The edited video posted by Andrew Breitbart led Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to ask Sherrod to resign, a decision he reconsidered after seeing the entire video of her March speech to a local NAACP group. In the full speech, Sherrod spoke of racial reconciliation and lessons she learned after initially hesitating to help a white farmer save his home.
She said she doesn’t want an apology from Breitbart for posting the video that took her comments out of context, but told a crowd at the National Association of Black Journalists annual convention that she would “definitely sue.”
If filed, Sherrod’s suit against the discredited pathological liar, race-baiter, and propagandist Breitbart would follow on another lawsuit recently filed against two of his employees, James O’Keefe and Hannah Giles, for having secretly video-taped an ACORN worker in violation of California state law. The worker, as all of the others secretly taped in the O’Keefe/Giles/Breitbart hit videos, was found to have committed no crimes, despite disinformation suggesting otherwise forwarded on Breitbart’s websites and other rightwing and non-rightwing media outlets.
The suit against O’Keefe and Giles, filed just over two weeks ago by former San Diego ACORN worker Juan Carlos Vera for invasion of privacy, leaves open the possibility that a number of other defendants will be added to the complaint. As The BRAD BLOG noted in our coverage of that suit, “we’ll be neither surprised nor saddened to see Breitbart named as one” of the defendants added in the not-too-distant future.
Between that lawsuit, and Sherrod’s, if she keeps her promise to “definitely sue,” it looks like Breitbart, who has spent many years disingenuously decrying the “journalistic malpractice” of others, may soon get a better definition of what that phrase actually means. For those of us who have seen Breitbart’s manic and embarrassing defense of his phony ACORN “Pimp” Hoax videos — the deceptively-edited tapes he published prior to the deceptively-edited Sherrod video he published — we’ve already got a pretty good idea of what that looks like.
Putting “Andy” in jail for a while (GITMO?).
Now, that would be worth contributing money for……
Well Halleluja! Next comes Glen Beck for inciting violence against the Tides Foundation. Finally, a Dem with some BALLS! May the lawsuits begin, where warranted.
At first I thought this would be a hard case to prove. I thought, how can Shirley Sherrod prove professional racist Andrew Breitbart selectively aired portions of that video with the intention of damaging her?
But now that I’ve had time to think about it, maybe I was setting the bar too high. Maybe Sherrod only need demonstrate Andrew Brietbart’s malicious propensity to abandon all “journalistic” standards when “reporting” on black people who don’t happen to be Republicans.
Perhaps she’ll get professional racist James O’Keefe on the record to prove her case. It should be fun.
Her biggest obstacle, I believe, will be his defense of “absence of malice”. He will claim that he did not know the video was deceptive, and that he believed the video was true, all as a continuation of his “I did not edit the video – somebody gave it to me that way” shtick.
I would love to be on that jury to hear that defense.
Tom Woofe: She was not a public figure. Malice is not an issue. Great case, plus she has a good shot at puitive damages
I’m really disappointed that Brad Friedman hasn’t been “Breitbarted” yet. C’mon Andy!
Will it be disclosed who pays his lawyer bills?
Nice work, Shirley. I hope you beat the pants off that moron Breitbart.
Emily
http://emilyscoffeespot.blogspot.com
Oh I hope she sues and WINS WINS WINS!!!!! Breitbart has been too reckless, negligent, and sociopathic in his media assasination campaign. He’ll only get worse if not directly confronted on his bs.
SreeBee #9.
Again, this isn’t as simple as it looks. If Sherrod is found to be a public offical, it will be very difficult for her to win. This is by no means a slam dunk.
If she files, she may very well follow the footsteps of ACORN in Maryland. File the suit for self-gratification, and then let it die.
While we are on the subject, what has happened in the Philly case (Conway-Russell v. James E. O’Keefe III)? Have the plaintiffs abandoned this one too?
I am curious as to whether Breitbart can be prosecuted for fraud.
I doubt she can find the lawyers to take on Faux News also but their ADDITIONAL editing made the video appear even WORSE that what Brightscum posted on his website.
The good news for Ms. Sherrod is that she was a private citizen therefore the liable bar is somewhat lower. She only has to prove that Faux acted with malice publishing the story. Now running the story in and of its self would fall under the category of “news” however I would love to have a JURY decide if the Faux News’s EDITING of the tape constituted intent to defame.
What should sink Brightscum is the ADDITIONAL titling he, yes he, ADDED to the video he was “given”. In that ADDITIONAL titling he made two substantial and material FALSE and DEFAMITORY claims. HE said she acted as a government official to deny benefits, neither of which were true!
Now the most interesting part will be the determination of damages. Given that she only lost her job for a matter of days and that the resulting publicity actually ENHANCED her reputation I’m not sure she could collect the big pay day we all here at the Brad Blog think Brightscum deserves to pay for his total lack of ethics!
Faux News can escape responsibility by saying that they were only “reporting” what Brightscum had posted and get off the hook entirely UNLESS it can be PROVED that they altered the video to present a DIFFERENT story than what Brightscum posted on Biggovt AND that that presentation was materially different AND was KNOWINGLY factually incorrect and/or done with malice. Now the armchair lawyers out there like me would say that you don’t need to prove malice since she is a private citizen, however it is easier to prove malice in this case than it would be to PROVE that Faux News “should” have know that the comments were 180 degrees opposite from what she actually said.
News organizations are NOT required by CRIMINAL LAW to be accurate. ONLY the consequences of CIVIL action require ANY media to be accurate! And that my friends is why big media like Faux News and the small media like your home town Newspapers can get away with LYING and DEFAMATION on a regular basis. Unless you have the $’s to hold them accountable they can do & say just about anything they want!
Gonna be a difficult case to prove unless there is counter evidence – but I hope she wins and takes Breitbart down a peg or 10.
http://capoliticalnews.com/blog_post/show/5926
He might have the last laugh.