August 6th / 8th
"Sherrod Debacle a Crime of Context"
Technology is a wonderful thing, except when it is misused, abused, or
over used. Television, for example, was invented to inform and educate
viewers, not to be a repository for reality shows like Jersey Shore or the
Bachelor. Likewise, the internet was designed to bring our world closer together,
not to enable illiteracy and defamation by tweeters and bloggers. Last
month, we all received a lesson in techno ethics when an honest public servant
had her character assassinated on a blog site.
It all began with a feud between the NAACP and the Tea Party gang. Both
organizations charged that the other was racist. Enter Tea Party blog master
Andrew Breitbart (BigGovernment.com) who broadcast a videotape excerpt of
USDA official Shirley Sherrod (an African American) making a speech in which
she appeared to be confessing to having treated a white client unfairly
when performing her duties as Director of Georgia's Rural Development agency.
In the video, Sherrod said, "The first time I was faced with having to
help a white farmer save his farm, he was trying to show me he was superior to
me ... I was struggling with the fact that so many black people had lost their farms,
and here I was faced with having to help a white person save his land. So I
didn't give him the full force of what I could do... ".
Within hours, Sherrod's excerpted video went viral, and before she knew
it, the NAACP had thrown her under the bus, and Obama's Secretary of
Agriculture Tom Vilsack immediately demanded her resignation. Fortunately, CNN did
its homework, and by that evening, they had located, then aired Sherrod's
speech in its proper context.
First of all, the incident she alluded to with the white farmer had taken
place 24 years earlier. Breitbart's presentation gave the impression that
she was relating a recent anecdote. Second, the blogged excerpt stopped
short of the real message that Sherrod offered in her full speech, which
focused on a family tragedy, and her lifelong struggle to put that tragedy
into proper perspective. 45 years ago, Sherrod's father had been murdered by
a white man, and that incident had shaped her life and career. Following
the excerpted portion of her speech, Sherrod said, "...45 years ago I
couldn't stand here and tell you what I'm telling you tonight. God helped me to
see that it's not just about black people, it's about poor people ... But
I've come to realize that we have to work together. We have to overcome
divisions that we have. We have to get to the point where ... 'race exists, but it
doesn't matter'."
Had Breitbart, the NAACP, and Vilsack cared to investigate rather than
castigate, they would have learned that Sherrod was anything but a racist.
She was a dedicated public servant giving personal testimony about her life's
journey. Moreover, the white farmer she alluded to is still singing her
praises. Roger Spooner told CNN, "She was unbelievably helpful. She saved our
farm".
In the days following CNN's broadcast, both Vilsack and the NAACP
apologized to Sherrod. Vilsack even asked her to return to the USDA and accept a
promotion. All's well that ends well, I suppose. And, in the end, Shirley
Sherrod will be fine. But had it not been for CNN's diligence, she would have
remained scorned and unemployed, a victim of political ideologs who took
her words out of context, and spread them like wildfire, in hopes of fanning
the flames of racism.
The internet is the most powerful and far-reaching communications tool in
the world, yet it is the least regulated form of media. That must change.
The courts must treat blog sites as they do newspapers and TV stations, and
that means cracking down on web-generated libel. The first step is for
bloggers to be required to identify themselves by name and a verifiable email
address, or else be denied entry onto a blog site. That will eliminate most
of the cowardly postings designed to defame innocent people and derail
their careers, because cowards typically don't want to go to jail or pay fines.
In the meantime, mainstream media outlets must stop giving exposure and
credibility to bloggers. And, those of us who surf the internet, must take it
upon ourselves to check multiple sources prior to forming an opinion.
And one final observation. Since Vilsack initially jumped to conclusions
and made Ms. Sherrod text in her resignation, it is only fair that Mr. Obama
do the same with Vilsack. Now that would be a good use of technology.
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