Michael Tomasky: Shirley Sherrod and the times we live in

We often use metaphors to describe the sometimes surreal twisting of facts in the interest of advancing a partisan point. We talk of a hall of mirrors, things like that. But it's hard to think of another case in which something has so explicitly and precisely been twisted into its opposite.

You probably know the Shirley Sherrod story by now. She was giving a talk describing an episode of many years ago in which she, a black woman and agricultural agent, wasn't as fully helpful as she could...