Revealed

White House Rushed Sherrod Firing

Emails show it was a rash decision.

Proof that hindsight is 20/20: Newly released emails show that the White House and the U.S. Department of Agriculture fired Shirley Sherrod before they’d gathered all the relevant information. Sherrod, a USDA worker, was fired after a tape of her addressing a NAACP meeting appeared to show a bias against white farmers, but the video was misleadingly edited. Hastily, the Agriculture Department, under Thomas Vilsack, sacked Sherrod, and was praised by a senior White House aide for acting quickly so that the “unpleasant story” wouldn’t gain “traction.” The firing, of course, set off a media firestorm, and President Obama eventually apologized to Sherrod, though she declined to take her job back.