But for all the chatter — some of it from Sherrod herself — that she was done in by Fox News, the network didn’t touch the story until her forced resignation was made public Monday evening, with the exception of brief comments by O’Reilly. After a news meeting Monday afternoon, an e-mail directive was sent to the news staff in which Fox Senior Vice President Michael Clemente said: “Let’s take our time and get the facts straight on this story. Can we get confirmation and comments from Sherrod before going on-air. Let’s make sure we do this right.”

Sherrod may be the only official ever dismissed because of the fear that Fox host Glenn Beck might go after her. As Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack tried to pressure her into resigning, Sherrod says Deputy Undersecretary Cheryl Cook called her Monday to say “do it, because you’re going to be on ‘Glenn Beck’ tonight.” And for all the focus on Fox, much of the mainstream media ran with a fragmentary story that painted an obscure 62-year-old Georgian as an unrepentant racist.

In his Monday comments, O’Reilly credited Breitbart with posting the excerpt and concluded that her remarks were “simply unacceptable. And Ms. Sherrod must resign immediately.” O’Reilly taped the show at 5 p.m., and by the time it aired about 8:50, USDA had announced Sherrod’s resignation (as Fox noted on the screen). Fox executives say O’Reilly’s staff, which is not part of the news division, sought comment from USDA throughout the day.

The administration’s concern about Beck stems in part from his campaign last year that prompted the resignation of White House environmental official Van Jones over divisive remarks — a controversy that some news organizations acknowledged they were too slow to cover. Ironically, Beck defended Sherrod on Tuesday, saying that “context matters” and he would have objected if someone had shown a video of him at an AA meeting saying he used to pass out from drinking but omitting the part where he says he found Jesus and gave up alcohol.

Sherrod ripped Fox in an interview Wednesday with Media Matters, saying the network would “love to take us back to where we were many years ago. Back to where black people were looking down, not looking white folks in the face, not being able to compete for a job out there and not be a whole person.”

Clemente, the Fox executive, said in an interview that Sherrod “certainly could be forgiven for being confused.” As for other critics, he said that blaming Fox is “a comfortable reflex for some people.”

“the entire Republican Party … simply can’t stand to see a black man in the White House. THAT has not been covered in the press.”

cargosquid, watch the tape or at least watch it from 16:00 for a while. The crowd completely understands that the point of her testimonial is going to be that her feelings weren’t right and that she corrected herself. And express greater enthusiasm for her when she gets to that part.

Cargo, I think you would be on firmer ground not trying to assign NAACP membership to unseen people in the audience. You don’t know if they are members, guests, or just who they are. That is very typical of southern black gatherings, (audience participation) whether in church or other type meetings. It’s welcoming and a way of connecting with the speaker. It is a cultural thing…about like having potato salad at any southern picnic, regardless of race. But you knew that….

Did you see where the “Dear Leader” compared herself to Shakespeare saying he made up new words, too? Then she tweeted saying she was headed to Kodiak, “America’s largest island.” America’s largest island is Hawaii (the big island) and the “Dear Leader” began her college career in Hawaii. So, in the course of two days she flunks English and American geography and she does it publicly on Tweeter: no wonder it took her 6 years and 5 colleges to earn a degree in … wait for it … journalism (isn’t that the careerfield she loathes?).