One of the most difficult trial tasks for corporate defense lawyers is dealing with “bad” documents, statements or actions that are “taken out of context.” Wikipedia calls this practice “contextomy” — the selective excerpting of words from their original context in a way that distorts the original intended meaning. I have seen the use of contextomy in trials, and the nation saw it happen to Shirley Sherrod. There are lessons for trial lawyers in how the Sherrod controversy unfolded and ultimately came full circle with her going, in national estimation, from a racist to a saint, and the fellow who released the edited video going from whistleblower to contextomist and possibly slanderer.

As has been widely discussed in the national news, a video clip posted to a conservative Web site showed an excerpt from a speech that Sherrod gave at an NAACP event. She appeared to admit she discriminated against a white farmer while working for the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Political pundits condemned her actions, followed by the NAACP and others, and Sherrod was forced to resign. But a day later the full video was released and provided context to her remarks — a personal anecdote aimed at encouraging audience members to see past race and using her initial ambivalence about a particular white farmer, who ultimately she helped and befriended, as an example. The NAACP immediately retracted its statement, the White House acknowledged a disservice was done, and the secretary of agriculture went on live television to offer a “personal and profound” apology to Sherrod, along with a new job. She also received a call from the president.

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