Rep. Bishop takes heat over Breitbart videos about black farmers settlement

By Bob Keefe

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

WASHINGTON -- Democratic U.S. Rep. Sanford Bishop called Internet insinuations that he was somehow involved in fraud surrounding last year's settlement between the government and African-American farmers "one of the most ridiculous things I've ever heard."

Videos featuring two Georgia farmers that are being circulated on the Web by conservative commentator Andrew Breitbart hint that Bishop, of Albany, may have known about possible fraud in last year's so-called "Pigford" settlement between the government and black farmers who claimed that a Department of Agriculture farm loan program discriminated against them.

"I don't know what they were imbibing," Bishop said of the two farmers after watching the videos. "I'm just perplexed and shocked."

Breitbart created a national stir last summer when he posted on the Web an edited video apparently showing Shirley Sherrod, a former Department of Agriculture official in Georgia, making racist remarks at a public meeting. Sherrod, an African-American, was quickly fired -- but an embarrassed President Barack Obama and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack later apologized and offered to rehire her after a review of the incident showed that Breitbart took her remarks out of context.

In the new Breitbart videos, South Georgia farmers Eddie Slaughter and Willie Head complain that Bishop, who also is an African-American, did nothing when they asked him to investigate the Pigford settlement.

Slaughter and Head say they and other farmers should have gotten a better deal, and that more settlement money went to lawyers and people who aren't farmers than to them and other active farmers.

Under the settlement, the Obama administration agreed to pay $1.15 billion to farmers and families of deceased farmers. Both Slaughter and Head accepted the federal money but say they also should have received help with debts they incurred because they couldn't get federal loans.

One of the videos posted by Breitbart's biggovernment.com website comes with an introduction saying Bishop "wanted to keep allegations of the Pigford settlement quiet." Another is titled "Rep. Sanford Bishop Knew About Pigford Fraud."

In a posting on his website, Breitbart shows a video of Bishop walking away from a reporter without answering questions about the need for an investigation into the Pigford settlement. Breitbart writes that his site has found that the settlement is "wrought with fraud."

Breitbart could not be reached for comment.

Reached by phone, Slaughter and Head told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that they were definitely unhappy with Bishop, their congressman, for not doing more to help them get a better settlement.

"He never even tried," Head said.

Slaughter said he asked Bishop to investigate the settlement, but that Bishop told him that doing so would "shut this thing down," referring to the settlement already in the works.

But in separate interviews with the AJC, neither of the farmers said they thought Bishop was involved with any fraud.

"I'm not saying he did anything illegal," Head said.

Bishop said he did everything he could for the two farmers and others in his district.