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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.

About karoli
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Biblically?


Diabolus est Deus Inversus

It was the one armed man.


"Someday somebody related to some of these sufferers, these victims, these collaterally damaged souls, may try to kill you. And I have to tell you, I think you’ll have it coming." - Christopher Cooper

You can't prove that!!!!


is intended to be a factual statement

Floridiot's picture

He is a madman.

WizardLeft1's picture

Andrew Breitbart is nothing but a Racist and I know it just by listening and seeing him. It's not that difficult to figure out....Let's call the man what he is---a Racist and not be so laid back in describing who this guy really is.

The right wing loathe "political correctness" because it deprives them of being overt bigots and racists.

The right wing oppose hate crimes laws because that would also deprive them to hate gays, blacks, Muslims, and others in an overt manner.

The right wing also try to cloak all their arguments using the Bible but we should all know by now that such banter is all smoke and mirrors.....

The right wing use the Bible in argument in order to: 1. shield themselves against any counter-attack---(attacking God and my religion, etc.,) and 2. to condone their bigoted ways.

Andrew Breitbart can try to say or talk his way out this one any way he likes, but, he will always be a Racist until he makes the pledge and effort to make restitution for all his evil ways here in the present.

TreadingWater's picture

I think he meant raison d'etre, and not race on debt.

weebles53's picture

i had no idea what he said but it was kinda strange.


the security this website has for registration is goofy.

JustMyWords's picture

He must secretly be some kind of liberal pinko commie pervert, talkin' like that.

Captain Kangaroo's picture

This guy is unbalanced. He is out of his mind. He is going to implode in some way. I hope he doesn't take some innocent person with him.

merkin's picture

but I kind of hope he does...

Floridiot's picture

without the pissy yellow underwear.

walt kovacs's picture

who has found a niche in which to earn money

and im still waiting for him to show this evidence that the congressional black caucus lied

but never mind that....just look at the thousands of racist signs that have been brought to tea party rallies

and why did the entire movement not get its start until obama became president...despite the fact that what they are protesting over was going on during the entire bush administration

smartalek's picture

GWB did not, like, say, Reagan before him, take an EXISTING deficit and ADD to it.
He took a federal budget that his DEMOCRATIC predecessor had passed on that was, for the first time in decades, in SURPLUS -- and he turned it into a deficit.
And he didn't JUST do it with a wrecked economy, and heavy expenses on "defense" (ie, attacking a country that posed no threat, while letting the worst mass-murderer in US history literally walk out from within our grasp).
HE did it with tax cuts that he promised would create millions of jobs -- guess what; they didn't -- and with the biggest expansion of federal expenditures in decades, the "Medicare D" drug coverage -- which is exactly the kind of "entitlement giveaway" that they scream is "socialism" when Obama or Congressional Dem's want it.
There is NOTHING in what they claim to oppose in Obama's actions that GWB and the Publicans didn't to first, and in much greater magnitude. NOTHING.

weebles53's picture

always let the nutter rage and rant on and on.


the security this website has for registration is goofy.

He is pushing very hard at this particular line. And the repetition is suspiciously desperate.

Captain Kangaroo's picture

Another thing (and I have mentioned it a couple times here) is that Breitbart, in that CPAC scene with Max Blumenthal, said that “Accusing a person of racism is the worst thing that you can do to someone”. The amount of projection in this video in the link I gave is unreal.

ron's picture

at the gathering during the healthcare debates, the videos don't prove either side of the story. There was too much background noise to hear them that yelled out n****r and just because one congressman that said he heard it but wasn't in the video doesn't mean he wasn't there and heard it.

I've been watching the dolt blather on for at least five minutes in silence.

Why can I say with near-certainty that I've missed nothing...


"Parachutes are allowed in checked or carry-on baggage, but may not be worn in flight."

---Southwest Airlines

It's not hard to tell where this bitter individual (Andrew Breitbart) and his fellowship get their ideas from... right down to the exploitative self-interested greed by deception creed.


Study the symptoms not the virus...

As a human being he is a rotten low life and a chronic liar ... which is your typical Reich winger these days . It's too damned bad that Obama and company are so weak as to have jumped the gun and fired this woman , making the White House firing her the headline instead of this scum bag Breitbart and the Reich wing .


Insanity , it is what it is , there is no understanding it .

karoli's picture

Blame Obama for a liar lying. Got it.

Captain Kangaroo's picture

No matter what anybody says the story is or should be about the lying scumbag liar and only about the lying scumbag liar.

Why didn't Obama do his due dilegence on this story instead of knee-jerking Sherrod out the door? What is he afraid of?

mnich13's picture

When you fire someone for something that is clearly not a firing offense, then -- sure as heck -- somebody else needs to be fired for playing fast and loose with someone's employment and income in an environment where that can mean the difference between homelessness or not.

emj's picture

Fox News wants us to believe they are fair and balanced. Obama took them at their word. This proves they do not live up to their word. Creating this trumped up mess to create a stir is cowardly. The tea party complains about government waste and now someone in the government has to spend our money checking facts because Fox news and other media outlets don't either! I want government workers working on matters for the country, just like Sherrod, Vilsack and Obama were doing before this coward posted this crap! This whole mess was a waste of our government's time!

JustMyWords's picture

True, I would be more comfortable if the White House had investigated further before reacting. Of course, if they hadn't acted immediately, the story would have been framed as "Obama does nothing about racist employee," and most of the media still would have ignored that fact that the video was doctored.

But hopefully going forward when these 'videos' come up (and they will), it would nice to see the administration's response be to go public quickly and say, "We are going to investigate these allegations to determine the truth of the matter, BUT we will not again take action based on the assumption that the information is accurate. We do not want to make the same mistake we did with our mistreatment of Ms. Sherrod." Spend the next few years reminding the public that they were lied to, preferably at every available opportunity.

emj's picture

Yes, moving forward Obama's people should constantly remind the public about the lie and the need to look into the facts.

Thanks.

futt the wuck's picture

Breitbart telling a lie?

impossible!

After all...the fucker said ON CAMERA that he only
asked for the parts of the video that were RELEVANT.

Relevant to WHAT, jerkoff?

Another attempt at "Acorning"????

Could it be that Mr. Breitbart just doesn't like
black folks?
Nah...no racist intentions here...

roxsteady's picture

He's really a dememted pice of shit. He looks like one of those guys that asks you to dance at a club and when you decline, he spends the rest of the night giving you the piercing stare of a psychopath. Creepy!

Captain Kangaroo's picture

Thats why he goes over so big at Faux Noise.

dasqf's picture

he goes back and says"....she's a **** lesbian..."who wouldn't want some of that manly man?


....the fools do not realize,a population that can ,..... not paticipate .............in the 'economy'...,can not keep it viable!..........."we are listening,.......and we're not blind.,......this is your life....this is your time."

Has he denied this as well?... it fits the "modi operandi" of the Tea-bagging peeps.

... "While making the trek across the street from his office to the Capitol, Frank was called a “Homo Communist” and told to “go homo to Massachusetts” by several protesters, according to witnesses and confirmed by Frank."


Study the symptoms not the virus...

MacDaffy's picture

Excellent story!

"race (ph) on debt" = raison d'etre; "allensky" = Alinsky

gump's picture

What Breitbart did really puts a bad light on all bloggers. It's not deserved but the media can and will use this against sites like C&L and Huffo. We keep hearing the narrative that the media this and that, the White House and the Admin this and that. All will fight back using Breitbart and the blogs as an example. He screwed his own credibility but also painted all bloggers as irresponsible and liars. Pat Buchannan tried to use this to attack the White House and White House only. Truth is, Breitbart killed the legitimacy of honest bloggers. They haven't completely taken this road yet but to cover their ass they will blame the political blogs once the firestorm starts to die down.


is intended to be a factual statement

MountainMan23's picture

When will government of the people, by the politicians, for the corporations perish from this Earth?

Not soon enough!

Truth_Critic's picture


Study the symptoms not the virus...

bmw 528's picture

LOL


"We will find fulfillment not in the goods that we have, but in the good we can do for each other."

Robert F. Kennedy

wilder5121's picture

Had to turn it off. John King is like all "reporters" now...incapable of controlling an interview, asking the relevant followup questions, and getting to the truth. Breitbart never answers a question, diverts the subject away from himself, and makes the interview a propaganda opportunity. He simply browbeats and walks all over the "reporter".

There's only one thing worse than a serial liar. A "reporter" who lets him get away with it.


"Do you realize that fluoridation is the most monstrously conceived and dangerous Communist plot we have ever had to face?" - General Jack D. Ripper

... II. This was a Political Protest: I’m protesting the liberal Supreme court justices for give the terrorists at GITMO constitutional rights. I’m protesting the major News outlets, ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, PBS for being the propaganda wing of the Democratic Party. It’s criminal what their getting away with. They’re traitors! They must be stopped. I’m protesting the DNC running such a radical leftist candidate. Osama Hussein Obama, yo mama. No experience, no brain, a joke. Dangerous to America, Hell, he looks like curious george!

Jim David Adkisson

Still seized three books from Adkisson's home, including "The O'Reilly Factor," by television commentator Bill O'Reilly; "Liberalism is a Mental Disorder," by radio personality Michael Savage; and "Let Freedom Ring," by political pundit Sean Hannity.


Study the symptoms not the virus...

Scarabus's picture

As I read the transcript, AB speaks of 4 tapes, which he received discretely:

•The original snippets in March.
•Two additional fragments he heard of and later received.
•The complete video.

He says he kludged his attack video only from the March snippets. After the kludging but before the posting, he acknowledged, he heard of two other fragments. Then, after he published the attack, he says, he received first the two fragments he had heard about and then the full video.

"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."

Mind you, even if AB's account is accurate, it's still shameful. If he did not have additional evidence he knew about, then why did he publish? or, if he did publish, why did he not qualify his post by acknowledging that it was based on fragmentary, un-sourced, and thus untrustworthy evidence?

And why, after he saw and heard the full video (the two fragments being irrelevant at that point), did he not go public immediately with a retraction?

BTW, I'd like to know why he doesn't publish the original snippet, and also the two fragments. The full video has already been published.

karoli's picture

It was recorded from a broadcast on DCTV. The entire broadcast was available to Breitbart from the get-go. But here are the snippets: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_xCeItxbQY and here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zXDNlWESD0

Artist formerly known as gempei's picture

is the nicest thing you can say about him.

Breitbart is one of the more talented "Demon Sheep" the conservatards have. He is just another portal through which disingenuous information is devoured throughout the brainwashed conservative flock.

Instead of solving challenges honestly, he lives and fabricates lies... it's indisputable and is quite common amongst his ideological brethren/Klan.


Study the symptoms not the virus...

...that the Tea Party isn't racist (or more accurately doesn't contain racist elements) by proving that the NAACP is racist. Unfortunately for Breitbart his task is logically impossible. Further, with every appearance he appears more desperate, more dishonest, and a lot dumber.

However, since the value of individuals to cable news is based not on how accurate they are, but rather on how incendiary, it seems likely that Breitbart will never go away, no matter how many times he is discredited, because despite his being a dishonest, hyper-partisan hack who traffics is lies and distortions, Breitbart will always be a flame thrower in a gasoline shop.

American journalism is broken and, I'm afraid, beyond repair.

emj's picture

Thank you! King lets this guy ramble and does not stop him. The point Breitbart is trying to make cannot be reached with his argument. He never answers the questions asked of him. Does he want King to produce a marriage license for this couple to prove they are married? Does he believe people in the audience who are saying "alright" and "amen" equal the signs that the tea party holds up about Obama? Breitbart's argument does not exist and he is a coward!

ComradeAnon's picture

Everything I read about this guy points to him being a loose-tongued drunk. In addition to all the other pond scum like attributes. This guy is gonna fall hard and when he does even faux noise will cut him loose.

Eviebee's picture

just a little comment towards general enlightenment: the name
BREITBART is of German origin (albeit stemming more from medieval
times) and translates to BROADBEARD OR WIDEBEARD.
Just like Allan Greenspans correct German spelling GRUENSPAN means
PATINA-------what fun to be living in a country where anything more
difficult than Smith or Jones is always mangled and mashed to fit
the British ideals of pronounciation.How about FEATHERSTONEHAUGH????

Libertas's picture

"Breitbart" was pronounced "A**hole" as to "Featherstonehaugh", it depends. in the middle ages, the "haugh" would have had a guttural pronunciation "egh" but pronunciations change as does a living language, isn't that right, Mrs. Palin?

emj's picture

Funny!!!!!!!

obiwan's picture

He is seriously mentally ill and in addition to being a sociopath has a lot of unresolved rage issues.

If this is what the right wing mindset is like, we are doomed as a nation.

Dalton's picture

he is a sociopath.

David Ehrenstein's picture

That link you provided above identifies me as "David Erickson."

Larry O'Connor approached me afterwards with a mic. I told him to go fuck himself. He said "Is that all you have to say?" I said "Yes -- go fuck yourself."

Most rewarding to see the smarmy smile on his face freeze.

In every interview that I've seen this mother-fucker give, he appears to be fucking drunk or is it just me?

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