Shirley Sherrod, the recently fired director of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s rural development office in Georgia, has said she will sue blogger Andrew Breitbart, who used an excerpt of a speech she made to the NAACP out of context and called it racist along with cable news network Fox News.
In a video posted on CNN.com Sherrod announced that she intended to sue Breitbart and said while the blogger has not apologized, she also does not want an apology from him. “He had to know that he was targeting me…,” she stated.
Answering questions at a panel discussion entitled “Context and Consequences: Conversation with Shirley Sherrod” during the National Association of Black Journalists’ annual convention July 29, Sherrod said, “I knew it was racism and no one had to tell me that.”
After the media frenzy about racism that ensued after the release of the video excerpt, Sherrod said she now knows “how the media can and should work in helping to get the truth out.”
When asked if she would accept a new position with the USDA, Sherrod said that she had not and was far from being able to do that. “I haven’t had a chance to read it,” she said. “The offer still says draft. I need to ask them what does that mean….From what I know about that part of the department, the Office of Advocacy and Outreach, I don’t think they have even budgeted the money to operate that part of the program. So I have many, many questions before I can make a decision.”