Bad Boy of Pseudo-Journalism Exposes Himself
Mitch Albom

If a house is burned to the ground, you can whine about the firemen or criticize the building material -- but first you blame the guy who started the fire, right?

Last week, a government worker named Shirley Sherrod was axed after a video clip of her speaking to the NAACP was used to paint her as racist. In the blink of an eye, her reputation was burned down.

But once the whole speech was revealed -- proving the clip was way out of context -- her bosses were booed, the NAACP was blasted, even President Obama was chided.

And the guy who started the fire?

As of today, he still has matches.

Andrew Breitbart is the conservative blogger who posted the edited video of Sherrod. He put it on one of his five websites. Breitbart, a former Matt Drudge groupie, one-time E! Entertainment employee, and a guy who called Ted Kennedy, hours after his death, "a special pile of human excrement," hoisted that clip as evidence of reverse racism by the NAACP. He claimed the audience applauded such sentiments. The video showed no such thing.

But Breitbart lit the fire. He blew on the flames.

Breitbart is where this sad story begins, where the blame lies and where the punishment should be doled out -- if there were any you could dole out.

Sadly, how do you punish a blogger like Breitbart? He simply slithers back into the muck that some confuse with journalism. Who does he have to answer to?

Nobody.

Not the whole truth

"I am," Breitbart boasted to the media last week, "public enemy No. 1 or 2 to the Democratic Party ... based upon the successes my journalism has had."

There are several things wrong with that statement. First, I doubt he counts that much.

Second, his journalism? It's not journalism if you only look for one point of view, post other people's stuff and don't even acknowledge how using chopped-up material to paint a full picture is wrong.

"Let me think about that," was what Breitbart said when asked if he might have vetted the Sherrod footage more carefully if given another chance.

Let me think about that?

Some people have called this incident a referendum on racism. I don't think so. It was a referendum on editing. A referendum on Internet blogging. A referendum on our blazing desire for explosive moments -- even out of context -- and our creeping slowness to see the full picture.

Anyone who watches the whole tape of Sherrod's speech sees an honest woman who tells of an incident with a white farmer 24 years ago that made her question her own prejudices. She goes on to say such things as:

"Working with him made me see that it's really about those who have vs. those who don't ... and they could be black; they could be white; they could be Hispanic....

"God helped me see that it's not just about black people ... I've come to realize that we have to work together ... we have to overcome the divisions that we have...."

Yet, even after all that, Breitbart's website contains pieces like "If Anyone Needs To Apologize, It's Shirley Sherrod." Breitbart actually said the following of Sherrod: "This person has not gotten past black vs. white."

Sounds like he can't get past something himself.

What standards?

And that, of course, is hate. Hate makes the political world spin, particularly the blog world. The shrieking Ann Coulter, who can't possibly be taken seriously, actually claimed Breitbart was a "victim" of whoever set him up with this video. Sorry, but you can't fan your fame with "blockbuster" revelations, then blame others if they turn up bogus. It's like knocking over souvenirs in a curio shop; you break it, you bought it.

Breitbart broke it, he bought it, but instead of taking responsibility for it, he spins and points to anyone else, the liberals, Obama, the NAACP, even Sherrod herself, a woman who was nothing more than a pawn.

"I believe that I'm held to a higher standard," Breitbart actually told Politico. "If this video showed a picture of a Caucasian talking in the exact same way but talking about a black person with an audience affirming and clapping that behavior, the reporter would be getting a Pulitzer Prize right now."

Response: 1) No, he wouldn't. 2) Showing an edited video is not "reporting." 3) You, Breitbart, are not held to any standard.

And that's the problem.

Available at Amazon.com:

The Feminine Mystique

The Disappearing Center: Engaged Citizens, Polarization, and American Democracy

The Virtues of Mendacity: On Lying in Politics

Bush on the Home Front: Domestic Policy Triumphs and Setbacks

The Political Fix: Changing the Game of American Democracy, from the Grassroots to the White House

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