Q: What would you ask Sherrod?

By Bliss Davis
nabjconvention.org

News of former U.S. Department of Agriculture director Shirley Sherrod’s visit to the NABJ Convention is causing a buzz among attendees arriving in San Diego today. When asked what they would ask Sherrod during tomorrow’s 8 a.m. plenary session, NABJers had a lot to say.

“I guess I would ask her if she expected this to become so big. News is coming so fast these days with blogs, and it really tests journalists. Nothing’s perfect, so we can learn from the experience.”— Jo Cook, broadcast freelance sports reporter, WVEC, Hampton, Va.

Chris Murray, veteran reporter and sports writer, Philadelphia.:
“I would like to ask her how did she feel about how the president and how everybody threw her under the bus and everything. I mean first of all, the blogger involved did not do his homework. I would be asking her: ‘Wouldn’t you want to sue that blogger?’ because that’s a libel suit. You can’t fabricate anything like that, that’s libel what he did to her and I would want to know how much did she want to get out of a lawsuit.”

Dr. Sharon Albert-Honore, journalism professor, Paine College, Augusta, Ga.:
“I would ask her what she thinks the black media could have done to help get her real story out earlier. I think the right wing is so strong, they’re just so powerful, but there’s no reason we can’t be as powerful.”

Fannie Flono, columnist, the Charlotte Observer, Charlotte, N.C.:
“Being a journalist of course, there are a lot of things I would want to ask her. I would like to ask her about her relationship with the family that she helped who became part of this story, as they came out to defend her, the Spooner family. I would like her to talk a little more about her relationship with them and coming to an understanding about dealing with a white family in the South, given her background. How she came to this change she talked about.”

Andrea Watson, student, University of Illinois-Chicago, Chicago, Ill.:
“I’m not sure, but I would ask how she is dealing with everything that happened. We’re hearing so much about it, but not much from her.”

Virgil Smith, Vice President of Talent Management, Gannett Co., Atlanta:
“What did she tell President Obama, in terms of how the country can learn from this and move forward? That’s what I would want to know, what she told the president. More importantly, what did the president say he was going to do in the future to help address this issue of racial polarization?”