'Glenn Beck': Media Twist Fox News' Role in Shirley Sherrod Saga

This is a rush transcript from "Glenn Beck," July 22, 2010. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

GLENN BECK, HOST: Shirley Sherrod. Now, what's coming next? My prediction? A greeting at the White House, a big forgiveness hug and maybe a speech.

I've been trying to make sense of this Shirley Sherrod story all week. It's amazing what people are saying about this network and me — it's amazing.

Shirley Sherrod, the USDA official forced to resign after she related a story of racism from her past. She was told to resign immediately on Monday even though she was driving home at the time. Watch:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHIRLEY SHERROD, FORMER UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE OFFICIAL: Shirley, they want you to pull over to the side of the road and do it, because you are going to be on Glenn Beck tonight.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BECK: That was on the 20th. She was talking about the afternoon of the 19th. She wasn't on that night. I didn't have her booked. I didn't — I never even mentioned the story that night.

When we finally did it address it on this program, I took her side. Unlike what The New York Times said today, I only took her side after the transcript was available. No, no — I asked for the transcript to be released and people be allowed to see it.

The rush to judgment on Shirley Sherrod came from the White House. But that's not who is being blamed. Apparently, it's Fox News' fault for reporting that the tape was available. In fact, by the time that Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity and Greta aired Monday night, she had already been fired by the — sorry — asked to resign by the White House.

Ms. Sherrod, by the way, has not been on Fox News. How many times have we called and offered? We did it for radio and television, did we not?

"GLENN BECK" PRODUCER: Four times.

BECK: Four times. Four times. She doesn't want to be on this program. I supported her. But she did offer this insight: "When you look at their reporting, this is just another way of seeing that they are (racist). But I have seen that before now. I saw their reporting as biased during the Bush administration and the Clinton administration."

Someone needs to be the show of record here, so I guess it will be me. This is important. Let's take a look at something I like to call the facts, because something is wrong — the timeline of the story.

Gang, make no mistake. This is about power and control of the media. That's all this is.

Sherrod gives a speech to the NAACP March 27th in the evening in Douglas, Georgia. Well, what's next? Breitbart is first contacted regarding the video in early April.

Now, here we are in July. I'd like to know who contacted Breitbart. Who released this video to Breitbart?

July 19th, Breitbart posts the video of Sherrod. Why? Because of the Tea Party comments. Notice, he had it in April. He releases it here because of the NAACP attack and their attack on the Tea Party.

He posts the video of Sherrod. That's July 19th, at 8:18 a.m. Same day, Sherrod gets three calls saying the White House is asking for her resignation, because remember, she's going to be on my show. She was not on my show, nor did I mention that at 5 p.m. that day. I never talked about this. I never played the tape at 5 p.m. But the White House had already asked for her resignation by the time I was on the air. So I didn't talk about it.

Fox News reports on the video 8:49 p.m. She had already been fired by the White House.

O'Reilly first reports on the Sherrod video. The first Fox report came after she had already resigned. How did Fox dupe the White House into firing her when we hadn't aired it? The little hapless, innocent, American government.

Seriously? Is this the narrative we're supposed to swallow here?

Hannity and Greta continued to report on the video that night, also reported on her resignation from the Department of Agriculture.

The story continues. Then, the NAACP said they were appalled by her comments. Then Shirley practically moved in to CNN. They were picking out fabrics and dinnerware. I don't know what they've been doing over there, but she then said the administration was worried about her being on my show.

She blamed the administration for jumping to conclusions. She said she was taken out of context. The NAACP said it was investigating. Tuesday the 20th — Tuesday the 20th — at 5 p.m., I talked about it and I took her side.

The NAACP had not reversed itself, until six — what was it? Tiffany? 6:37 -- about a half hour after this program? Gibbs apologized. Vilsack offered her a new job.

And now, suddenly it's our fault. We're evil. We're racist. We're hate mongers — mongering hatred against a poor, defenseless former USDA employee for no apparent reason.

We have more on this next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BECK: OK. Now, what is the lesson we should have learned from Shirley Sherrod? We should have learned you don't jump to conclusions. Context matters and that people can make a mistake 25 years ago and they can change themselves and they can be better for it — change themselves.

That's the lesson we should be learning. But no, no, no — that's not the message now we're getting from the media. The media is now glorifying Shirley Sherrod.

[Wednesday] night, in one of his typically insane meandering rants, Keith Olbermann came back, I believe, from vacation. It's weird. It's almost like somebody at the White House said, "We need Keith Olbermann to deliver this message," and so he came off vacation. I could be wrong on that. He practically sainted this lady.

The ladies on "The View" said she should be secretary of agriculture. Why stop there? Why don't we just make her President Sherrod or how about Queen Sherrod? Are we not making exactly the same mistake now in the opposite direction? Do the ladies on "The View" know who she is? No, wait a minute. We don't really have to know who the president is anymore before we elect him.

This whole thing is a set-up. Just to let you know, Shirley Sherrod will not return our calls. She's out there calling us racists, but she won't do it to our face.

She apparently won't appear on one of the only shows who said she deserved to be heard in full context and stood up for her. This program — I — took her side of the story before the transcript came out. Something stinks to high Heaven here.

Politico reported the White House was praised for its decision, its action initially and then again the villain has changed. Somehow it's Fox who didn't even report on this until the White House forced her to resign.

Isn't that kind of like accusing a man of fathering a woman's child despite him not even meeting the woman until after the baby was born?

The only ones who watch this show know who I am. I can't help those who write about it or read about it without hearing or watching. Every time somebody says, "You watch Glenn Beck?" I always hear this. Anybody who says they hate Glenn Beck, you say, "Why? Can you give me —" "Well, I heard he said" or "I read he said," "Did you hear it?" No, they never do.

The media always seems surprised by me when I take an unconventional stance. The reason why they are surprised is because they don't — I don't think they've ever met anybody who just tries to do the right thing and doesn't have an agenda except what is right and what is quintessentially American and constitutional.

We do sometimes get it wrong, but we try to tell you the truth and we try to be fair. It was unfair to have a woman tell a story of something that happened 24 years ago and not include her telling of the pivot point.

The administration who says, Van Jones, Bill Ayers — what they did in the past is irrelevant. No, no, it's not. When those two — what they have in their past, they have never denounced. That's not credible.

History is relevant, but you have to look at the person. Did they conquer their demons? Did they do this? Be who you are, not who you've allowed yourself to become.

Shirley could have because she had allowed herself to become influenced by race. She didn't. She conquered it. She became who she really is.

That is the goal of everyone. I think I said that, but there may have been a really smart person who I don't remember, because it was in my drinking days when I first read that. I forgot a lot about the drinking days.

I don't know much about this woman. What I do know is that digging into a person's past to show how bad they are without showing their pivot point — if they have one, if they have one — is inexcusable.

That's why I've been asking, I'd like some questions answered about Van Jones. Where was his pivot point? You see, every human being makes mistakes, sometimes really bad ones. But knowingly taking things out of context is beneath anyone of decency.

If we are going to save ourselves, we need to know the truth. We need to know the whole truth. Look, if there is anybody in this audience that doesn't know that I used to be a dirt bag — because I was drinking, paging Dr. Daniels — Dr. Jack Daniels.

I changed my life. That's important for you to know. It's important that you know I did something about it. It's important for you to know about Shirley.

But the most important thing to know is to know thy self and there are too many people who don't even know themselves.

We stood up for her and look how they have spun our involvement. Why? Why? That will be for you to decide.

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