Politico’s report on President Obama’s Labor Day speech in Detroit today not only ignored the thuggish language of Teamsters president Jimmy Hoffa, but blamed Republicans for the aggressively partisan nature of Obama’s remarks:
Obama’s speech was political before he delivered it. In a “Labor Day Statement” released earlier Monday, Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus said, “While the President champions regulations, mandates and tax hikes, Republicans across the country have stood up for American workers by supporting pro-growth initiatives.”
Not to be outdone, Media Matters for America claimed that FOX News “doctored” Hoffa’s speech. FOX did nothing of the sort–as Media Matters’s own post reveals. Yet Media Matters objects to the entirely reasonable interpretation, given the violent history in which some union leaders take pride, that Hoffa’s language was not just vitriolic but violent.
Media Matters–creators of the “selective editing” meme–also “selectively edited” the text of Hoffa’s remarks to remove his references to “war.”
Of course, Media Matters exists to “correct” opinions, not facts. Today, at least, Politico “fixed” the facts for them.
UPDATE: Politico has now covered Hoffa’s remarks separately. How Republicans are responsible for Obama’s hyper-partisan accusations remains a mystery.