The most important story on cable news last week has continued into this week – Fox News was back talking about the Shirley Sherrod saga on TV and online.

Bret Baier responded with video evidence to Howard Dean‘s latest charges, while FNC admitted there had been an online “breakdown” in the publication of a story about Sherrod before it was announced she resigned.

Former Governor Howard Dean drew a characteristic rebuke from Fox News’ Michael Clemente when he accused the network of “absolutely racist” coverage of the Shirley Sherrod story. Clemente called Dean a “failed candidate” who “blame(s) Fox for almost anything.”

Speaking to Dylan Ratigan fill-in and Young Turks host Cenk Uygur, Dean stood by his comments, and dismissed Clemente’s criticism, while Cenk noted the long roster of “failed candidates” who populate Fox’s air. (h/t Aaron Wysocki)

There’s no doubt that last week’s Shirley Sherrod controversy began as a new media story – started by Andrew Breitbart on BigGovernment.com.

But there is also no doubt which type of media drove it into the ground – cable news.

One week after Shirley Sherrod was unceremoniously forced to resign from her position at the USDA following the posting of an edited clip of a speech she made on Andrew Breitbart‘s Big Government site, she still does not have a job. Then again, there are plenty of people populating the American political and media landscape whose continued employment at times remains a mystery.

After a week of high-intensity media coverage, it’s difficult to find a new angle on the Shirley Sherrod scandal. Tonight, The Rachel Maddow Show directed the media where to look around the fallout, and, more importantly, where to stop searching. The Nation editor Chris Hayes, filling in for Rachel Maddow, refused to name the man who sparked the scandal– Andrew Breitbart– and called for him to be an “exile” in the political media world.

As if Shirley Sherrod hasn’t already suffered enough at the hands of the conservative blogosphere, the hits just keep coming. Last week, I brought you a preview of the right’s second bite at the apple, an emerging conspiracy smeary about Sherrod’s initial hiring by the USDA. Now, The American Spectator has accused Shirley Sherrod of lying about the lynching of a relative in order to glam up her personal history. I wish I was kidding.

A bewhiskered Jon Stewart returned from his recent two week vacation and addressed the latest political news controversy: the scandal surrounding former USDA staffer Shirley Sherrod‘s unfair dismissal after allegations of racist comments were revealed to be out of context. Stewart spared no one complicit in the whole clusterf*ck, save one unlikely participant: Internet provocateur Andrew Breitbart, the individual who first published the heavily edited video of Sherrod’s comments. Say what?

Purely speculation on my part. I actually have no idea what Glenn Beck is planning for his Restoring Honor rally at the end of August. But I am willing to hazard a guess it will sound a lot like today’s long, strangely staged, operatic diatribe against, in the smaller sense, the media who called Fox News racist for their reporting on Shirley Sherrod, and in the larger sense progressives.

CBS Face the Nation anchor Bob Schieffer is a great journalist with a long, storied career.

But in the wake of his admission that he didn’t mention the Black Panther story because he was “on vacation” and didn’t know about it, he took to a commentary yesterday to scold “new media” for the Shirley Sherrod story.

Since we broke down how Fox News’ coverage could not have possibly led to Shirley Sherrod‘s forced resignation, the story of FNC’s coverage has remained a hot topic on cable news. Dan Abrams and Rick Sanchez debated it, Howard Dean and Chris Wallace got into it and this weekend’s Fox News Watch took on the issue.

Let’s take one more look at exactly how FNC covered the story – as well as the rest of cable news.

A short, interesting exchange on Meet the Press today that I think goes a long way in explaining how the administration found itself playing a starring role in the Shirley Sherrod fiasco this week. Listen to how former White House communications director Anita Dunn, former White House communications director explain how the administration got into this mess.

Fireworks on Fox News this morning thanks to the guest pairing of Howard Dean and Newt Gingrich. In the aftermath of the Shirley Sherrod firing it’s interesting to see what fingers are pointing where. Howard Dean’s are pointing directly at Fox News, who he called “absolutely racist” in their coverage of Sherrod.

It goes without saying that the predominant topic on Sunday’s roundtables was the Shirley Sherrod debacle. In an excellent segment on This Week, Donna Brazile, expressed some doubt over whether the White House had nothing to do with the decision, as they have claimed. Fighting Sam Donaldson meanwhile, thinks the President shouldn’t be afraid of a good fight with Glenn Beck et al.

Apparently Maureen Dowd has grown tired of calling President Obama a girl. This week Obama’s problem is a a black one. Again. It must be said that, if nothing else, MoDo is brilliant at taking the week’s news and shaping it into a catchy talking point that will dominate the Sunday shows and at least a few days of morning shows in the week to come.

Did you know that the film that is potentially the magnum opus of the Tea Party movement is being split in three? And that, despite initial dire reports of economic woes and an inexperienced cast, production on the set of Atlas Shrugged is sailing smoothly? No, you don’t, because you were too busy staring at Andrew Breitbart’s Photoshop doodle of a literal “race card”— not that he didn’t also break that news.

For once throughout the brief history of the Fox News manifestation of The Glenn Beck Program, Glenn Beck has found himself involved in an Obama administration firing through little fault of his own. On The O’Reilly Factor last night, Bill O’Reilly questioned Beck on how it felt to have Shirley Sherrod claim fear of his program got her fired, and the difference between Sherrod and Beck program arch-villain Van Jones.

The Shirley Sherrod media fiasco is, by its nature, a sensitive and unusual case, with plenty of racial semantics pitfalls for even the most careful TV personality. When Pat Buchanan was asked for his take on this issue on MSNBC this morning, he tried to evade those pitfalls by evoking legendary civil rights activist Rosa Parks, and making an unintentionally insensitive bus metaphor.

Okay, you’re probably sick of hearing the phrase “teachable moment.” It’s made quite the comeback amid the Shirley Sherrod hoopla. But in today’s Wall Street Journal, Peggy Noonan has a slightly different take on it. Noonan argues Sherrod’s speech has lessons that students could — and should — learn from.

Earlier this year, a juror in a high-profile case came forward with a shocking allegation: after reaching a verdict, her peers conspired to cover up her dissent and to develop an untrue representation of how their decisions were reached. As evidence, she presented a number of emails between the jurors. The New York Times carried the story that Monday on its front page, below the fold; CNN hosted the emails on its site.

Pres. Barack Obama sat down with ABC’s Good Morning America Consumer Correspondent Elisabeth Leamy for a wide-ranging interview about the economy, financial reform and more.

But the key takeaway was his comments on the story of the week – Shirley Sherrod.

Among the many narratives that that has come from the whole Shirley Sherrod saga, perhaps the most entertaining has been the resurrection of the bitter rivalry between Fox News and MSNBC. Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow have both launched vicious assaults for what they saw as FNC’s role in the Sherrod scandal, and last night, Bill O’Reilly fired back, saying of his rivals at NBC, “That’s why (the) character assassins do what they do. if you can’t beat them, slime them. “

The Daily Caller has published the latest of its Daily Journolist Leaks, and this time, the supposed liberal cabal is eating one of their own. Countdown host Keith Olbermann is the subject of this installment, in which the J-listers trash him as “sexist” and “misogynist,” mainly over his treatment of Carrie Prejean and Hillary Clinton. While I disagree with the Daily Caller’s publication of the emails, and their petulant handling thereof, this round also illustrates what pisses me off about Journolist and Olbermann.

Last night, something funny happened on the way to Bill O’Reilly‘s apology to Shirley Sherrod: he took a stab at Rachel Maddow and her comparatively low ratings. Tonight, Maddow responded with other, similarly relevant information to the Sherrod case, such as the fact that WWE and Spongebob Squarepants not only regularly beat Maddow– they beat Fox News, too.

No sooner had the Andrew Breitbart-engineered smear of Shirley Sherrod as a racist begun to unravel than the right launched a new one. This new plot involves Sherrod’s involvement in a class action lawsuit against the USDA, which the right is characterizing as slavery reparations. The reality is, of course, quite a bit different.

Mediaite founder Dan Abrams visited Rick Sanchez on CNN’s primetime edition of Rick’s List to discuss the role of Fox News in the Shirley Sherrod scandal. While Sanchez was outraged that Bill O’Reilly had called for her resignation before Fox News had covered the story, Abrams noted the difference between Fox’s opinion and straight news programming, though found O’Reilly’s apology to Sherrod lacking.