Shirley Sherrod is owed a full apology. That much is clear from watching the full video of the speech that led to the loss of her job and the manufactured controversy that has been playing all over the media in recent days.

It is disgraceful that the right-wing media has purposely exploited a benign video for its own ends. It is even more disgraceful that the NAACP, the White House and the USDA have all given up sound judgment in favor of panicked, ill-thought-out reactions.

In a statement released today, the NAACP, which had previously denounced Sherrod's actions as "shameful," said:

" We have come to the conclusion we were snookered by Fox News and Tea Party activist Andrew Breitbart into believing she had harmed white farmers because of racial bias."

No, the NAACP was not "snookered"; it just did not do its due diligence, and, in an attempt to make itself look good, was keen to throw Sherrod under the bus without considering the facts.

The NAACP went on to say that it "now believes the organization that edited the documents did so with the intention of deceiving millions of Americans." Yet, if these major organizations -- ones that are supposed to rely on fact-checking and objectivity as part of their job -- are so drawn in by soundbites, what hope is there for the rest of the country?


Sherrod's comments were not in any way racist. Her story was one of overcoming her own biases, and, in actuality, she did indeed help the farmers, who themselves credited her with doing so even before the full video was released. That none of this was looked in to before any organization denounced Sherrod is incredible.

This speaks not only to manipulative journalism, but to lazy organizations whose main interest appears to be damage control of their own brand rather than supporting people. All of those involved in this case need to take a long, hard look at their modus operandi.

The NAACP, which is dedicated to eradicating rather than supporting racism, needs to ask itself how much it is impacting what seems to have become a highly charged and very distorted national conversation about race. All media organizations, anyone working in the media and fledgling media producers need to look at what exactly they believe the purpose of journalism is. And the public needs to fully recognize that what is presented as objective fact very often is not -- and often purposely not.

This isn't just about Shirley Sherrod, though. The issue is how many more times will we be manipulated by false controversy? How many more times will the White House get embroiled in a racially orientated controversy in order to protect President Barack Obama?

The right-wing media -- FOX News, in particular -- is increasingly using its power as a partisan political tool rather than as a source of news and information. How much longer will the right be allowed to dictate and exploit conversation about race? We can see that this is what they are doing, and it is time that everyone -- the White House, in particular -- become truly aware of this and stop buying in to it.

This incident is troubling on a variety of levels, and while it may score temporary points for FOX News, it does a great deal more damage to individuals, the government, organizations and (indeed) the country.