deeper. they would have seen there was more to this than was actually being presented. because the naacp did not do that, shirley sherrod said she was particularly hurt by the actions of the naac. as she should be. does it speak to the power of this tea party conservative movement that is happening that it can make the naacp buckle so quickly? no, i wouldn t say that it speaks so much to the power of the tea party movement as well as it speaks to the power of entities such as fox news, who was really the driving force behind this issue initially. the tea party, you know, they seem to have really, they re not really the driving force on this issue, as much as fox news and other media outlets that ran with this without, well, i think fox did this intentionally but other interests didn t bother to check their facts.
force of what i could do. i did enough. reporter: when this video went viral accusations of racism came swiftly. so did demands for her resignation. sherrod says the white house forced her to resign and one of her bosses called her while she was driving. they wanted to pull over to the side of the road and send a resignation in. reporter: the speech took place in march at an naacp event. sherrod says it was about an encounter with a white farmer more than 24 years ago. the point? overcoming racial divides. now, working with him has made me see that it s really about those who have versus those who don t. reporter: sherrod says conservative bloggers and fox news failed to get the whole story. i would hope the national naacp would apologize for having that kind of racist comment at one of their meetings. they called me a racist of all people. when you look at my work and
everything i ve done you know i m not a racist. reporter: roger spooner, the farmer at the center of this controversy, says sherrod was key in helping him save his farm. i guess you could say she went out of her way to help us and i never forgot her either. reporter: late tuesday the naacp changed its position. it initially condemned sherrod s remarks but now says it was, quote, snookered by fox news and a tea party activist. reporter: sherrod says if she was offered her job back she is unsure if she d take it because she doesn t know how she d be treated. she says she has been contacted by friends who encouraged her to take the job, thanh, if it is reoffered to her, so she would reconsider, but as of now she has not been contacted by anyone from usda or tom vilsack the secretary of td agriculture department. greatly appreciate it. that does it for me in this hour. i ll see you back here at 2:00 p.m. eastern time. we ll talk with a senior white
house economic adviser about the signing of the historic wall street reform bill. is it going to change anything? coming up we have the big interview, the woman at the center of that controversy, shirley sherrod the federal employee at the center of this controversy over her speech at the naacp accused of being a racist, forced to resign. now the white house and naacp are backtracking but she has choice words for them. actually coming out with something negative on someone who s and that someone is me who has dedicated her life to fairness, to civil rights work all through the years. that hurt i think probably even more than the reaction of the department of agriculture. my one-on-one interview with shirley sherrod coming up plus reverend jesse jackson weighs in as well. stay with us. [ male announcer ] if you have type 2 diabetes,
i m sympathetic to the fact that they went after her and not after the naacp. now, breitbart said it was the media, the naacp that all misconstrued his point. he doesn t take responsibility for what happened to sherrod. he didn t see the full video himself until this week. at the time he posted the clips, he hadn t seen it in context. thank you very much. great interview, mara, thank you. coming up at the half hour, we ll get the latest on what the farmer at the center of this story has to say about shirley sherrod. at least 30 people are recovering from injuries that they received on a flight from washington, d.c., to dallas. they were forced to make an emergency landing in denver. tom costello joins us now from