Fox Doctors Hoffa Speech to Fabricate Call for Violence

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Matt Gertz reports: "Right-wing bloggers misled by dishonest Fox News video editing are attacking Teamsters President James Hoffa, Jr. for supposedly urging violence against Tea Party activists during a Labor Day speech. Conservatives are also attacking President Obama, who appeared at the event, for 'sanctioning violence against fellow Americans' by failing to denounce Hoffa. But fuller context included in other Fox segments makes clear that Hoffa wasn't calling for violence but was actually urging the crowd to vote out Republican members of Congress."

Retired Teamsters President James Hoffa Jr., attending a breakfast in Detroit, 10/08/10. (photo: Daniel Mears/The Detroit News)

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0 # Henry 2011-09-06 08:32

#1 rule: NOBODY should use the phrase "take them out."

+10 # Terrapin 2011-09-06 11:59

Yes ... of course ... we should always use the FOX Ministry of Propaganda approved phrase "LOCK AND LOAD!"

+9 # AndreM5 2011-09-06 20:19

Don't forget the classic, "Don't retreat, reload," spoken by that great fake patriotess and 1/2-governor-qu itter who rakes income as a "Fox Analyst."

0 # RLF 2011-09-07 03:30

Unless you mean it!

+12 # giraffee2012 2011-09-06 10:03

When I heard Hoffa (during the GOP "whatever" on CNN - talking about abortion!!) - I resonated with Hoffa.

The left has asked for civility but the GOP/TP still slams with inuendos and racist based remarks and these incite the religious right - no matter how one says "it"

Hoffa was asking his audience to VOTE -- they stayed home in 2010 and look what happened.

So, he's a rough speaker, man, whatever -- but he qualified himself with "take them down at the voting booth" -- and if anyone wants to take this any other way -- I say GO TO .... / you are blowing up something that is not THERE.
VOTE in 2012 -- vote these TP/GOP out! They are your worst nightmare and if you think Bush /Cheney etc were bad -- these crazies are worse.

They want small govt when it comes to SS, education etc and big govt when it comes to abortion, gay rights, WAR == THEY DOUBLE-SPEAK.

Give President Obama a Congress that is not full of crazies and he will "make the changes he was doing until the 2010 election.

The Supremes (SCALIA / THOMAS were bought a paid for) made an UNCONSTITUTIONA L decision to give "person hood" to big $$ to buy our government. Based on 1st Amendment "something" but exempted these big MULTI-NATIONAL big $$ from facing the rest of the "amendments" such as being sued for WRONGS.

-1 # RLF 2011-09-07 03:31

Obama is bought and paid for...you're a fool to vote for him...no matter who gets into office!

+8 # giraffee2012 2011-09-06 10:31

I had a thought: Dems want Dems to STAND UP and fight back. As soon as one (Hoffa) does, they scream a rule about "how to stand up" --- VOTE 2012 -- vote Democratic and get the Sob's out or is the plural on Sons?
VOTE - even if you have to get mail-in ballots bc your TP/GOP gov will make it impossible to vote in 11/2012.

Volunteer to COUNT votes bc we know the GOP will mess with the votes (as they have in OH in 2004, etc)

+11 # Rara Avis 2011-09-06 10:41

If the suggestion to vote was in fact made and immediately followed by a sentence as indicated, Hoffa was refering to the elctoral process a core of our democracy. Nothing is intended here in the name of violence. While Hoffa might have tempered his language (DUH) Fox News Reporters who fail to mention that the "take them out" phrase was directly connected to idea of getting the vote out, as the method to do it then not only is the journalism they practice hopelessly incompetent but it is openly dishonest.

If permitted to parse every piece of rhetoric in the coming campaign I could make you think someone said just about anything I wished them to say.

I actually like the "take them out" via voting idea. And though crude, Hoffa's characterizatio n of them as "sons of bitches" is distrubingly accurate. As a former public school teacher rushed into retirement by Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker I am feeling what Hoffa said Labor Day right about now.

+3 # AndreM5 2011-09-06 20:23

What the heck do you mean, "...was in fact made and immediately followed by a sentence as indicated"??? Have you not researched the facts yourself? It is so easy to do and the facts are OUT THERE. Shame on you for failing in your duty as a thinking citizen. Don't believe ANYTHING you ever hear on Faux News EVER!, but don't believe anything you hear here either! Verify!

+13 # wsh 2011-09-06 11:13

Gee, I don't remember the right-wing media being as vexed about Gabby Gifford's Cong. Dist. being shown with a bull's-eye on it prior to the mass murder that came about shortly thereafter.

AS a matter of fact, they weren't vexed about it even AFTER she and all the others were shot.....2X standard, maybe?????

+5 # giraffee2012 2011-09-06 16:58

wsh - and what about Sarah Palin's cross whatever on the web as targets for her statement of reload and shoot (May not be exact statement) -- that was ok? Was Gabby one of the "marks"?

0 # lnason@umassd.edu 2011-09-26 07:37

This Media Matters report is misleading and disingenuous. No one, even FOX types, ever believed that Hoffa was publicly advocating violence. Of course he was not -- if only because it would have been illegal.

I believe that the FOX folks and others were trying to do was hold Hoffa (and Obama) to the same standards they had used in denouncing similar language from the likes of Sarah Palin.

If Palin can't "target" democratic districts, Hoffa should not be allowed to "take them out". On the other hand, if it is OK for Hoffa to use such graphic language, it should also be OK for conservatives to use similar language.

As a culture, we need to determine what the standards are and apply them evenly. I personally recommend that we opt for free speech and allow graphic language by everyone and stop this nonsense of trying to demonize what the other side said on the basis of our extrasensory perceptions of their motives.

Lee Nason
New Bedford, Massachusetts

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