Thaindian News

July 26, 2010 (Pen Men at Work): Howard Dean, who had been the Democratic National committee Chairman earlier, blamed the Fox News of being racist. He blamed the news channel of racial bigotry by over playing the Shirley Sherrod controversy, which had been in news, the week before.

They needed to find out the details of the clip first, Howard stated. They had, in fact been forcing the theme of black racism and the Black Panther, which Dean described in despicable terms as pure crap. He accused it of appealing to the racial elements of the Tea Party too. He also said that the Republican party need not appeal to its racist fringe the Fox news has done it now, he concluded.

Chris Wallace, the host defended the Fox news during the rather heated discussion saying that Sherrod had actually resigned from the post that she held in the Department of Agriculture much before Fox News mentioned her name. Her name went on air in connection with a video tape in which she is shown telling a NAACP crowd in March that she deliberately withheld assistance from a white farmer on account of his race.

However, it was later revealed to have been a misleading piece of evidence as Shirley Sherrod had mentioned the anecdote as an example of how she overcame her own prejudice back in the mid eighties. The White House later apologized to her formally and even offered to reinstate her back in her old job.

Although Howard Dean later admitted that Fox News had not aired it before the resignation of Sherrod, he refused to bow down stating it as irrelevant. The only thing that mattered was the airing of the tape. Fox News was also criticized for bringing in the New Black Panther party.

Newt Gingrich who held the post of House Speaker earlier said that this was an instance of White House’s incompetence.

The Fox News senior vice president, Michael Clemente, simply dismissed Dean as a failed democrat who inevitably blamed everything on Fox.