NAACP gets it right…the second time

By on July 21st, 2010 In Hype!

By now we’ve all likely heard about the case of USDA employee Shirley Sherrod who was asked to resign from her job after a video appeared on a blog and subsequently on virtually every news station in America in which Sherrod appeared to make a racist remark. Well, turns out she didn’t.

Today came the swift apology from NAACP President and CEO Benjamin Todd Jealous, which originally condemned Sherrod. This is how you do it PR peeps:

Having reviewed the full tape, spoken to Ms. Sherrod, and most importantly heard the testimony of the white farmers mentioned in this story, we now believe the organization that edited the documents did so with the intention of deceiving millions of Americans.  I apologized to Ms. Sherrod, clearly a committed and selfless public servant, who had been unfairly maligned.

Now, when can we expect a similar mea culpa from Bill O’Reilly?

Comments

George Couch Says:
July 21st, 2010 at 7:10 pm

I am an employee of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and it’s very unfortunate that this happened. But I am very proud of how Agriculture Secretary Vilsack handled it. There’s a video of him apologizing and answering questions from the media at http://www.usda.gov.

I think this is an example of how the 24-hour a day media influences managers/leaders to make quick decisions. Fifteen years ago, I don’t think the decision is made so quickly. I’m not in a position where I have to deal with this high level of decision making, but the lesson for me is not to let media or politics influence my decision process. I feel bad for Shirley Sherrod, and I hope she comes back to USDA.

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