The motion picture canon as edited by Breitbart

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Sonic Youth
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Post by Sonic Youth »

I don't think she's going to win, so maybe she shouldn't bother.
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Post by Big Magilla »

Sherrod says she'll sue after all. I still think it's an uphill battle, but I'm all for putting Breitbart in the hot seat.

Shirley Sherrod Says She's Going To Sue Blogger

by The Associated Press
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July 29, 2010

Ousted Agriculture Department employee Shirley Sherrod said Thursday she will sue a conservative blogger who posted an edited video of her making racially tinged remarks last week.

The edited video posted by Andrew Breitbart on his BigGovernment.com website led Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to ask Sherrod to resign, a decision he reconsidered after seeing the entire video of her March speech to a local NAACP group. In the full speech, Sherrod spoke of racial reconciliation and lessons she learned after initially hesitating to help a white farmer save his home.

She said she doesn't want an apology from Breitbart for posting the video that took her comments out of context, but told a crowd at the National Association of Black Journalists annual convention that she would "definitely sue.''

Vilsack and President Barack Obama later called Sherrod to apologize for her hasty ouster. Vilsack has offered her a new job at the department, which she is still considering.

"I have many, many questions before I can make a decision,'' Sherrod told the group. "I don't know what will happen from this day forward in terms of whether I'll be back in the department or what I'll do.''

E-mails to Breitbart's websites seeking comment were not immediately returned Thursday morning.

Obama said Thursday morning on ABC's daytime talk show The View that the incident shows racial tensions still exist in America. "There are still inequalities out there. There's still discrimination out there,'' Obama said. "But we've made progress.''

Obama pinned much of the blame for the incident on a media culture that he said seeks out conflict and doesn't always get the facts right. But he added, "A lot of people overreacted, including people in my administration.''
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Post by Big Magilla »

This is all part of the old "let's scare the white folks" by painting ugly pictures of blacks - this one seems to have had a happy outcome but what about Acorn? Talk about a strong case for a libel suit - they went out of business!

And what was that about "the new Black Panther Party" on Fox? It was two or three guys hanging out on a street corner.

Fox likes to wrap itself in the flag and accuse Obama of being a "foreigner" when the paper is owned by an Australian whose biggest investor is a Saudi. And people fall for this crap.
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Post by OscarGuy »

So, basically, we go back to the status quo where the right continues to use snippets of conversations in order to stoke the fire of religious and conservative hate, stoke racial tensions and so forth...how do you stop something if you don't try. Sure he was proven an idiot, but that will all blow over soon...there needs to be some way to prevent this type of dangerous reporting in the future.
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Post by Big Magilla »

She would have a stronger case against the government for wrongful termination and her boss for harassment in forcing her to resign. I don't know where she stands on going back to work for the Agriculture Dept. in a different capacity. The last I heard (yesterday) she was insisting the President call her himself. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, as they say.

Libel is very difficult to prove. It has to be malicious. The perpetrator had to know he or she was making a false statement. Breitbart claims he received the edited tape. If the originator claims he or she did not listen to the entire speech and was so outraged after hearing just the taped portion, they may win on a technicality.

Also, she hasn't really been harmed. The situation was turned around within 24 hours. She's now a national heroine.




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Post by OscarGuy »

Because he didn't research the issue. By not researching and checking his source and double checking facts. He posted a clearly inflammatory piece knowing full well that he had not diligently evaluated the content. He assumed it was legitimate. They say ignorance of the law is no excuse. In this case not knowing the truth does not remove culpability.
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Post by Sonic Youth »

OscarGuy wrote:No emotional distressed? Being harassed by your superiors by phone and even being told to pull in to tender your resignation is not emotional distress?

No, harrassment is harrassment. Emotional distress is emotional distress, and emotional distress is not the result of Breitbart's or the government's actions. She seems happy as a clam right now, and who wouldn't be? I don't think she was harrassed, either.

I would say that it's the height of it...all because this Breitbart fellow decided to go with a report that he may or may not (I'm betting may) have known was edited before fact checking the incident? If that's not a case for journalistic misconduct (if you can consider him a journalist) and thus a case for libel, I don't know what is.

Sure, after the incident was revealed to be a fraud her job was offered back to her, but in a case of libel, just because your employer has second thoughts after further investigating does not remove the culpability of the entity that libeled your name. No, she was not the only target, the government very obviously was the main, but she was the collateral damage and I think she has a great case against Breitbart for attempting to ruin her career by posting libelous material.


I'm all for a suit against Breitbart (not Fox), but they're very difficult to pull off. How are you going to prove he knew the footage was edited, or that he knew her story was different within the context of the longer videotape?




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Post by OscarGuy »

No emotional distressed? Being harassed by your superiors by phone and even being told to pull in to tender your resignation is not emotional distress? I would say that it's the height of it...all because this Breitbart fellow decided to go with a report that he may or may not (I'm betting may) have known was edited before fact checking the incident? If that's not a case for journalistic misconduct (if you can consider him a journalist) and thus a case for libel, I don't know what is.

Sure, after the incident was revealed to be a fraud her job was offered back to her, but in a case of libel, just because your employer has second thoughts after further investigating does not remove the culpability of the entity that libeled your name. No, she was not the only target, the government very obviously was the main, but she was the collateral damage and I think she has a great case against Breitbart for attempting to ruin her career by posting libelous material.
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Post by Sonic Youth »

OscarGuy wrote:Here's a question...why has she not sued Fox News and Breitbart for libel? If ever there was an easily winnable case, this would be it. She was fired over an edited set of remarks she made. She's not a public figure. She suffered emotional and financial distress because of it all. I think she should sue and win...take Fox News down a peg or two.
Breitbart maybe, but I don't see any case against Fox because they weren't the source of the videotape. And a suit would be strictly punitive, because you really can't say she suffered any financial or emotional distress from this.

Had Villsack the sacrificial lamb not made that public atonement and not offered her a new position, suing the government may have been her most successful option.
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Post by OscarGuy »

Here's a question...why has she not sued Fox News and Breitbart for libel? If ever there was an easily winnable case, this would be it. She was fired over an edited set of remarks she made. She's not a public figure. She suffered emotional and financial distress because of it all. I think she should sue and win...take Fox News down a peg or two.
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Post by Damien »

Orson Bean used to be a progressive and was blacklisted in Hollywood for a spell in the 50s. But by 1968 he was supporting Nixon for President. And somewhere along the line he became a Born Again Christian. So he gave money in support of California's Proposition 8 to protect the sanctity of marriage. Pretty good for a guy who's been married 4 times.

I saw Breitbart once on Bill Maher's show. He was the most boorish guest I've ever seen on a talk show other than Christopher Hitchens.
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Post by OscarGuy »

I think what we really need to take from this, or at least the media, is that we can't always trust Fox or any news outlet for that matter to have fully investigated all sources of information they received.

It's like the whole Nikki Finke, entertainment blogger war, people are so in a rush to be the first to post something that they don't use the old investigative techniques of journalism to verify what they are posting.
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Post by Big Magilla »

I trust the Amanda Marcotte stuff was meant as parody - I have no idea who she is.

As for the Sherrodgate mess - I blame the Dept. of Agriculture and the White House, if they were behind the firing, and the NAACP for acting as hastily as they did. You never, ever, fire someone without giving them an opportunity to explain themselves and first telling this woman to drive hundreds of miles to turn in her resignation, then telling her to pull over to the side of the road and text it in, would be beyond the pale even if she were guilty.

Why would either the government or the NAACP take something at face value that they saw on Fox? It boggles the mind!

As for Braitwait, if I've ever seen him before he made no impression. In his defense, though, he claims the video he posted to YouTube was sent to him that way so who is the real instigator?

According to his bio on Wikipedia he was born in 1969 and adopted - his birth father was a folk singer. Who, Tiny Tim?

As for Orson Bean - I don't know why anyone would be surprised to learn his politics are to the far right - he is, after all, a second cousin of Calvin Coolidge.
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Post by Mister Tee »

Agreed, it was a cluster-fuck all around -- but you've got to admit it was cleverly designed. The NAACP, having just made its "you must renounce even your fringe racists" statement about the Tea Party-ers, had to quickly distance itself from any tinge of other-direction racism, so they jumped the gun along with the Agriculture Dept. The possible irony is, had they not dumped Sherrod so quickly, it might well have taken longer for the full context to have been revealed -- the media are perfectly capable of playing dumb when they went to (most still haven't owned up to the deception involved in the ACORN tapes). Now, at least -- with Gibbs having already offered full apology for the admin -- the primary story (except on FOX) is "Breitbart's a lying sack of shit". I'm sure the righties will continue to promote his fantasies, but the press will have to be alot more careful about amplifying them.

The most depressing thing for me is knowing that Breitbart receives significant support from his father-in-law, old To Tell the Truth panelist Orson Bean. I was in some mail-contact with Bean in the 70s, having enjoyed his book on Reichian therapy Me and the Orgone, and he was very kind to me -- even arranging a visit to the Summerhill-like school he'd estabished near the Village. I'm sad to see him gone to the dark side.
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Post by Sonic Youth »

According to Amanda Marcotte

• “American Pie” is a testament to sexual abstinence
• “Jaws” is a diatribe against the Endangered Species Act.
• “Night of the Living Dead” – Arizona citizens are besieged by shiftless Mexicans in an isolated farmhouse.
• “ET” demonstrates the necessity of a harsh government response to illegal immigration.
• “Milk” illustrates why gays should stay out of politics.
• “The Stepford Wives” shows why feminism is dangerous for women.
• “Carrie” shows that we all need Jesus in our lives.
• The Scarlet Letter is about good American values attacked by radical feminism
• “The Crucible” argues that you must come down on witches with a swift fury or they will curse your crops.
• “12 Angry Men” laments how liberalism has caused our justice system to go soft.
• “Brokeback Mountain” is about how gay men aren’t to be trusted.
• “The Accused” is a morality tale about the dangers of false rape accusations.
• “To Kill a Mockingbird” is about corrupt lawyers fomenting racial unrest. Fire Atticus!
• “Glory” is the sequel to “Birth of a Nation”.
• “JFK” is about how Nixon should have won the 1960 Presidential election.
• “Dr. Strangelove” glorifies the nuclear arms race.
• “Easy Rider” is about how dirty hippies have it coming.
• “The Apartment” glorifies the life of the corporate rat race and the executives who rule the roost.
• “Norma Rae” lambasts unionizing as the worst thing that could happen to the American worker.
• “Deliverance” is a heartwarming tale of city slickers learning how to love from salt-of-the-earth rural folks.
• “Dances With Wolves” is about how subjugating Native Americans was all for the best.
• “The Grapes of Wrath” is a diatribe about how the only solutions are free market solutions.
• “Inherit The Wind” is about why creationists are right, and evolutionary theory is Satan’s work.
• “The Shining” glorifies the nuclear family as the only decent way to raise children
• “West Side Story” is about why a little racial animosity works out so well for everyone involved.
• “Annie Hall” is about why it’s dangerous to educate women.
• “Apocalypse Now” is about how war is a morally uplifting adventure.
• “In The Heat Of The Night” is about the dangers of affirmative action.
• “It’s A Wonderful Life” is about why big bankers are great, and why suicide is painless.
• “Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner” is about what’s wrong with interracial marriage.
• “Citizen Kane” is about the spiritual fulfillment one gets from capitalism.

There's more. Check it out.

---

P.S. "Sharrod-gate" was one of the most disgusting, infuriating stories I've read in a long time. Accidentally or intentionally, everyone - the morally reprehensible sack of shit Andrew Brietbart, Fox News, the NAACP, the administration - fucked this one up royally, and it's thrilling to finally see a wronged woman get her retribution. The NAACP did a great job apologizing yesterday. Obama has a chance to apologize on behalf of his administration today, and I hope he does. I won't hold my breath for the rest.
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