she may have uttered a few racist statements (he claims), but it was members of the NAACP who “cheered” them. Well, as we now know, Sherrod didn’t do that, and a full hearing of the 40-plus minute speech reveals the NAACP didn’t cheer either.
I’m surprised Breitbart hasn’t posted a video of himself claiming he’s Napoleon. He’s that hungry for attention.
He’s now hatched a new conspiracy. And this time he is putting Sherrod smack dab in the middle of it. Fortunately, no legitimate news organizations have bitten. Surprisingly, Fox News hasn’t touched it with a ten-foot burning cross.
Here’s the latest from the Napoleonic mind of Andrew Breitbart. He claims that if you go back and listen to that Shirley Sherrod speech, “You will see a person who has a very Marxist way of looking at the world.”
There you have it. Sherrod is not only a racist, but she’s a Marxist. I’m wondering if Breitbart somehow discovered she once saw a movie starring Groucho, Harpo and that other one with the pointy hat. Marxist is a mighty strong word – even for Breitbart.
But he recently appeared on the Michael Savage radio show “Savage Nation” to inform Savage’s conspiracy addicts that Sherrod is really the beneficiary of a government program that has awarded millions of dollars to black people – just because they’re black. If that was the case, which line do I get in? There is no such program.
Breitbart’s claim, as silly as it is, stems from the fact that Sherrod and her husband had been awarded $300,000 dollars as part of a settlement in a class-action discrimination suit that had alleged the USDA had engaged in the widespread maltreatment of minority farmers.
Breitbart claims there’s a Marxist/racist plot somewhere, because shortly after Sherrod and her husband received their payments last year, she was hired to handle the claims of black farmers who were similarly discriminated against.
If Breitbart had bothered to look at Sherrod’s job title (USDA Director of Rural Development for the State of Georgia) he could have discovered that doling out wads of cash to black people who aren’t farmers – but who claim to be – wasn’t part of what she did.
That, as Breitbart implies, there was something nefarious about her settlement and her subsequent hiring, is another one of those out-of-context assertions he’s made so famous recently.
He’s now claiming there’s mega-fraud involving lazy black people who’re lining their pockets with cash at the offices of the USDA, who’ve never even taken a ride along a country road.
Well, that’s just not the case. Many of the claims submitted for settlement dollars have been denied. (15,640 claims have been approved, while 6,910 have not.)
Oh those nasty facts. Republican Rep. Steve King (R-Ia.) has also weighed in. He’s claiming that there are far more settlement claims than there are even black farmers. In other words, this is just “reparations” for black people who’ve never farmed, nor never intended to.
Reparations? Now there’s a loaded word. But once again, the facts belie the narrative.
One group of people who’d suffered from the benign neglect of a government agency that had acted favorably toward another group. Those people who sought redress, and won it, are now – thanks to the Andrew Breitbarts of the world – facing even more racism.
Is there any end to this?
Edward A. Owens is a three-time Emmy Award winner and 20-year veteran of television news. E-mail him at freedoms@bellatlantic.net
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