Something about this whole Shirley Sherrod case as it relates to the conservative media brings to mind a snake eating its own tail. Glenn Beck has played a major role in this story, for once not because of anything he said or did, but because Sherrod told the media she was forced to resign because the White House was afraid if she didn’t she’d show up on Glenn Beck that night.

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Beck, meanwhile, did not speak about Sherrod at all that night. The following night on his TV show he primarily took her side and excoriated the White House, and NAACP for jumping to conclusions about Sherrod; he called it a “political assassination.” What he did not mention, and has not focused on since, is Andrew Breitbart‘s role in this. What has also not got much coverage is that Beck, himself, played the edited Sherrod clip on his radio show on the morning of July 20 and said: “[We] have video tape of a USDA administration official discriminating against white farmers…Have we suddenly transported

into 1956 except it’s the other way around?” So while he certainly didn’t push it on his TV show (at all) he didn’t miss the out-of-context bandwagon entirely.

Regardless, in the intervening 48 hours the narrative, as far as Beck is concerned, has gone from the White House performing “political assassination” to Sherrod being an example of the White House plotting to “take over the media.” Which is a pretty stunning turnaround considering, as far as I can tell anyway, one of the big takeaways from this week is how utterly and stunningly incompetent the White House is with regards to the media. One has to wonder what level of stupidity the White House would have to exhibit to convince Glenn Beck that they are not actually capable of the level of underhanded conspiracy he regularly attributes them.

That’s the first clip (Beck has, among other things, mastered the art of live TV silence). The second clip is Beck bemoaning the fact that the media is glorifying Shirley Sherrod — “this whole thing is a set up” — however “knowingly taking things out of context is beneath anyone’s dignity.” It’s dizzying. Watch below.

Beck’s July 20th Radio Show
Tags: Barack Obama, Glenn Beck, NAACP, Shirley Sherrod