Shirley Sherrod to Sue Blogger Andrew Breitbart Over Edited Video

SAN DIEGO July 29, 2010 -- Shirley Sherrod, the fired and subsequently vindicated Department of Agriculture employee, said today she will sue the conservative blogger who posted edited video on the Internet last week that made her appear racist.

The posted video resulted in Sherrod being fired by the Obama administration, which was followed by public apologies from President Obama and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack for dismissing her without learning the whole story. Even Fox News Host Bill O'Reilly apologized when it became apparent that the video he aired on his show was incomplete and that Sherrod was telling a story of personal growth, not bigotry.

But Andrew Breitbart, the blogger who posted the spliced video of Sherrod in the first place, has remained unapologetic, despite the fact that the full video features Sherrod telling an NAACP meeting how she became a better person and overcame her biases.

As originally posted, Sherrod spoke about not helping a white farmer as much as she could have. But the instance occurred a quarter century ago. The point of Sherrod's story was that she had been wrong. And the farmer in question jumped to her defense.

Sherrod made it clear today that intends to sue Breitbart.

"He had to know that he was targeting me," Sherrod told reporters at a meeting of the National Association of Black Journalists in San Diego.

"He hasn't apologized. I don't want it at this point. He'll definitely hear from me," she said.

When asked if she planned to sue Breitbart, she replied, "I will definitely do it."

Breitbart said Thursday he had not been contacted by Sherrod's attorney. He had no comment on her plans to sue.

Sherrod also put much of the blame on the Fox news channel. When told President Obama told ABC's "The View" today that a lot of people deserved blame for the incident, including his administration and the media for playing up controversy, she said that wasn't accurate.

"It wasn't all media. It was Fox," Sherrod told the black journalists' association. "So I really think he needs to re-examine what he's saying there."

The president used the "reaction and overreaction" to the "bogus controversy" around Sherrod as an example that the nation's "still got work to do when it comes to promoting the values, the fairness and equality."

Speaking before the National Urban League 100th Anniversary Convention in Washington, D.C today Mr. Obama said that former USDA staffer Shirley Sherrod "deserves better" than what happened last week and blamed both the media and his administration.