I called it an incident but honestly I don't really know what to call it. A woman lost her job and has been vilified in the media so it is more than an incident. If I can think of something better to call the incident, I will do so at the end. The story as you now know goes loosely like this. Ms. Sherrod gave a speech about her view on race and referred to an incident in her a past - an A ha moment if you will - at an NAACP event. The event, which happened back in March, was taped and someone decided to slice and dice it to make it look like she was a racist. One look at the video and one could see that it was 'put together'. Nevertheless, in the end, the cleverly packaged video made its way to the forefront of all three of the cable news networks. Quite understandably at first glance there was outrage. I'm sure we all agree that NO one should use their position of power against anyone.
Everybody wanted her head on the platter for what appeared to be racist remarks against a white farmer. NAACP denounced her actions. She was subsequently forced to give her resignation by pulling over on the side of the road and texting it. Her superiors wanted it quickly because they didn't want the story to appear on Glenn Beck. She went on the various news stations pleading her innocence, asking everyone to watch the ENTIRE video and .......well.....24 hours later everyone was given access to the video in its entirety and the story gets even deeper. It was not as it originally seemed.
It turns out the 30 second clip was actually a small PIECE of a much LONGER video and Ms. Sherrod was indeed telling the truth. Her comments were essentially taken out of context. It dawned on NO ONE in the news media, at the NAACP or in the Secretary's office to 'further investigate' this situation. Every one acted FIRST. Had everyone wait just ONE DAY .....
I would love to know how we got to this point. As a undergraduate journalism student, we were always told to check and re-check facts. Granted, we all understood if it bled it led but check the facts nonetheless. I also know as a consumer that many a story makes its way on to television and print news and not all the facts are presented. And I am by no way implying that this is some sort of malicious conspiracy but when a reporter only has a minute and 30 seconds to tell a story, only so much is going to get in. It is after all being told from the presenter's point of view. Something will be left out. I'm sure someone reading this will probably wonder what I left out.
This incident has many facets including the initial position the NAACP took their claim of being 'snookered', how the administration chose to handle the situation ( texting a resignation?seriously?) and last but not least how we as a society look at this.
I think without a doubt we can all think back to a time when we have all acted hastily without all the facts and the results were horrendous. Personally, I can think of a more than one. Watching this play out on television over the last 48 hours, all I could think of was how sad it was that everyone hit first and asked questions later. This is not to say that we know EVERYTHING there is to know about this situation but I think if we give it time we will continue to learn more. I think this is textbook teaching moment about rushing to judgment but honestly I think it will go over most of our heads. I hope as we continue to watch this unfold we will bite our tongue the next time someone angers us, or makes a decision we don't like or chooses a position we don't like. Take a moment to see their point of view. LISTEN.ASK QUESTIONS.ASK MORE QUESTIONS. In the end this may ultimately help YOU save face. Remember that your response or reaction to a situation could have grave results.
This is my two cents....What say you?
And the reference to this as an incident will stand. As long as it took me to write this post I still couldn't come up with anything.
No comments:
Post a Comment