News Cycle

"Elmer Davis, director of the Office of War Information (OWI),
awaits an 'on the air signal' to begin his weekly broadcast..."
Library of Congress

The administration and the respectable media were obliging, as always; no matter that the noise machine had been targeting the NAACP since its convention.


Krugman says of Shirley Sherrod's forced resignation:

What's shocking here isn't the behavior of the right, which was par for the course. It's the seemingly limitless credulity of the inside-the-Beltway crowd. I mean, there's a history here: ACORN, Climategate, Vince Foster, Whitewater, and much much more. (Someone recently reminded me that the GOP held two weeks of hearing on the Clinton Christmas card list.) When the right-wing noise machine starts promoting another alleged scandal, you shouldn't suspect that it's fake — you should presume that it's fake, until further evidence becomes available.

This driftglass-Blue Gal podcast hits the mark on:

• Liars out to destroy democracy, with a current focus on sabotaging "underfunded, non-governmental agencies working to enfranchise poor people."

• Said liars casting an innocent in the "angry black bitch" role sure to wind up their base.

• Model employee losing job; in Driftglass' words, a scenario of

... a feckless boss and a sleazy consultant that everyone but the boss knows is a fucking fraud, sacking an honorable employee for no goddamn good reason. That is the story of about 10 million middle-class Americans right now.

• Democrats' perpetual willingness to throw a liberal under the bus—despite the grotesqueness of the opposition and obviousness of their methods.

Ms. Sherrod must have been expected to stay under the bus, in the company of ACORN and Van Jones. But she is someone who has stood up all her life. For one thing, she's accomplished all this. And as more of her story has become known: she grew up knowing that a relative had been lynched, then experienced her father's murder by a white neighbor.

It's so unusual for a Shirley Sherrod to have national airtime: it could be a good history lesson, if only we had a general public capable of connecting dots. Media coverage is out to make the administration look bad (though deservedly so), while the story of who fed an edited video to the media and why are details to be avoided by said media.

It's good news that Ms. Sherrod plans to sue Breitbart over his smear.

But, too bad that the noise machine—its funding, reach, and current use of racism—is something our bi-partisan post-racial president wouldn't want to use the bully pulpit to address. It seems rather important, and appealing to "better angels," etc., could have an impact.

On the other hand, he is busy: trying to sell Afghanistan as a worthwhile endeavor.