Duped by the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy

by John M. Curtis
(310) 204-8700

Copyright July 21, 2010
All Rights Reserved.                                

            Giving the Obama administration a big fat black eye, right wing blogger Andrew Breitbart scored some points accusing Agriculture Dept. employee Shirley Sherrod of reverse racism at a NCAAP conference.  Breitbart, who’s run the popular conservative  “Drudge Report” Web site, cleverly cut-and-pasted Sherrod’s about her 24-year-old comments about supposedly not helping a white farmer.   Breitbart portrayed Sherrod as reverse racist, prompting Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to fire her July 21.  When the White House realized they had been duped, the White House quickly apologized and offered her a new job.  “I’m sorry,” declared President Barack Obama, hoping to undo the damage caused by “this misfortune.”  Breitbart’s right wing hoax showed the White House vulnerability to a right wing’s stealth tactics before November’s midterm elections.

            Since Obama’s inauguration, if not before, conservatives went into assault mode, using the nation’s formidable conservative media outlets to attack the White House.  Breitbart’s out-of-context quotes was only one small piece to an extensive network of right wing columnists, TV and radio talk show hosts, led by Democrat nemesis Rush Limbaugh, have continued to hammer away at the president’s policies.  White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs offered his sincerest apologies “for the entire administration” for believing and acting on Breitbart’s charade.  “He was willing to destroy me . . .in order to try to destroy the NAACP,” said Sherrod, considering suing Breitbart.  Breitbart hosts several conservative Web sites, including Breitbart.com, a news site disseminating articles attacking the Obama administration, is one of the key Internet forces behind “the vast right wing conspiracy.”

            When the White House listened to the entirety of Sherrod’s remarks to the NAACP, they realized they’d been duped.  Right wing commentators, including FOXNews’ Bill O’Reilly and Sean Hannity, The Hill’s Dick Morris and Rush Limbaugh, all rushed to judgment, pointing out the left wing’s hypocrisy.  “This is a good woman.  She’s been through hell . . . I could have done and should done a better job,” said Vilsack, profusely apologizing for firing Sherrod.  Letting their guard down, the White House couldn’t detect the oblique angle from which the attack came.  Breitbart’s reporting displays the heavy right wing bias in today’s media, finding any excuse with which to attack the White House.  Conservatives Web sites and talk shows have engaged in a long twilight battle since Obama was sworn into office.  Administration officials can’t defend against a superior PR force.

            Recent derogatory statements about the Afghan War by Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele raised eyebrows inside the GOP.  White House officials haven’t given up yet but face an avalanche of criticism and bad news about the War in Afghanistan.  Reporting on FOXNews, the conservative Washington Times and other such Web sites, Breitbart offers no thread of intellectual honesty only pernicious propaganda to advance conservative causes.  He’s been a vociferous critic of Obama’s bailouts, the economy, Iraq and Afghanistan wars, health care reform, supreme court picks, etc., all, like other right wing operatives, to return the GOP to power.  Since things are looking up this November, Breitbart thought he could pour-it-on fabricating something defamatory about a key employee.  White House officials must do a better job at countering right wing subterfuge.

            Breitbart did his job putting the White House on the defensive.  Forcing the administration in to damage control mode, derails the ordinary agenda of controlling the news cycle over passing the biggest financial overhaul since the 1932 Glass-Steagall Act.  Breitbart couldn’t sit idly by while the president got any credit, for the financial reform bill or recent progress on capping the Gulf’s the four-month-old oil leak.  Whether on the Internet, conservative publications, TV or radio talk shows, conservatives must twist the historical record to win back the Congress and eventually the White House.  Intenet or cable news has become so biased toward liberals of conservatives that most readers have no clue what’s going on.  Few nonpartisan, politically neutral news sources exist anymore.  Readers must read between the lines or face a perpetual brainwashing from the left or right.

            Sherrod’s firing displays the extremes to which right wing will go to distort the facts and bend voters’ minds.  Breitbart’s fabrication, while hitting the headlines, is a commonplace occurrence, routinely occurring on conservative Internet, TV and radio talk shows.  When Obama considered a Federal Communication Commission parity act, requiring equal amounts of left and right wing programming, conservatives squawked about the First Amendment.  Breitbart’s hoax should alert Democrats that the right wing will stoop to anything to win the next round of elections.  Asked whether Vilsack got his marching orders from the White House, the 59-year-old Agriculture Secretary said, “no.”  “I am accepting the responsibility with deep regret,” Vilsack accepted blame at a press conference.  Yet Vilsack and White House officials need to take the vast right wing conspiracy more seriously.

John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He's editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.