Now that the firestorm over Shirley Sherrod's firing is beginning to die down, it's worth looking at the specific statements Andrew Breitbart made on national cable TV to justify himself before the full video was released.
His appearance on John King USA on July 20th had a very revealing moment in it, one that's worth looking at in depth.
Every time Breitbart opens his mouth a lie flies out. Beginning at the beginning, and remember, this was before the full tape was released.
BREITBART: It has to -- this tape is about the NAACP. Its race (ph) on debt is about nondiscrimination and when Shirley Sherrod is talking there in which she expresses a discriminatory attitude towards white people, the audience responds with applaud -- with applause and the NAACP agrees with me and it rebuked her and the audience. So the entire conversation about race right now in this country is because the NAACP brought up without evidence, again, and including the false narrative that the "n" word was hurled at three black congressmen, this is asserting that the NAACP condoned racism and was caught on video. And the more video that we've seen that we haven't even offered, there's even more racism on these tapes. This is deeply problematic.
KING: I'm happy to look at those tapes, and I promise I will look at those tapes if you post them, but I want to come back to another -- you say context is everything. We believe facts are important, too --
(CROSSTALK)
BREITBART: If that -- if it is the case and it can be shown to me that the incident that she's talking about was done many years ago and not in her current context, but as a reporter you tell me how you confirmed that the incident that she's talking about was 24 years ago? You tell me as a reporter how CNN put on a person today who purported to be the farmer's wife?
What did you do to find out whether or not that was the actual farmer's wife? I mean there -- if you're going to accuse me of a falsehood, tell me where you've confirmed that this incident happened 24 years ago. This is Shirley Sherrod trying to save her job when her problem is with Vilsack (ph) and the USDA and the NAACP, both which have rebuked her and forced her to leave her position.
KING: I think she has legitimate questions as do we for Secretary Vilsack (ph), the NAACP, the Agriculture Department and perhaps even the Obama White House. But did you reach out to her when you posted this to ask her -- I have this tape. I think it shows what I -- what you believe to be damning conduct or questionable conduct. Did you reach out to her and say what incident are you talking about? When did this happen?
Now, when King starts pressing, Breitbart starts squirming.
BREITBART: This was not about Shirley Sherrod. This was about the NAACP attacking the Tea Party and this is showing racism at a NAACP event. I did not ask for Shirley Sherrod to be fired. I did not ask for any repercussions for Shirley Sherrod. They were the ones that took the initiative to get rid of her.
I do not -- I think she should have the right to defend herself, but what you see on the video are people in the audience at an organization whose sole job is to fight against discrimination and they're applauding her overt racism that she's representing.
Note to Breitbart: They were NOT applauding.
That part sets the stage for what happens next, and it really does matter. John King asks Breitbart when he "came into possession of the tape." Breitbart's response:
KING: When did you come -- when did you come into possession of this tape?
BREITBART: In March of this year.
Pretty simple, isn't it? Question asked; question answered.
Now go to about 2:40 in the video, where John King asks again when he came into possession of the tapes.
KING: If the NAACP is allegedly going to release the entire tape sometime later today, but do you have the entire tape?
BREITBART: We just got it in the mail. We were sent two separate videos by a person who is worried about having a journalist type of allensky (ph) attack against it, so he -- I'm protecting this person. He sent me these two videos and he's now sent us the full video.
And if I get the OK from the people who have the rights to the video to put it up on the Internet, I have no problem with it. Again, I have -- my problem is not with Shirley Sherrod. My problem is with the double-standard in the media that it's willing to play up that the Tea Party is racist without any evidence. This is my evidence to the NAACP that they condoned racism at a freedom dinner around a group that's supposed to be about non-discrimination.
KING: Let me ask you lastly. You say you received, if I heard you correctly, in March you received the earlier portions of the tape?
BREITBART: Yes -- no, I was aware of the two -- I was aware of the two of them. They were transferred to me this weekend, but I was aware -- I was made aware of the tapes in March.
KING: They were transferred to you this week. I was asking in the context if you used them in the context of getting into the Tea Party/NAACP racism debate. I was asking whether -- essentially whether you had them in your drawer waiting for a moment to use them or in the midst of this debate you had in the back of your head (INAUDIBLE) someone told you about these tapes.
Follow that? Andrew Breitbart says he received the video in March before he says he didn't, that he was "made aware" of it.
Did anyone ask Andrew Breitbart who made the video? Who edited it? Who sent it to him?
No.
There's nonsense in that John King interview about concealing the name of the source to protect them from an "Alinsky-type attack" against them, but no one has asked where the video came from, have they?
Well, one person did. BillieGirlToo over at the Daily Dose blog looked closely at that John King interview and asked herself whether or not Breitbart was lying. She went looking for the first appearance of that video on the internet, and she found it on StageRightShow's YouTube Channel. (Ironically, Larry O'Connor was the henchman at Breitbart's Hollywood appearance with John Amato. I like to refer to him as the 'beer bearer', because when Breitbart's beer ran dry, Larry was right there with a fresh one) Larry O'Connor is featured on the Big Breitbart sites. One might draw a conclusion that he is either employed by or contracts with Andrew Breitbart.
Shirley Sherrod delivered her speech on March 27, 2010 to the NAACP. What else was happening around that date?
On March 26, 2010, Andrew Breitbart issued his challenge to John Lewis to prove a negative. He was under pressure over his edited ACORN tapes. And, he was attending the kickoff of the Tea Party Express tour (yes, the same Tea Party Express that Mark Williams headed up at the time) on March 27, 2010. In fact, at that tea party rally he rages against those who would call the Tea Party racist.
Meanwhile, Larry O'Connor was out and about, too. His iTunes radio show listing has a substitute on March 26, 2010, no show on 3/27-3/28, and a "best of" show on 3/29/2010.
And finally, Larry O'Connor was the guy who pimped the video of the Breitbart-Max Blumenthal "confrontation" at CPAC, was right there to post the video of the angry (baited) North Carolina Congressman Etheridge as he was confronted by a couple of "students" in Washington DC, and claims his video proves John Lewis and the black caucus was not shouted down and no instances of the "N" word were tossed.
Given that Breitbart was furious at the NAACP's accusation of Tea Party racism just days before the Tea Party Express kickoff on March 27, do you think he might have had the NAACP in mind as the next ACORN? And if he did have them targeted, then one might assume a new "project" was launched right around that time. James O'Keefe was busy pleading to bargained criminal charges in the bungled Landrieu bugging affair that weekend, but others were surely available. What a busy weekend!
Here's the common thread: Each and every one of those videos was edited and provoked, and each and every one of them tracks back to the Breitbart henchman, Larry O'Connor.
Larry O'Connor had the video. Larry O'Connor works for Breitbart. Breitbart admits to having the "edited" version since March, 2010.
You figure the rest out. This was a setup from start to finish. It wasn't the first time and it won't be the last. Every organization whose name Breitbart utters should be very careful, and make their own videos of events. Just in case.
