>> couric: jan crawford in washington. jan, thanks so much. jeff greenfield, the obama administration has often complained about the 24-hour news cycle, and now it seems white house officials were caught in a vortex. >> reporter: yeah, katie. the old united press wire service had a slogan "get it first, but first get it right." in the wake of the shirley sherrod story it's worth asking whether the second half of that slogan has been dumped into the trash bin. it's now clear that no one, not conservative blogger andrew breitbart who posted the clip, not the n.a.a.c.p. who condemned sherrod, nor the agriculture department, none of them had and seen the whole speech. but there's another part of this story, the deep-seeded desire of people who turn to news and opinion sites to reinforce their beliefs. for instance, the idea of an obama administration official harboring anti-white sentiments fits an idea espoused by one of fox news's most popular voices. >> this president, i think, has exposed himself as a guy over and over and over again who has a

here's our chief legal correspondent jan crawford. >> reporter: it started with a speech by u.s.d.a. official shirley sherrod describing her attitude 24 years ago toward a white farmer. >> reporter: that comment in a speech to the n.a.a.c.p. lit up the blogosphere after a conservative web site aired it and suggested the reverse racism in the administration. agriculture secretary tom vilsack reacted swiftly. he said today the u.s.d.a. had zero tolerance for discrimination and fired her for the comments. >> when i saw statements in the context of the statements i determined it would make it difficult for her to job do a job. >> reporter: but as with so many issues of race, there is a lot more to this story. sherrod said later in the same speech she was wrong and ultimately helped the man save his farm. but that statement didn't get out on the internet. and when the farmer and his wife heard the charges against the woman who helped them 24 years ago, they were shocked. >> she was just as nice as she could be. as far as racism, i think that's somebody who just wants to start something. >

jan crawford reports. >> reporter: it starts by a speech usda official shirley sherrod, describing her attitude 24 years ago toward a white farmer. >> and i was with a white person save their land. so i didn't give him the full force of what i could do. >> reporter: that comment and the speech to the naacp lit up the blogosphere after a conservative website this week aired it and suggested there was reverse racism in the administration. agriculture secretary tom vilsack reacted swiftly. he says the usda has zero tolerance for discrimination and fired sherrod for those comments. >> when i saw the statements and context of the statements, i determined it would make it difficult for her to do her job as development director. >> reporter: as with so many issues of race, there's a lot more to this story. sherrod said later in the same speech she was wrong and ultimately helped the man save his farm, but that statement didn't get out on the internet. when the farmer and his wife heard the charges against the woman who helped them 24 years ago, they were shocked. >> she was just as nice as sh

>> jan crawford in washington. jan, thanks. joining us from miami this morning, michael eric dyson, the author of more than a dozen of books, upcoming presidential race about president obama and the issue of race. good to have you with us this morning. >> good to be here this morning. >> as we heard yesterday from robert gibbs, people wanted a quick response and the administration wanted a fast response. but in going for that fast response it seems due diligence was thrown out the window. why is this happening? seemingly often. >> well, i think -- part of the reason is that we are responding to certain segments. we are not responding with accuracy and speed to certain elements of african-american life. we are not responding to the need of african-american people to see targeted policies towards issues that affect them. we are seeing rather quick responses to the right wing media and unfair pressure on the obama administration, mr. obama himself, from the far right wing which perceives black gain at the expense of white security

cbs's jan crawford. thank you. >>> thirty people were injured when a united airline jet was rocked by severe turbulence. flight 97 en route from washington to l.a. but was diverted to denver. the 777 landed safely last night. passengers said the violent turbulence struck quickly about two hours into the flight. >> the person behind me, he actually flew up, and then he landed across the aisle onto somebody else's head. so he got a bump and a bruise on the chin. >> it was pretty bad. laptops was everywhere. it looked like there was a huge party on the plane but there wasn't. >> one of the passengers was critically injured. there were 255 passengers and 10 crew members on board. >>> stormy weather threatens to set back possible plans to plug the oil well in the gulf with a static kill. this is a live picture of the containment cap on the leaking well. so far holding tight. several leaks have been discovered but are described as very small. a storm in the caribbean could develop into a tropical storm and hit

jan crawford in washington is our chief legal correspondent, and, jan, judge susan bolton didn't strike down the entire law. so what does that mean, exactly? >> well, katie, she struck down every section the obama administration cared about. it was a complete victory for the administration. judge bolton accepted every major argument the administration made. she ruled the power to regulate immigration lies exclusivly with the federal government and the arizona law will burden aliens and u.s. citizens. she said she recognized arizona has significant interest in confronting illegal immigrants and, obviously, problems with crime but arizona still couldn't step into the federal government's role. >> couric: and, jan, here's a question for you from facebook >> tonight: how will illegal immigration be handled if states like arizona don't address the problem? >> well, the judge ruled that immigration say federal responsibility. i mean, that's what the obama administration had argued, that immigration was a federal responsibility. so this now puts the pressure on the federal government and the w

he talked about it with our legal correspondent, jan crawford. >> voting section attorneys have refused outright to work on these sorts of cases, saying things such as, "i didn't join the justice department to sue black people. i won't work on the case." people who did work on the cases were harassed. there was terrible things that occurred within the department whenever certain people would decide that a race-neutral enforcement of the law was appropriate. >> schieffer: abigail thernstrom, president bush appointed you to the u.s. civil rights commission. you said that all of this thing about the black panthers was small potatoes. why did you say that? >> in the first place, you had two unappealing black guys-- unappealing because, you know, the new black panther party is unappealing. it's a racist party and so forth. they showed up at one largely black precinct in philadelphia. and they stand around and won is slapping a billy club against his wrist. one, there is... we have no direct evidence that they actually intimidated anybody, stopped them from voting. two, we certainly have no d