The White House and Agricultural Secretary Tom Vilsack have apologized to Shirley Sherrod, the black Agriculture Department official who was fired from her job Monday. Sherrod was ousted after a right-wing website posted a deceptively edited video of a speech she gave in March that appeared to show her admitting she withheld help from a white farmer twenty-four years ago for racial reasons. What the edited video did not show is Sherrod describing how she ended up going to great lengths to help the farmer save his land. On Wednesday Vilsack offered Sherrod another unspecified position within the department. White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs also issued an apology.

Robert Gibbs: “Without a doubt, Ms. Sherrod is owed an apology. I would do so certainly on behalf of this administration. I think if we learn — if we look back and decide what we want to learn out of this, I think it is, as I said, everybody involved made determinations without knowing all the facts and all the events.”