Well, given that the network apparently has the power to go back in time and take over the President’s mind… that’s some pretty god-like power right there, yes?
[Shirley] Sherrod may be the only official ever dismissed because of the fear that Fox host Glenn Beck might go after her. As Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack tried to pressure her into resigning, Sherrod says Deputy Undersecretary Cheryl Cook called her Monday to say “do it, because you’re going to be on ‘Glenn Beck’ tonight.”
As it turns out, the White House panicked unduly:
Both Sherrod and the NAACP – which first condemned her remarks, then reversed itself — put the blame in part on Fox News for hyping the story, a charged the cable news channel rejected.
Michael Clemente, senior vice president of news editorial, said the network’s news programs reported the story with caution. “When I heard about this Monday morning and saw it on Breitbart’s website, I said, ‘OK, could be a story, let’s check it out,’ ” Clemente said. “We did the normal fact-finding we would do on any story.”
At an afternoon editorial meeting Monday, Clemente urged the staff to first get the facts and obtain comment from Sherrod before going on air, according to internal notes from the meeting that were provided to The Times. “Let’s make sure we do this right,” he said.
Sherrod ended up resigning Monday afternoon, hours before O’Reilly broke the story on his show. The first reported piece on Fox News, by correspondent James Rosen, aired on Tuesday morning, and included a second video clip that added context to Sherrod’s comments.
Not that this stopped Democratic house organs like Media Matters (link to Mediate, thus safer) from uncritically accepting Sherrod’s – and the NAACP’s – attack on the network. Then again, it’s much easier to deal with the Fox network that screams forbidden thoughts at you in the night from the back of your head, than it is to deal with the Fox network that hosts the guy who takes your side in your labor dispute. Because, oh, yes: she was mentioned by Glenn Beck. Who then proceeded to rip the administration and the NAACP into small chunks for what they did to her.
But contemplating that would be a doubleplusungood thoughtcrime for the Activist Left, so ignore it and maybe it’ll go away.
Moe Lane