Sorry this is a tad late ...

... but my daughter sat on my keyboard.
  Thus the subject may also seem a bit dated except for the media's penchant for beating a dead horse long after it had any chance of surviving, and its continual lowering of the bar as to what constitutes justice in the USA.
   I'm speaking of Shirley Sherrod and Mel Gibson.
   All right, it is apparent to everyone by now that Mel Gibson is a troubled man, possibly haunted by demons and certainly guilty of hurling racial slurs. But as we've come to learn in Hollywood, bitter custody battles (think Alec Baldwin) appear to sanction illegally recorded phone conversations and their equally despicable release to the public. Again I am not defending Mr. Gibson or Mr. Baldwin, but to be smote by illegal activity from a shadowy source evidently does not bother Americans anymore. No one is questioning whether the tape was produced illegally.
  Harvey Whatshisname from TMZ has pronounced that Gibson "will never work in this town again," although I'm sure he wants to mention Mel's name every day. After all, the cat's out of the bag so who cares what was legal or not at the start. Of course, we don't know what was said prior to the inexcusable outburst in his telephone conversation and if TMZ has it's way, we never will. Gibson is guilty.
   On the other side of the irresponsible media coin, Shirley Sherrod was crucified by her own administration after a right-wing nut edited a speech of hers to make it appear as though she was a blatant racist. Personally, I didn't find what she had to say to be too inflammatory, but the hair-trigger Obama administration — fearful of what FOX News might say — fired her before she could even defend herself. Later, of course, they backpedaled right out of their shoes, begging her not to leave the team. The stink continues to baffle the administration.
  But it all comes back to a breakdown in American journalism: it doesn't matter if something is legal or not, or true or not. All that matters is that the 'story' gets out as quickly as possible to do the most damage possible.