Howard Dean Says Fox News "Racist" in Handling of Controversy Surrounding Shirley Sherrod

Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean says Fox News is "racist" in its handling of the controversy surrounding former USDA official Shirley Sherrod and the deliberate smear by Andrew Breitbart.

Howard Dean, former Vermont governor & former head of the Democratic National Committee, lit into Fox News Sunday during his appearance "Fox News Sunday" with Chris Wallace. He accused the network of racism in its handling of the Shirley Sherrod controversy. He asserted Fox News failed to vet the video fed to them by right wing conservative sleazebag Andrew Breitbart that twisted Mrs. Sherrod words about helping a white farmer.

“I don’t think Newt Gingrich is a racist, and I don’t think you’re a racist,” Dean told Fox News host Chris Wallace, “but Fox News did something that was absolutely racist. They took a – they had an obligation to find out what was really in the clip. They had been pushing a theme of black racism with this phony Black Panther crap and this business and this Sotomayor and all this other stuff.”

When Wallace interrupted Dean to point out that Fox did not air the excerpted Sherrod footage until after the Obama administration had fired her based on it (the excerpts were featured on Fox News’s website prior to her firing), Dean shot back “It was about to go on Glenn Beck, which is what the administration was afraid of.”

And Dean mildly rebuked the Obama administration, as well, saying, “We’ve got to stop being afraid of Glenn Beck (a Fox News host) and the racist fringe of the Republican Party. But Fox News was not blameless during this. You played it up.” Dean dismissed Wallace’s point about timing, asserting “you didn’t do your job,” and charging that Fox News has helped the Republican Party foster racism by focusing on allegations of reverse racism. Source: Politico

Fox News continues to appeal to the racist fringe elements of the Tea Party and Republican Party. The network continues to push racism and is counterproductive to this country moving forward. Shep Smith and Geraldo Rivera are the only two hosts on Fox News that have been truly "fair and balanced" in their reporting of the news. The others, such as Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck, Steve Doocy, Greta Van Sustern, continue to push the issue of racism, subtly. In essence, once you are black or Latino, and something goes wrong, the presumption is you are guilty and the denial of due process is a non-issue.