"Quarters of the news editor", one a group of four photos in the brochure Seattle and the Orient (1900) collectively captioned "The Seattle Daily Times—Editorial Department"

Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, visual, audible, and film media used to convey information through the processes of correction, condensation, organization, and other modifications performed with an intention of producing a correct, consistent, accurate, and complete work.^[1]

The editing process often begins with the author's idea for the work itself, continuing as a collaboration between the author and the editor as the work is created. As such, editing is a practice that includes creative skills, human relations, and a precise set of methods.^[2][3]

Print media[link]

There are various editorial positions in publishing. Typically, one finds editorial assistants reporting to the senior-level editorial staff and directors who report to senior executive editors. Senior executive editors are responsible for developing a product to its final release. The smaller the publication, the more these roles overlap.

The title of the top editor at many publications may be known as the editor in chief, executive editor, or simply the editor. A frequent and esteemed contributor to a magazine may acquire a title of editor at-large or contributing editor. Mid-level newspaper editors often manage or help manage sections, such as business, sports and features. In U.S. newspapers, the level below the top editor is usually the managing editor.

In the book publishing industry, editors may organize anthologies and other compilations, produce definitive editions of a classic author's works (scholarly editor), and organize and manage contributions to a multiauthor book (symposium editor or volume editor). Obtaining manuscripts or recruiting authors is the role of an Acquisitions Editor or a commissioning editor for a publishing house.^[4] Finding marketable ideas and presenting them to appropriate authors are the responsibility of a sponsoring editor.

Copy editors correct spelling, grammar, and align writings to house style. Changes to the publishing industry since the 1980s have resulted in nearly all copy editing of book manuscripts being outsourced to freelance copy editors.^[4]

At newspapers and wire services, copy editors write headlines and work on more substantive issues, such as ensuring accuracy, fairness, and taste. In some positions, they design pages and select news stories for inclusion. At U.K. and Australian newspapers, the term is sub-editor. They may choose the layout of the publication and communicate with the printer—a production editor. These editors may have the title of layout or design editor or (more so in the past) makeup editor.

Executive editor[link]

The top editor sometimes has the title executive editor or editor-in-chief. This person is generally responsible for the content of the publication. An exception is large newspapers, who usually have a separate editor for the editorials and opinion pages to separate news reporting and editorial content.

The executive editor sets the publication standards for performance, and motivates and develops the staff. The executive editor is also responsible for developing and maintaining the publication budget. In concert with the publisher and the operating committee, the Executive Editor is responsible for strategic and operational planning. The Executive Editor is effectively the head of the newspaper and has considerable influence on its content.

Periodicals[link]

Editors at newspapers supervise journalists and improve their work. Newspaper editing encompasses a variety of titles and functions. These include:

• Chief or supervising editors, who may be called editor in chief, executive editor, or sometimes just editor
• Managing editors and assistant or deputy managing editors (the managing editor is often second in line after the top editor)
• News editors, who oversee the news desks
• Editorial page editor who oversees the coverage on the editorial page. This editor often sits on the editorial board and assigns writing of editorials. The editorial page editor may also oversee letters to the editor or to the op-ed page. Alternately, these duties are assigned to separate letters or op-ed editors.
• Department or section editors and their assistants, such as for business, features, and sports
• Photo or picture editors
• Copy editors
• Readers' editors or public editors, sometimes known as the ombudsman, who field complaints from readers and respond to them
• Wire editors, who choose and edit articles from various international wire services, and are usually part of the copy desk

The term city editor is used differently in North America and South America, where it refers to the editor responsible for the news coverage of a newspaper's local circulation area (also sometimes called metro editor), than in the United Kingdom, where it refers to the editor responsible for coverage of business in the City of London and, by extension, coverage of business and finance in general.^[5][6]

Scholarly books and journals[link]

Editors of scholarly books and journals are of three types, each with particular responsibilities: the acquisitions editor (or commissioning editor in Britain), who contracts with the author to produce the copy, the project editor or production editor, who sees the copy through its stages from manuscript through bound book and usually assumes most of the budget and schedule responsibilities, and the copy editor or manuscript editor, who performs the tasks of readying the copy for conversion into printed form.

The primary difference between copy editing scholarly books and journals and other sorts of copy editing lies in applying the standards of the publisher to the copy. Most scholarly publishers have a preferred style guide, usually a combination of Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary and: (a) either the Chicago Manual of Style, the MLA Style Manual, or the APA Publication Manual in the US; or (b) the New Hart's Rules in the UK. The New Hart's Rules are based the "Hart's Rules for Compositors and Readers" published by Oxford University Press in 1893. Since scholars often have strong preferences, very often a publisher will adopt different styles for different fields. For instance, psychologists prefer the APA style, while linguists might prefer the MLA style. These guidelines offer sound advice on making cited sources complete and correct and making the presentation scholarly.

Technical editing[link]

Technical editing involves reviewing text written on a technical topic, and identifying usage errors and ensuring adherence to a style guide.

Technical editing may include the correction of grammatical mistakes, misspellings, mistyping, incorrect punctuation, inconsistencies in usages, poorly structured sentences, wrong scientific terms, wrong units and dimensions, inconsistency in significant figures, technical ambivalence, technical disambiguation, correction of statements conflicting with general scientific knowledge, correction of synopsis, content, index, headings and subheadings, correcting data and chart presentation in a research paper or report, and correcting errors in citations.

In large companies, experienced writers are dedicated to the technical editing function. In organizations that cannot afford dedicated editors, experienced writers typically peer-edit text produced by their less experienced colleagues.

It helps if the technical editor is familiar with the subject being edited, but that is not always essential. The "technical" knowledge that an editor gains over time while working on a particular product or technology does give the editor an edge over another who has just started editing content related to that product or technology. But essential general skills are attention to detail, the ability to sustain focus while working through lengthy pieces of text on complex topics, tact in dealing with writers, and excellent communication skills.

Business editing[link]

Businesses and nonprofit organizations often use editors, who may be employees, individual contractors, or contractors from a specialized copywriting agency. Working with writers inside or outside the business, such editors provide services such as proofreading, copy editing, line editing, developmental editing, editing for search engine optimization (SEO), etc.

References[link]

See also[link]

• Editor (disambiguation)
• Audio editing
• Film editing
• Society for Editors and Proofreaders (in the UK)
• Video editing

Further reading[link]

• Stephen, Leslie (1898). "The Evolution of Editors" (in English). Studies of a Biographer. 1. London: Duckworth and Co.. pp. 37-73. //en.wikisource.org/wiki/Studies_of_a_Biographer/The_Evolution_of_Editors. 

External links[link]

Look up editing in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• American Copy Editors Society
• Blake Morrison "Black day for the blue pencil" The Guardian, 6 August 2005
• Editorial Freelancers Association (USA)
• Society for Editors and Proofreaders (UK)
• Technical Editing special interest group (SIG) of the Society for Technical Communication (STC)
• Writer Beware of Independent Editors and Manuscript Assessment Services Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, 22 July 2010

On July 19, 2010, Shirley Sherrod was forced to resign from her appointed position as Georgia State Director of Rural Development for the United States Department of Agriculture^[1] because of video excerpts from her address to a March 2010 NAACP event and commentary posted by blogger Andrew Breitbart on his website.^[2] Based on these video excerpts, the NAACP condemned Sherrod's remarks as racist and U.S. government officials called on the official to resign. But, with review of the complete unedited video in full context, the NAACP, White House officials, and Tom Vilsack, the United States Secretary of Agriculture, apologized for the firing and offered Sherrod a new position.

Extensive media coverage of the excerpted videos, various parties' comments, and later corrections when the full story was discovered, exacerbated the affair. The event brought to the forefront current debates regarding racism in the United States, cable news reporting, ideological websites on the internet, and decisions made by President Barack Obama's administration.^[3][4]

The Obama administration apologized to Sherrod, and offered her a full-time, high-level internal advocacy position with the USDA^[5][6][7], which she ultimately declined.^[8] In 2011, Sherrod initiated a libel lawsuit against Breitbart and co-defendant Larry O'Connor for defamation.^[9] Their attorney filed for dismissal two months later on First Amendment grounds. In February 2012, defendants' motion for dismissal under the anti-SLAPP law was denied and subsequently appealed to the U.S. District Court for the D.C. Circuit.^[10]

Before media coverage of videos[link]

Shirley Sherrod aware of videos on 7/14[link]

When Shirley Sherrod addressed the Federation of Southern Cooperatives/Land Assistance Fund on August 21, 2010, she claimed to have been aware of the videos on July 14, 2010; five days before they were posted on Andrew Breitbart's BigGovernment.com website.^[11] Sherrod says that she immediately notified the USDA about the videos, saying that they did not convey the entire or accurate story. She heard nothing from the USDA until Monday, July 19, 2010, when she was put on administrative leave and then asked to resign. Released White House emails, shows the Obama administration was aware of the situation, but there was no evidence that the dismissal of Sherrod was under orders of the White House.^{[12] [13]}

Excerpted video[link]

On July 19, 2010, two different video clips ^[A] were posted by the conservative commentator Andrew Breitbart to his BigGovernment.com website, along with a nearly 1,000-word blog post in which he accused Sherrod of carrying out her duties "through the prism of race and class distinctions." He says that she discriminated racially against a white farmer by referring him to a white lawyer, and notes the audience reaction of NAACP members seemed to approve of her actions.^[14]

The first video showed Sherrod describing an experience of working with a white man seeking help to save his farm. She struggled with helping him at a time when many black people were losing their land. The excerpt suggests she did just enough, especially by taking him to a white lawyer -"his own kind would take care of him."^[14] She said she realized it was about the poor versus "those who have."^[14]

Subsequent events showed that the posted video was an excerpt of broader comments that conveyed a very different meaning, in which Sherrod learned from her experience.^[15] Breitbart said he did not edit the video excerpt which he released and did not have a copy of the entire speech.^[16] The full 43-minute video^[B] was produced by a Douglas, Georgia, company that filmed the banquet for the local Georgia chapter of the NAACP. The owner of the video company, Johnny Wilkerson, said on July 20 that he was sending the full video to the national NAACP and would post it in full once he got permission to do so.^[17] Breitbart's source for the excerpt remained confidential as of July 2010^[update].^[18]

Controversy timeline[link]

Much of the controversy related to the incident involved which parties took which actions and when. Media Matters for America, considered a left-of-center media outlet, compiled an extensive timeline of the affair. Greg Pollowitz of National Review Online, considered a right-of-center media outlet, said that Media Matters' timeline was "as good as any I’ve seen."^[19]

Initial media reports[link]

The first news outlet to report on the Breitbart video was FoxNews.com, which posted an article about the story on its website.^[20] The New York City affiliate for CBS posted a report on its website later that afternoon.^[20] The Atlanta Journal Constitution website soon picked up the story.^[21] In addition, the story was picked up and reported widely in the blogosphere.^[20]

Resignation of Sherrod[link]

Sherrod later said that on the afternoon of July 19, she received numerous demands from government officials to submit her resignation, demands which she characterized as harassment.^[22] In response to a call from USDA deputy undersecretary Cheryl Cook, Sherrod submitted her resignation via email. Sherrod claims that Cook told her White House officials wanted her to quit immediately because the controversy was "going to be on Glenn Beck tonight",^[22] a claim disputed by White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs.^[5]

Official comments about Sherrod[link]

That same evening, the President of the NAACP, Benjamin Jealous, posted a tweet saying that his organization was "appalled" by Sherrod's comments.^[20] The following day, the USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack released a statement explaining his agency's actions and suggested that Sherrod's statements as shown damaged her effectiveness at a time when USDA was working to improve its previous civil rights abuses.^[23]

Initial broadcast of Breitbart video[link]

The Breitbart video was first broadcast that evening on The O'Reilly Factor, a talk show on the Fox News Channel;^[20] host Bill O'Reilly said Sherrod should resign.^[20] At the time of the taping of the show, news of Sherrod's resignation had not yet been reported, nor had the NAACP yet released the full video. But, the program was not broadcast until after Sherrod resigned and O'Reilly's staff had confirmed that fact with the USDA.^[24]

Dana Loesch, an organizer for the Tea Party in Saint Louis, Missouri, mentioned the video in an appearance on Larry King Live;^[25][26] it was also shown on Anderson Cooper 360 (both on CNN).^[24][27] It was discussed on Hannity and On The Record with Greta Van Susteren (both on Fox) as well,^[21] but notably not on Glenn Beck.^[28]

Sherrod's account[link]

In the full video, Sherrod related her experience in 1986 with the first white farmer to come to her for help. (On July 20 CNN received a telephone call from the farmer's wife and learned his name was Roger Spooner.^[29]) Sherrod said that his land was being sold, and "had in fact already been rented out from under him."^[30] At first, she felt that he had a superior attitude toward her, causing her to recall harsh aspects of her life in the South, including the murder of her father^[30], but she went on to say that she had not let that get in the way and did not discriminate against him. They became very good friends as a result of her help. She admitted thinking at the time that white people had "all the advantages" but learned that poverty affected both races.^[30]

According to Sherrod, she did her job correctly by taking the farmer to a white lawyer who she thought could help him, and she looked for another lawyer when needed. ^[31] Sherrod rejected claims that she was racist and said she "went all out" to help the man keep his farm. She said that the incident helped her learn to move beyond race, and she told the story to audiences to make that point.^[31]

Spooner family's account[link]

Roger Spooner, the farmer, said on CNN that Sherrod is not a racist, that she did everything she could for his family; more than 20 years later, he and Sherrod remain friends.^[32] The Spooners credit Sherrod with helping them save their farm: "If it hadn't been for her, we would've never known who to see or what to do," Roger Spooner said. "She led us right to our success." His wife, Eloise Spooner, said that "after things kind of settled down, she brought Sherrod some tomatoes out of her garden, and they had a good visit."^[31] Eloise Spooner recalled Sherrod as "nice-mannered, thoughtful, friendly; a good person."^[31] The couple were surprised by the controversy. "I don't know what brought up the racist mess," Roger Spooner said. "They just want to stir up some trouble, it sounds to me in my opinion." Eloise Spooner said that on seeing the story of Sherrod's resignation, "I said, 'That ain't right. They have not treated her right.'"^[31]

Full video[link]

The extended unedited video of her speech released by the NAACP^[33] showed that in her full speech, Sherrod emphasized what was only touched on in the excerpt:^[34] she learned from the incident that poverty, not race, was the key factor in rural development. She said she ultimately worked hard to save the farmer's land.^[3]

Other references to race in Sherrod's speech related to a story of her more recent help of a black family to prevent forced sale of their farmland. It was a case in which distant cousins, among numerous heirs, were forcing a sale of land that the family's had owned since the grandfather bought it. She noted finding some honest lawyer who happened to be white, and also that the cousins in the North had lined up a white buyer.^[30]

Subsequent events[link]

Reactions to the incident[link]

Within hours of the excerpted video's being shown, Benjamin Jealous, president of the NAACP, condemned Sherrod for having abused her power and criticized the apparent audience reaction as well.^[35]

After the NAACP released the entire videotape, its officials retracted their previous statement and said:^[35]

Having reviewed the full tape, spoken to Ms. Sherrod, and most importantly heard the testimony of the white farmers mentioned in this story, we now believe the organization that edited the documents did so with the intention of deceiving millions of Americans.^[35]

During the uproar over Sherrod's resignation, Vilsack released a statement on July 20 saying that the USDA would "conduct a thorough review and consider additional facts".^[36] Sherrod said that she might not want the job any more.^[37]

On July 21, 2010, Fox News rejected claims that it inflamed the situation.^[38] While the story was not mentioned on the Fox News Channel until after Sherrod's resignation, the edited video and an accompanying article had been published on the Fox News website, as well as those of several other news organizations, prior to her resignation.^[2][20]

Later, the White House sought official review of the case.^[39] Sherrod watched live at the CNN Center when Robert Gibbs, White House press spokesman, extended her an apology.^[15] She said she welcomed the review and accepted the apology.^[40]

On July 21, Vilsack of USDA apologized personally and publicly to Sherrod for forcing her resignation based on an "out-of-context video."^[41] He said that he had offered Sherrod a new position in the department, and that she was taking time to consider it.^[41] That night, Bill O'Reilly apologized to Sherrod for his remarks calling for her removal from office. He had been the first on cable TV to air the video excerpt posted by Breitbart.^[C]

Reactions from Breitbart[link]

Initially, Breitbart claimed Sherrod "harbored" racist sentiments.^[42] On July 20, 2010, in an interview with CNN's John King, Breitbart said that releasing the video was for the following reason:^[43]

Breitbart questioned CNN's accepting Eloise Spooner's self-reported identity in a phone interview. ^[44] In a July 30 interview with Newsweek, Breitbart said he would be glad to meet with Sherrod privately. He agreed that the excerpted video took her statements out of context and said that if he could do things all over again, he would not have posted the excerpted video,^[45] but he did not apologize to Sherrod.

Reactions and subsequent statements by Sherrod[link]

President Barack Obama spoke to Sherrod personally in a phone call that lasted for seven minutes. Although he did not apologize personally to her, Sherrod said she was "very, very pleased with the conversation."^[46] On July 22, Sherrod said she planned to sue Breitbart, who published the excerpted video that led to her resignation.^[47] She also said that she would like to see Breitbart's BigGovernment.com website "shut down".^[48]

In an interview with the CNN reporter Anderson Cooper, Sherrod referred to Breitbart as "vicious" and a "racist," and said that he would "like to get us stuck back in the times of slavery".^[50] National Review commentators suggested she owed Breitbart an apology^[51], and Salon's Joan Walsh said Sherrod's assertion came from her own viewpoint.^[52]

After learning of Breitbart's death on March 1, 2012, Sherrod released the following statement: "The news of Mr. Breitbart’s death came as a surprise to me when I was informed of it this morning. My prayers go out to Mr. Breitbart’s family as they cope during this very difficult time." ^[53]

Biography of Shirley Sherrod[link]

Shirley Sherrod
Shirley Sherrod at a March 2010 regional USDA meeting.
Born	Shirley Miller c. 1948 Newton-Baker County, Georgia, U.S.
Residence	Albany, Georgia
Ethnicity	African-American
Education	Fort Valley State Col. Albany State Univ.: sociology, 1970 Antioch University: masters, community development, 1989[54]
Occupation	Civil rights activist Former Georgia State Director of Rural Development United States Department of Agriculture Sociologist
Known for	Albany Movement[55] New Communities (collective farm)[55] Pigford v. Glickman Forced resignation from the USDA, July 19, 2010
Religion	Baptist
Spouse	Charles Sherrod minister
Parents	Grace and Hosie Miller

Shirley Sherrod (née Miller) was born in 1948 in Baker County, Georgia, to Grace and Hosie Miller.^[56][57] In 1965, when she was 17 years old, her father, Hosie Miller, a deacon at the local Baptist Church, was shot to death by a white farmer, reportedly over a dispute about livestock.^[57] No charges were returned against the shooter by an all-white grand jury.^[57] This was a turning point in her life and she decided to stay in the South to bring about change.^[57] Several months after Miller's homicide, a cross was burned at night in front of the Miller family's residence; Grace Miller and her four daughters, including Shirley, and infant son, born after her husband's killing, were inside.^[58]

That same year, Sherrod was among the first black students to enroll in the previously all-white high school in Baker County.^[56] Eleven years later, her mother Grace Miller became the first black woman elected to a county office, one she continued to hold, as of 2010^[update].^[58]

Sherrod attended Fort Valley State College^[56] and later studied sociology at Albany State University in Georgia while working for civil rights with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. There she met her future husband, minister Charles Sherrod.^[57][59] She went on to Antioch University in Yellow Springs, Ohio, where she earned her master's degree in community development.^[57] She returned to Georgia to work with the Department of Agriculture in Georgia "to help minority farmers keep their land."^[57]

New Communities land trust[link]

In 1969, Sherrod and her husband were among the U.S. civil rights and land collective activists co-founding New Communities, a collective farm in Southwest Georgia^[55][60][61] modeled on kibbutzim in Israel.^[57][62] According to research by Susan Witt and Robert Swann, New Communities' founding in 1969 was connected to the Albany Movement^[61]. It served as a laboratory and model in a movement toward the development of Community Land Trusts throughout the U.S.: "The perseverance and foresight of that team in Georgia, motivated by the right of African-American farmers to farm land securely and affordably, initiated the CLT movement in this country."^[63]

Located in Lee County, Georgia, the 5,700-acre (23 km²) project was one of the largest tracts of black-owned land in the U.S.^[62][64] The project encountered difficulties in the opposition of area white farmers, who accused participants of being communists,^[57] and also from segregationist Democratic Governor Lester Maddox, who prevented development funds for the project from entering the state.^[62] A drought in the 1970s and the inability to get government loans led to the project's demise in 1985.^{[57] [65]}

Class action lawsuit[link]

After Sherrod and her husband lost their farm when they were unable to secure USDA loans,^[59] they became class action plaintiffs in the civil suit Pigford v. Glickman (1999). In 1999, the Department agreed to a settlement, for which compensation will be paid for farmers affected during the period between January 1, 1981 and December 31, 1999,^[57] in "the largest civil rights settlement in history, with nearly $1 billion being paid to more than 16,000 victims."^[57]

A federal law passed in 2008 — with then-Senator Barack Obama's sponsorship, as well as Senator Grassley of Iowa — to allow up to 70,000 more claimants to qualify.^[57] This expansion included New Communities, the communal farm in which Sherrod and her husband had partnered. In 2009, the chief arbitrator Michael Lewis ruled that the USDA had discriminated against New Communities by denying a loan to the operation and extending more favorable terms to white farmers.^[55] New Communities received a $12.8 million settlement, which included $8.2 million in compensation for loss of farm land, $4.2 million for loss of income and $330,000 to Sherrod and her husband^[66] for mental anguish.^[62][64]

In August 2009, Sherrod was hired by the USDA for the political appointee position as the Georgia director of rural development; she was the first black person to hold that position.^[55][57]

Professional positions; activism[link]

Selected analyses and commentary[link]

General politics[link]

Commentators attributed the rivalry between the left and the right as an important factor in the controversy. The NAACP had passed a resolution asking the Tea Party to repudiate racist language among its members.^[70] Breitbart said he posted the videos in response. Commentators from each side noted that racial issues were being manipulated for political gain. Imani Perry, a professor at Princeton's Center for African American Studies, said some conservatives manipulated white fears for political advantage:

I think many white Americans are fearful that with Obama in the White House, and the diversity in his appointments, that the racial balance of power is shifting. And that's frightening both because people always are afraid to give up privilege, and because of the prospect of a black-and-brown backlash against a very ugly history. Some liberals have long maintained that racism requires power, and so black people can't be racist. Obama's election undercut the first argument and made the specter of black racism appear more threatening.^[71]

Journalist Ben Smith of The Politico remarked,

The America of 2010 is dominated by racial images out of farce and parody, caricatures not seen since the glory days of Shaft. Fox News often stars a leather-clad New Black Panther, while MSNBC scours the tea party movement for racist elements, which one could probably find in any mass organization in America. Obama's own, sole foray into the issue of race involved saying a Police Officer acted "stupidly", and regretting his own words [the Henry Louis Gates incident]. Conservative leaders and the NAACP, the venerable civil-rights group, recently engaged in a round of bitter name-calling that left both groups wounded and crying foul. Political correctness continues to reign in parts of the left, and now has a match in the belligerent grievance of conservatives demanding that hair-trigger allegations of racism be proven.^[24]

Reactions to incident and debate about media's role[link]

After the release of the full video, media outlets across the political spectrum criticized the decision to force Sherrod to resign.^{[72] [73][74]}

Jeff Greenfield of CBS News criticized the role of the 24-hour news, saying,

"The old United Press International wire service had a slogan: 'Get it first, but first get it right'. In the wake of the Shirley Sherrod story, it's worth asking whether more and more the second half of that slogan has been dumped into the trash bin."^[75]

The BBC commented about "the absurdity of the spin-cycle in which American journalists and politicians are intertwined and about the febrile atmosphere that surrounds any story about race."^[76] The New York Times noted that, "Politically charged stories often take root online before being shared with a much wider audience on Fox. The television coverage, in turn, puts pressure on other news media outlets to follow up".^[77]

Mediaite's Steve Krakauer reported that although FoxNews.com broke the story, it was later reported by other online sites such as the Atlanta Journal Constitution's, and that it was repeated by a number of people on various shows and networks. He noted full coverage by other networks and channels, so Sherrod's resignation was not simply because of the Fox News coverage.^[21] Howard Kurtz said in The Washington Post that the Fox News network, with the exception of brief comments by O'Reilly, did not discuss the story until after Sherrod's resignation was widely reported.^[24] Clemente of Fox News said that it was a mistake to have put the story on their website before Sherrod's resignation was announced.^[78]

In an interview with Chris Wallace of Fox News, the civil rights activist the Reverend Jesse Jackson said that he regretted that coverage given to the Sherrod incident had overshadowed more important federal actions that month. The government had settled longstanding claims of racial discrimination in programs of USDA and the Department of Interior. Jackson noted the landmark nature of the national settlements of these cases and that tens of thousands of people benefited from the compensation for previous injustices. He said:

[J]ust this past Thursday the black farmers got a $1.2 billion settlement, the [American] Indians a $3.2 billion settlement, for race discrimination. We're not discussing all the facts... 100,000 black farmers get no press. Native Americans get no press. We're still arguing about how fast or slow the White House reacted. Also the Spooner's testimony – this white family farmer, Eloise and Mr. Spooner – I thought their stepping up to the plate in alliance with Sherrod was a great news story that none of us should miss.^[79]

Appearing on ABC's The View on July 29, President Obama characterized the controversy over Sherrod's firing as a "bogus" one generated by the media; he said his administration overreacted in forcing her out.^[80]

[edit] Defamation lawsuit

On February 11, 2011, Sherrod filed suit for defamation in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia against Andrew Breitbart, Breitbart.com TV chief Larry O'Connor, and a "John Doe," who, according to the complaint, is "an individual whose identity has been concealed by the other defendants and who, according to defendant Breitbart, was involved in the deceptive editing of the video clip and encouraged its publication with the intent to defame Mrs. Sherrod."^[9][81][82]

On April 18, 2011, Breitbart and O'Connor filed joint motions for dismissal on First Amendment grounds, known in legal circles as an "anti-SLAPP motion." The motion argued that Breitbart's "1400-word, July 19, 2010 commentary... that is the subject of Sherrod’s lawsuit" was in the context of a "months-long and very loud public clash between Tea Party conservatives and the NAACP and its allies in Congress."^[83] The motion was denied, and on February 15, 2012, the U.S. District Court issued a six-page "statement of reasons" which accused Breitbart and O'Connor of wasting "a considerable amount of judicial and litigant resources" on their "'novel' if not overreaching motion."^[84]

Notes[link]

A.^{^} Video excerpt's precise length: 02 minutes, 38 seconds.^[85]

B.^{^} Complete video's running time: 43 minutes, 15 seconds.^[86]

C.^{^} With regard to O'Reilly's connection to the affair, media critic Matea Gold reported as follows.

References[link]

External links[link]

This article's use of external links may not follow Wikipedia's policies or guidelines. Please improve this article by removing excessive or inappropriate external links, and converting useful links where appropriate into footnote references. (June 2011)

Primary documentation

• Text transcript, audio and video of Shirley Sherrod's NAACP Speech at AmericanRhetoric.com
• Sherrod's full speech at CNN
• Defamation lawsuit at Scribd

Commentary by principals

• Appearances on C-SPAN
• Eloise Spooner's interview on The Washington Post.
• Barack Obama on The View, July 29, 2010; taped July 28: partial transcript (Baltimore Sun website), video (USA Today website)
• Obama's speech at National Urban League, July 29, 2010: transcript (Chicago Sun-Times website), video (C-Span website)
• Sherrod's press conference and plenary session at National Association of Black Journalists convention, July 29, 2010: précis (Robert C. Maynard Institute for Journalism Education's Richard Prince), video (NABJ website)
• "Shirley Sherrod Interview: Fired USDA Official Describes Her Ordeal, Blames Fox News" – Marcus Baram, Huffington Post

Biographies

• Sherrod's steadfast motto: 'Let's work together', CNN
• Despite adversity, Shirley Sherrod has history of civil service, The Washington Post
• Shirley Sherrod shaped by father's slaying, Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Works

• Shirley Sherrod at WorldCat
• Thesis at WorldCat