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Another Saturday, another segment on Fox News Watch where they're supposed "media watchdog" show proves they can be just as terrible at any "fair and balanced" reporting as Howard Kurtz's similar joke of a show on CNN. This week, they were discussing Mitt Romney's appearance at the NAACP, where he was booed during his speech. And of course they all tried to pretend there was no race baiting involved.

But they conveniently left out a couple of items during this segment. One, is what Mitt Romney said during a fundraiser which I wrote about here: Romney on NAACP Booing: If They Want More Free Stuff, Tell Them to Go Vote for the Other Guy.

They also failed to mention that Romney bussed in his own cheering section when they were discussing how Romney was treated by the crowd there, although I do agree with Judith Miller and the applause at the end was probably out of respect for the fact that Romney bothered to show up there at all. Ultimately they all ended up admitting who showing up there was actually going to help him with and that's his base, who think it's a good thing that he drew the boos from the crowd there.

Included in the panel this week was Richard Grenell, who the Romney campaign ousted after right wingers started going crazy because he's openly gay. Color me not shocked that there was no mention of that at any time during the show as well.

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I'm not sure what the Romney campaign hoped to accomplish with this, other than to be able to use it for a talking point over at Fox to trick the viewers there into believing he's got some support from African American voters, but his appearance at the NAACP just keeps taking more bizarre twists.

Did the Romney campaign plant supporters at NAACP speech?:

Did Mitt Romney's campaign plant African-American supporters in the audience to cheer for the speech the candidate gave Wednesday to the NAACP? That's what the NAACP's Hilary Shelton claimed on The Ed Show. (See Late Updates below).

Romney said today that after the speech, at which he was booed for saying he'd repeal the Affordable Health Care Act, he met with black leaders who told him they support his policies but are afraid to do so publicly.

But on The Ed Show, Shelton said those were likely people brought in by the Romney camp "to actually provide the cheering for him."

"Quite frankly, the campaign actually gave me a list of African-American VIPs that they brought into the NAACP meeting," Shelton told Ed Schulz. "So we were aware that they had people brought in specifically for the campaign. So I'm sure those were the ones they sat down with, because quite frankly none of the rank-and-file NAACPers met with him."

Indeed, despite the boos, cheering can be heard at various points during the speech, including when Romney criticized President Obama over the economy and education.

Shelton said that none of the people Romney met with were active NAACP leaders, and that Romney's referring to African-American conservative politicians like Niger Innis who "was brought in from New York."

Pressed by Ed Schultz about whether Innis and the others were actually members of the NAACP, Shelton said: "They're bringing people in that they know will support his agenda from other places, that aren't active with the NAACP. These are people who are brought in to actually provide the cheering for him, so there will be some support along those lines."

As they noted in their updates, the Romney campaign denied the allegations, but they got confirmation backing up Shelton's claims from a couple of different sources who were there. I'm not sure what good Romney thought this little fiasco was going to do him, especially after the remarks he made at the fundraiser following the speech at the NAACP.

Here he is on Cavuto's show earlier the same day, telling Neil that he expected the booing and that he's got support from African American leaders who he supposedly met with that they were discussing in the segment on Schultz's show.

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From Rachel Maddow's show this Wednesday evening, Mitt Romney responded to being booed during his speech at the NAACP for saying he would end "Obamacare," at a fundraiser in Hamilton, Montana and showed his true colors when he said this:

ROMNEY: Remind them of this, if they want more free stuff from the government tell them to go vote for the other guy -- more free stuff. But don't forget nothing is really free.

Wow. I guess he wants to make sure he drives that African American support from 1-2 percent all the way down to zero. As Rachel Maddow noted, it was pretty obvious Romney wanted to get booed and he's not wasting any time showing us why. He's all ready with the race baiting right out of the gate.

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A Fox News guest on Tuesday asserted that the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) had "become a hate group in America."

Fox News host Sean Hannity asked New York Civil Rights Coalition Executive Director Michael Meyers if President Barack Obama even deserved the votes of black Americans after he sent Vice President Joe Biden and Attorney General Eric Holder to speak at the 2012 NAACP convention instead of appearing personally.

"Something has happened to the black American population," Meyers explained. "They've become racialized, they've become what they've been preaching against. They will vote for Barack Obama because Barack Obama is black."

Meyers, who once accused the president of "ghetto behavior," said that presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney was also wasting his time speaking to the NAACP because they were "not relevant to the black masses."

"The NAACP has become a hate group in America," he insisted. "They hate anybody who disagrees with them. And, therefore, conservatives and Republicans who don't agree with their agenda, they hate them! Oh, they hate them!"

Meyers then offered Romney some advice about what he should tell the NAACP: "Just because people want to secure the borders, don't make you a racist. Just because people want photo IDs to vote, it doesn't make it the equivalent of the poll tax. Just because people want justice and equality and limited government -- just because people want limited government, doesn't make them a racist. And, therefore, he should tell them the tea party is not racist, standardized tests are not racists."

"He should tell the NAACP the truth. But he won't do that."

When Romney did take the stage at the convention on Wednesday, he found himself being loudly booed after he vowed to eliminate the president's health care reform law.

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A group of pastors in Alabama says that they are not racist even though only "white Christians" were invited to their three-day conference, which will include a cross burning and be attended by Ku Klux Klan (KKK) members.

Residents in Guin, Alabama became outraged earlier this week after they noticed flyers posted around the town that read, "Annual Pastors Conference All White Christians Invited." The groups Christian Identity Ministries and the Church of God's Chosen told WIAT that they just didn't have the "facilities" to accommodate non-whites.

"We're seldom ever have been invited to black Muslim events and we never have been invited to NAACP events and we never have been invited to join Jewish synagogues events and stuff," Christian Identity Ministries Pastor William J. Collier explained.

"It has nothing whatsoever to do with any kind of racism or hate or anything like that," he added. "And anybody who would brand it as that would be a racist and a hater themselves, you know."

Collier insisted that the "Sacred Christian Cross Lighting Ceremony" to be held on final day of the event symbolized an "opposition to tyranny."

"We are not burning a cross, look at the word is says it says light a cross," Christian Identity Ministries Reverend Mel Lewis told WIAT. "If you light a light in your house do you burn down your house. We often use fire. Our ancient fathers said fire was a cleansing element. Even the Bible says the earth will be purified with fire what purer element can we use as a symbol of our worship."

But the president of the NAACP's Birmingham Metro Chapter could not recall any past cross burning that had not been associated with racism or hate.

"The only context that I'm familiar with is one that is not very positive," Hezekiah Jackson said. "And one that really symbolizes an era that many of us have hoped to put behind us. And that is this whole era of Jim Crow, this whole era of white supremacy, this whole era of discrimination and racial hatred."

"I think it's really hard to clarify what's going on, but it seems to be some vestiges of what we call white supremacy here in Alabama. We just have to be honest about it."

The "Annual Pastors Conference All White Christians Invited" event ends on Friday. It is the fourth year that the whites-only conference has been held in Lamar county.

(h/t: Think Progress)

NAACP President and CEO Ben Jealous on Monday became emotional as he spoke to reporters about his organization's decision to support marriage rights for LGBT couples.

"Our calling as an organization is to defend the U.S. Constitution," Jealous told reporters during a press conference at the NAACP headquarters on Monday. "We are here to speak to matters of civil law and matters of civil rights."

The NAACP president added that he wasn't worried about a backlash from religious members of NAACP over support for marriage equality.

"I've spoken to many clergy who feel differently, different sides, different theologies, different doctrines. All are very clear that if this is a difference, it is a difference, not a division. If this is a contrast, it is a contrast, not a conflict."

"To a one, they understand that they are a well...," he said, pausing as he choked up.

"You have to excuse me," Jealous explained, his voice trembling. "I'm a bit moved. My parents own marriage was against the law at the time and they had to return here to Baltimore after getting married in Washington, D.C. And the procession back was mistaken for a funeral procession because it was so quixotic to people to see all these cars with these headlights on, having to go from one city all the way to the next just so they could have a party after they got married in their own home. This is an important day."

The NAACP announced on Saturday that it had passed a resolution affirming support for same sex marriage rights.

"At a meeting of the 103-year old civil rights group’s board of directors, the organization voted to support marriage equality as a continuation of its historic commitment to equal protection under the law," a statement said.

The U.S. Supreme Court declared anti-miscegenation laws unconstitutional in its 1967 Loving v. Virginia decision. By 2005, Stanford University sociologist Michael Rosenfeld determined that 7 percent of all marriages in the U.S. were interracial.

Watch Jealous' emotional response to a reporter's question starting at about 6:00 in the following video from CNN above.

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After Governor Haley Barbour refused to denounce the proposed Mississippi license plates commemorating a former KKK leader and Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest, John King decided to bring in Sons of Confederate Veterans' Greg Stewart to defend his group's effort. And of course Mr. Stewart said this has absolutely nothing to do with slavery, or the Klan or racism. They're just wanting to honor this former Klan leader because of his military record in the Confederate Army.

That might be a little easier to swallow were it not for his group's recent history. David Neiwert wrote this about them after he found out that Joe "You Lie!" Wilson was a member -- Obama heckler Joe Wilson a member of neo-Confederate SCV, fought to keep Dixie flag flying in South Carolina:

Looking into the background of Rep. Joe Wilson, R-South Carolina, after his heckling of President Obama last night, I came across this:

Joe also has been a member of the Columbia World Affairs Council, Fellowship of Christian Athletes, Sinclair Lodge 154, Jamil Temple, Woodmen of the World, Sons of Confederate Veterans, ....

This is an organization that, as the SPLC has detailed assiduously, has been taken over in the past decade by radical neo-Confederates who favor secession and defend slavery as a benign institution. Leading the takeover is a radical racist named Kirk Lyons, who's been an important legal figure on the far right for some years.* [More below]

Full transcript via CNN below the fold.

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A conservative radio host that repeatedly used a racial epithet on the air has apologized but it may be too little too late.

Thursday night, Rev. Al Sharpton called Dr. Laura Schlessinger's use of the n-word "despicable" and said her advertisers should be worried.

During a conversation with an African-American caller Tuesday who was concerned about racist comments by her white husband's friends, Schlessinger used the n-word 11 times over a five minute period.

CALLER: How about the n-word though? The n-word has been thrown around --

SCHLESSINGER: Black guys use it all of the time. Turn on HBO, listen to a black comic and all you here is n*****, n*****, n*****.

When the show returned from a commercial break, the caller confronted Schlessinger but she continued to use the word.

CALLER: I hope everybody heard it.

SCHLESSINGER: They did, and I'll say it again.

CALLER: So what makes it OK for you to say the word?

SCHLESSINGER: n*****, n*****, n***** is what you hear on HB -- why don't you let me finish a sentence?

CALLER: OK.

SCHLESSINGER: Don't take things out of context. Don't double NAACP me.

The doctor went on to say that the caller was being too sensitive. "If you're that hypersensitive about color and don't have a sense of humor, don't marry out of your race," she said.

Schlessinger posted an apology on her blog Wednesday.

I talk every day about doing the right thing. And yesterday, I did the wrong thing.

I didn't intend to hurt people, but I did. And that makes it the wrong thing to have done.

I was attempting to make a philosophical point, and I articulated the "n" word all the way out - more than one time. And that was wrong. I'll say it again - that was wrong.

HLN host Jane Velez-Mitchell told CNN's Rick Sanchez Thursday that a simple apology wasn't going to make the controversy go away.

"She apparently thinks she can say anything she wants and there's going to be an uproar and she's going to say I'm sorry and it's going to go away," said Velez-Mitchell. "I don't think it's going to happen this time around. I don't think she can put the genie back in the bottle."

Appearing on CNN Thursday, Sharpton suggested that advertisers might want to think twice about associating with Schlessinger.

"The advertising and the people that carry her show should be very concerned about someone who freely using this word over and over again," he said.

But the reverend was most incensed by Schlessinger's suggestion that sensitive people shouldn't marry out of their race.

"I mean, that is absolutely despicable," said Sharpton. "That means if you're that sensitive, don't marry out of your race. So, now, we've gone from her just repeating the N-word to her saying interracial marriage maybe should not be for those that have sensitivity that she would call hyper, and then she went back into using the N-word."

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This has to be one of the most bizarre things I've seen in a long time. Chris Matthews has Howard Dean and Joan Walsh on to discuss the Shirley Sherrod debacle and what Andrew Breitbart did to slime her and the Obama administration's response and when both Walsh and Dean point out to Matthews that despite his assertions to the contrary, Breitbart's video was highly edited, Matthews goes ballistic on them and claims that the nearly hour long video wasn't edited because Breitbart included this bit.

Sherrod: That's when it was revealed to me that's it's about poor versus those who have. It's not so much about white... it is about white and black but it's not, you know... it opened my eyes. Because I took him to one of his own.

Apparently in Tweety's mind, Breitbart including that somehow absolved him from the editing of the tape he did. The more Walsh and Dean tried to point out to Matthews that the tape was edited and that what he was saying wasn't true, the more agitated he got.

Digby was kind enough to transcribe some of this nonsense for us and I've got a couple of theories for why Matthews acted the way he did. Her transcript along with what MSNBC aired in place of this along with part two of the segment they apparently didn't want anyone to watch below the fold.

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Looks like someone's none too happy about Fox being called out for their race-baiting. Brit Hume does his best to attempt to turn ClusterFox into the victim and claims Shirley Sherrod "got off easy" after they got caught helping Andrew Breitbart push his doctored tapes of her speech at the NAACP.

HUME: As victims of unfair media treatment go, Shirley Sherrod got off easy. Within 24 hours or so, from her forced resignation from the Agriculture Department, she'd been apologized to, offered a new job and later even, as Bret mentioned, got a call from the president himself. All of this a consequence of a truncated Internet videotape that made it appear she had once done less than her best for a white farmer because of his race. It was unfair and the apologies were deserved, but the initial rush to judge Sherrod was not the only rush to judgment in this affair.

Consider: Sherrod herself say she was ordered last Monday to resign immediately by a senior agriculture official who said Sherrod was going to be on Glenn Beck's FOX program that night. In fact, Beck did not say a word about Sherrod until the next night when he defended her. Bill O'Reilly called for her to step down on Monday but by her account, she had already quit before he spoke. And O'Reilly apologized the next night.

Indeed, Shirley Sherrod was not mentioned on FOX News Channel or on foxnews.com either until after the Obama administration had forced her out. And no news as opposed to opinion broadcasts on FOX ever accused Sherrod of racism. But she blamed FOX and accused the network of racism. So did numerous others, including the NAACP and former Democratic Chairman Howard Dean on "FOX News Sunday," though it became clear from Chris Wallace's questioning that Dean had no idea what the facts where.

You might think all these would be the stuff of further apology. But somehow I'm not holding my breath -- Bret.

BAIER: So, Brit, do you think this is the end of this?

HUME: Well, I think it's the end of the Sherrod case, you know, except for whatever she decides to do. She's in pretty good shape right now. As whether it's the end of this kind of hurling about the charge of racism willy-nilly, I have my doubts. For example, last week, we saw in these stories and accounts of the journal list web communications among basically liberal journalists, some of them in the mainstream media. And one of them suggested at one point during the Reverend Wright affair affecting Barack Obama's campaign that they ought to just call some conservatives, Fred Barnes, Karl Rove "Who cares" this journalist wrote, a racist. With that kind of use of the term "racist," willy-nilly is a weapon. I don't think we've seen the end of it.

BAIER: OK, Brit, thanks.

HUME: You bet.