Rush: Fox 'caved' on Sherrod
By: Andy Barr
politico.com
July 23, 2010 07:49 AM EDT
Rush Limbaugh is blasting Fox News for its coverage of Shirley Sherrod, saying that one of the network’s anchors “caved” by not showing the original misleading video fragment that led to the firing of Shirley Sherrod.
The video, posted and promoted by Andrew Breitbart as a display of racism, was a sensation in conservative corners of the Internet, but Fox News host Shepard Smith explained Wednesday that his show had decided to not show the video.
“We on Studio B did not run the video and did not reference the story in any way for many reasons,” Smith said. “Among them: We didn't know who shot it, we didn't know when it was shot, we didn't know the context of the statement, and because the history of the videos on the site where it was posted. In short, we did not and do not trust the source.”
On his show Thursday, Limbaugh blasted Smith for not showing the video, suggesting that Smith only showed restraint because he didn’t have the “guts” to show it.
“Even Fox caved on this. Even poor old Shep Smith went down there and said that everybody's wrong on this, that Breitbart is wrong and so forth,” Limbaugh said during his show.
“There are only a handful of us that have the guts to put this story straight,” he said. “If we don't hammer back, nobody will. We got a bunch of cowards in the conservative media inside the Beltway which will not deal with this honestly.”
Picking up Breitbart’s defense of the video, Limbaugh argued that it was “not about Shirley Sherrod” but rather the NAACP’s recent accusation that the tea party is racist.
“This is about the continuing smearing of great patriotic Americans, which is all the left has left to do,” Limbaugh declared. “There's no racism in the tea party. They don't have racist signs.”
The conservative radio host also said that Smith and much of the rest of the media establishment were missing what the Sherrod story really revealed about the state of race relations during Barack Obama’s presidency.
“This regime is tribalizing this country,” he said. “They are dividing this country. It's not just enough to say that they are dividing us. They are tribalizing this country. We aren't Americans anymore. We're all members of different racial tribes, and we are to be pitted against each other: Black Americans, White Americans, Asian Americans, Hispanic Americans. We're all being divided up racially, by tribes.” |
