In the early stages of the Shirley Sherrod controversy, the media began to craft the narrative Shirley Sherrod was the embodiment of the term “post-racial.” Then on July 22nd on Anderson Cooper 360, this happened:
SHIRLEY SHERROD: I think he [BREITBART] would like to get us stuck back in the times of slavery. That’s where I think he would like to see all black people end up again. And that’s why…
COOPER: You think — you think he’s racist?
SHERROD: … I think he’s so vicious. Yes, I do.
Cooper, dumbfounded by Sherrod’s comments, did not muster any type of a challenge to Sherrod.
Flash forward to yesterday, and AC360 went on record to admit that he had erred by allowing Sherrod to deliver such provocative remarks unchecked, and said that he’d handle the situation differently if he had the opportunity again. Still, a good-faith Nexis search indicates that Cooper has not adequately alerted his viewership that Andrew Breitbart had in fact granted Shirley Sherrod her redemption in both the originally released footage of her speech to the NAACP audience and in his write-up that accompanied the video. We would appreciate it if he would broaden the contextual frame of the story to include that bit of information that has not been adequately conveyed by the media up until this point.
After his mea culpa, Cooper did something completely unexpected. He, along with reporter Joe Johns, aired the viral video clip of Charles Sherrod, Shirley’s Civil Rights legend husband delivering some choice remarks of his own:
CHARLES SHERROD: Finally, we must stop the white man and his Uncle Toms for stealing our elections. We must not be afraid to vote black. We must not be afraid to turn a black out who votes against our interest.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: So, is this taken out of context the way Shirley Sherrod’s comments were taken out of context?
JOE JOHNS: It doesn’t appear to be. Apparently, he said what he meant, meant what he said.
Anderson Cooper not only owned up to a mistake, but granted this revealing footage (that turned up originally on conservative blogs) of Sherrod’s husband a broader audience. This is solid journalism, and hopefully others will take his lead.