Fair is fair. Conservatives are always complaining (usually with justification) about having their words twisted or misinterpreted to make it sould like they're calling for violence or being inappropriately insensitve toward something or other. (The flap over Sarah Palin's call for "targeting" of disliked public officials comes to mind.) So conservatives should be careful not to commit the same sin:
Right-wing bloggers misled by dishonest Fox News video editing are attacking Teamsters President James Hoffa 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.
During the segment that the bloggers have latched onto, Fox edited out the bolded portion of Hoffa's comments:
HOFFA: Everybody here's got to vote. If we go back and keep the eye on the prize, let's take these son of a bitches out and give America back to America where we belong! Thank you very much!
Of course, calling your opponents vile names like SOBs and terrorists isn't a nice thing to do, especially for a bunch of people who have been calling for more "civility" in our political discourse, but that's another issue.
I also think not nearly enough attention has been paid to a subtler mangling of Hoffa's speech. Much of the reporting (here, for example) says Hoffa wanted to take those "sons of bitches" out, which any dictionary can tell you is the proper plural for the term, covering up for his obvious ignorance in actually using "son of a bitches." Hoffa should immediately step down; no one with such a crude grasp of proper language is fit for high union office.
