This is how quickly the news cycle has moved on the Shirley Sherrod story.

Last night and again this morning, the fired government employee was on TV describing how her 30-year career with the USDA had come to an abrupt end — fired Monday after what turned out to be a fabricated racial controversy.

This afternoon, around 3pmET, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs apologized to Sherrod and said that Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack would be calling her as well.

Ninety minutes later, Vilsack was on all the newschannels apologizing to Sherrod and offering her a new job.

The news conference ran into the 5pmET hour, which meant covering up the first few minutes of Glenn Beck on FNC and Chris Matthews on MSNBC. But the Sherrod story has been the story today.

And this had us wondering, when is the last time the cable news channels all aired live coverage from the Secretary of Agriculture: Bird Flu? E coli? Frozen chicken nugget recall?

And all of this has lead MSNBC’s “Ed Show” to ask this question: