Whose knee jerked first? A GMA tape shows Obama explaining to Elisabeth Leamy in an exclusive interview that  Secretary Tom Vilsack’s  hasty dismissal of  Shirley Sherrod from  her position at the  Department of Agriculture  was a  knee-jerk  reaction to the media culture of blogging and YouTube. There is no denying that the media culture is one that can drive public opinion, however some of the President’s explanation leaves questions.

“He jumped the gun, partly because we now live in this media culture where something goes up on You Tube or a blog and everybody scrambles. And I’ve told my team and I told my agencies that we have to make sure that we’re focusing on doing the right thing instead of what looks to be politically necessary at that very moment.  We have to take our time and, and think these issues through.”-President Obama, ABC news

All of this is an interesting parsing of a volatile over-reaction that Obama himself, has taken great pains to soothe. However, the idea of  Vilsack alone, “jumping the gun” as Obama chose to call the pressure placed on Sherrod to pull over, while driving, to resign immediately -  speaks to the urgency of someone, somewhere to get rid of Sherrod fast.

The question is, why so fast? Was it  in order to contain and diffuse a story so strong that it even dwarfed Obama’s triumphant signing of the much-touted financial reform bill? The signing of that bill and the recent extension of unemployment benefits the kind of successes Obama desperately needs to highlight in the face of both his and both the House an Senate’s dismal poll numbers. Was the goal to get the spotlight off Sherrod and back on Obama’s successes?

Sherrod herself has repeatedly stressed, and continues to stress, that the pressure came directly from the White House. Meanwhile Vilsack took full responsibility for the hasty firing of Sherrod, claiming  “no one  from the White House had anything to do with this at all.” However, earlier, even after Vilsack had learned that the tape was edited, Vilsack defended the decision to accept Sherrod’s resignation saying, “The controversy surrounding her comments would create situations where her decisions, rightly or wrongly, would be called into question making it difficult for her to bring jobs to Georgia.” Remember, Vilsack had heard the speech in full context when he said that. Then, as described by Politico’s Mike Allen, something changed.

“Yielding to a late-night phone call from the White House, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack reversed himself early today and said he will reconsider the abrupt firing of Shirley Sherrod, a Georgia-based Agriculture Department official who was the victim of a media frenzy over comments that turned out to have been distorted by video editing.” Mike Allen, Politico.com

Bottom Line: If the White House can admit to intervening in the end, why can’t they admit thier role in the very begining? The question is, whose knee jerked first? Whose really to blame?

Devonia Smith is the Dallas Political Buzz columnist for Examiner.com and a contributor to Painespeak.com. She can be followed on twitter by clicking @DevoniaSmith