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The White House Can Avoid Future Shirley Sherrod Debacles

By Lola Adesioye on Jul 23rd 2010 10:20AM

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Yesterday, President Barack Obama finally managed to speak to Shirley Sherrod on the phone. In his conversation, he expressed his regret over her ousting and said that USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack had acted in haste. Sherrod, whose name has dominated the headlines this week, seemed satisfied with the exchange between herself and the president, telling the Associated Press: "I really didn't want to hear the president of the United States say I'm sorry to Shirley Sherrod. Just by simply calling me, I felt it was in a way saying 'I'm sorry.' He didn't have to do it."

After Sherrod's week - described accurately by the president as 'hellish' - it must have come at some relief to have received the president's call. Yet, she is owed much more than just an apology or an expression of regret. It is totally unacceptable that one person's livelihood and reputation can almost be ruined because of dirty tricks and a media hungry for titillation and salacious stories and for those more than willing to make things up to satisfy that demand and score points in the process.

The president has a responsibility to ensure that this doesn't happen again and to ensure that those who work for him are not involved, through their haste, in an innocent person's downfall.

I wonder what advice the president will give to the White House about how they handle such issues in the future. The president has apparently called for a more deliberate and thoughtful response which will certainly be helpful. In fact, being slow to respond is a necessity in a charged political environment, particularly one in which those who are opponents will go to any lengths to push people's buttons. The more the White House reacts to such incidents without due care and attention, the more they will continue. In fact, the more the media is slower to respond, the easier it will be for everyone to sort fact from fiction.

My advice would be for all parties to check the facts before responding. What made this story such a big deal was all of the calls for resignation, the resignation itself, and then the backtracking. If the White House, Tom Vilsack, and the NAACP had waited even half a day to do their due diligence and to see what was really going on, they could have come out on top, shut the story down and been the ones to reveal the truth.


The White House and NAACP are diminished by having to react to something rather than being the ones to set the agenda. In this case, by acting in a knee-jerk fashion, they look weak and ill-informed which defeats the object of having a quick response, since the point of the quick response is to protect their image.

There are a number of lessons which can be learned from this case, if people are willing to learn them. If they aren't, we can ensure that there will be more Shirley Sherrod's in the future.


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