Former US Dept. of Agriculture employee Shirley Sherrod, who was fired from her position after a heavily edited video appeared to support a position of anti-white racism, said she is suing for defamation, Vanity Fair's VF Daily blog reported.
Defamation is a civil tort used when someone publicly maligns your reputation through false or misleading information, according to FindLaw. Speak with an Illinois injury attorney if you believe you may have been defamed.
Defendant Andrew Breitbart posted a video from a speech she gave to the NAACP that, due to heavy edits, appeared as if she were condoning racist behavior against white farmers. All politics aside, it's clear from the unedited video that she was actually condemning racism as she discussed her personal growth from working with poor white farmers.
Andrew Breitbart's conservative blog is popular among GOP and Tea Party followers. She was promptly fired by the Obama administration and reprimanded by the NAACP, neither of which viewed the entire speech first, and then soon received apologies from both.
Shirley Sherrod told CNN she believed Andrew Breitbart knew he was targeting her:
"At this point, he hasn't apologized. I don't want it at this point, and he'll definitely hear from me."
But Andrew Breitbart, who said "this was not about Shirley Sherrod," claims the NAACP tolerates racism within its membership. And Brent Borzell, who heads the conservative Media Research Center, even suggested that Shirley Sherrod was the one who should apologize, saying the conservative blogger "did nothing wrong" by posting the heavily edited and misleading video clip.
Shirley Sherrod was offered another position at the USDA but so far has not accepted. President Obama said her story, the one that can be heard in her unedited speech, "is exactly the kind of story we need to hear in America [because] we all have our biases."
But even though this is now a sensationalized national story, it will be up to her attorney to prove the elements of the alleged defamation.
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