Newt Gingrich gave some unsolicited advice to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People on Thursday, saying he would tell them “not (to) be satisfied with food stamps.” “If the NAACP invites me, I’ll go to their convention and talk about why the African-American community should demand paychecks and not be satisfied with food stamps. And I’ll go to them and explain a brand new Social Security opportunity for young people, which should be particularly good for African-American males — because they’re the group that gets the smallest return on Social Security because they have the shortest life span.”

Chicago CBS affiliate WBBM has issued an apology after taking the comments of a four-year-old child out of context in relation to a shooting in the area. The child tells a reporter that the shootings don’t scare him and that, when he grows up, “I’m going to have me a gun” to prevent crime. This makes the child seem to aspire to commit shootings himself, but it was taken out of context– the boy expected to have a gun because he wants to be a police officer.

It looks like the governor of Maine, Paul LePage won’t be attending the upcoming ceremonies marking the Dr. Martin Luther King holiday. The governor’s declined invitations from the NAACP, which LePage dismisses as “a special interest…and I’m not going to be held hostage by special interests.”

The governor’s director of communications, Dan Demeritt, told Maine television station WCSH-TV LePage has personal commitments on Sunday and will be attending the funeral of a state trooper on Monday.

Judson Phillips, the leader of the Tea Party Nation who already made some controversial comments about only letting property owners vote, is at it again now singling out the “top five liberal hate groups” for distinction. The lucky winners to have made his list include: the Southern Poverty Law Center, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the ACLU, the SEIU and the NAACP. Claiming that too often conservative groups are defined as “hate groups,” Phillips is eager to return the favor.

Last week, the story broke that the NAACP had partnered with liberal websites Think Progress, Media Matters, and New Left Media to create TeaPartyTracker.org, a website that tracks stories of racism and bigotry amongst the Tea Party. Tonight, the director of the NAACP’s Washington bureau appeared on the O’Reilly Factor to debate the merits of the site. Shockingly, Shelton and Bill O’Reilly disagreed on the subject.

Shirley Sherrod, the Agriculture Dept. official who was ousted after Andrew Breitbart posted an incomplete video clip of her speech to the NAACP, has declined Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack‘s offer of a new position at the department. It was Vilsack who demanded Sherrod’s resignation, and stuck by his decision even after he knew her side of the story, actions that apparently played a part in Sherrod’s decision not to return to his employ.

Yesterday, the NAACP released a biting statement, excoriating a prominent member of the right wing for a deeply offensive act. Later in the evening, Dr. Laura Schlessinger announced that she wouldn’t seek to have the contract for her radio show renewed at the end of the year. But the NAACP’s statement wasn’t about Dr. Laura – it was from Shirley Sherrod.

Could our two-week-long national nightmare be nearing an end? In an interview with Newsweek today, Andrew Breitbart spoke to the magazine about the Shirley Sherrod speech scandal and expressed regret, acknowledged that it has “been difficult for me as well,” and claimed he would “be more than happy to meet with [Sherrod] in private” to settle the matter.

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?

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.

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. “

On his TV show Wed. night, shortly after the full Shirley Sherrod tap had been made public, Glenn Beck primarily took her side and excoriated the White House, and NAACP for jumping to conclusions about Sherrod. In the intervening 48 hours however, his narrative has gone from the White House performing “political assassination” to Sherrod being an example of the White House plotting to “take over the media.”

Poor Rush Limbaugh! He is being forced to talk about the Shirley Sherrod even though he “hates” the story, he “despises” this story, he thinks it’s a “distraction.” Before you collapse from shock, here’s why Limbaugh thinks it’s a waste of his time.

While President Obama may be trying to avoid diving into the racial fray right now, Rachel Maddow jumped right in last night. In a fairly devastating segment Maddow tied this week’s Shirley Sherrod debacle to previous cases, dating back to the Sixties, of politicians and the media using “scare white people” tactics to generate support.

Earlier today, our own Colby Hall wondered whether Bill O’Reilly would apologize for calling for former (possibly future?) USDA employee Shirley Sherrod’s resignation based on an excerpt of a speech posted on BigGovernment.com. Tonight, O’Reilly acknowledged that he spoke prematurely, but still attacked her for being a “long-time liberal activist” and using a divisive phrase like “one of their kind.”

Add this to the long list of Shep Smith must-see TV moments. Smith opened his show today with what was as close to an honest excoriation of Andrew Breitbart, President Barack Obama, and at times, Fox News over their handling of the Sherrod video clip, as one expects to see on cable TV.

As expected, the topic of the day at today’s White House briefing was Shirley Sherrod. Press Secretary Robert Gibbs fielded many questions on her ouster, apologizing on behalf of the administration for what he rightly called an “injustice.” In a dramatic turn, Jake Tapper informed Gibbs that Sherrod was watching the briefing, and Gibbs directed his apology to her. Tapper also pointed out that he (among others) had performed due diligence before acting on the story (unlike Secretary Tom Vilsack). See the remarkable exchange below.

The woman at the center of the Andrew Breitbart/NAACP/Obama Administration/USDA/probably-Journolist-but-who’s-keeping-track-at-this-point scandal, Shirley Sherrod, spoke to Media Matters’ Joe Strupp today about the experience of going from cable news villain to heroine in less than 24 hours, and unlike many in the media, Sherrod is not angered by the White House or the NAACP: She’s reserving her outrage for Breitbart and Fox News.

Considering the determination Rachel Maddow showed in covering the ins and outs of the ACORN story it was not a surprise when she jumped right into the Shirley Sherrod video debacle last night and tied the two incidents together. Back in April, at the end of a long expose on the edited ACORN video clips Maddow concluded “means be damned, it worked. Who do you think is next on that list?” Said Maddow last night: “Today we got an answer to that question.”

Andrew Breitbart continued his media tour, explaining the Shirley Sherrod tape that he published earlier this week, with an appearance on the politically friendly Hannity. According to Breitbart, this controversy is “not about Shirley Sherrod.” Rather, the tape exists because the NAACP has alleged racism within the Tea Party movement, and in Breitbart’s words “for them to talk about racism they should not be throwing stones in glass houses.”

What a blazing fast 24 hours this has been in the Shirley Sherrod story. Essentially fired Monday night based on a 2-minute Youtube clip, the former USDA official took to print and television yesterday to give her side of the story. Even as new facts emerged that caused the NAACP to retract its denunciation of Sherrod, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, with the White House’s support, doubled down on her dismissal.

This Shirley Sherrod story has really brought out the aggressive side of CNN. Earlier in the day, John King went toe-to-toe with Andrew Breitbart over the video released on Big Government that cost him his job. Later, Campbell Brown took down the vice president of the NAACP on their president’s statement that they were “snookered,” telling the organization, “you’re the ones to blame here.”

While the White House denies any involvement in the forced resignation of USDA official Shirley Sherrod, CNN is now reporting that a White House source says that President Obama was briefed on the situation, and that he “fully supports the decision.” This is in stark contrast to the Barack Obama who showed such a deft grasp on race issues in America in his redemptive speech on race during the 2008 campaign. In fact, Sherrod’s full speech can’t help but remind me of that incredibly tough, courageous address.

Former USDA official Shirley Sherrod has been the story of the day, as the emerging context to the remarks that got her fired yesterday have turned her from racial villain to inspiration overnight. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack demanded her resignation because of a clip posted on the internet by Andrew Breitbart, despite her protestations that the full tape would exonerate her.

Now, the NAACP has released the full video of the speech. Watch it after the jump.

The Shirley Sherrod saga continues, with this round being fought on the unlikely ground of CNN. Andrew Breitbart was a guest on an unusually spirited episode of John King, USA tonight, standing his ground that the story is the NAACP and not Sherrod, and that he did not want to see Sherrod fired.