koshergrl
Diamond Member
- Aug 4, 2011
- 81,131
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After all...he did use the term "up in arms"!
Scaaarrryyy....
Plus he refers to somebody as "barbarians". Nobody is exactly sure who he means.
"
This is a different kind of fight, Biden said. This is a fight for the existence of organized labor. You are the only folks keeping the barbarians at the gate. Thats why they want you so bad.
Now, who might those barbarians be? And why did no one hear of Bidens remarks?
NewsBusters Tom Blumer has the answer to that last question: No one heard of the comments because hardly anyone reported them (with a few notable exceptions, including Politico and The Hill kudos!).
Now, journalists who perceive themselves as gatekeepers do have to apply some standards of newsworthiness when they determine what to cover and what not to cover and, in terms of shock value, Hoffas comments clearly stole the Labor Day show. But Blumer explains why Bidens remark, in some ways, is even more troubling:
The expression could work in the opposite direction, too: Earlier this year, in the fight that started it all, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker was literally inside the governors mansion while protesters stormed the state Capitol. WaPo columnist Eugene Robinson thinks Biden would be OK with it if the very folks hes calling barbarian did turn the quote around. As for Bident (sic) barbarians reference, well, I dont think hed get too offended if you called him a barbarian right back, Robinson wrote.
Bu we all know thats the problem. If anyone called union leaders barbarians, Biden wouldnt be OK with it; he and his New Tone cronies would be up in arms er, excuse me, in a tizzy. I probably shouldnt use an expression like 'up in arms'".
Biden’s overlooked comment to organized labor « Hot Air
Whenever I need a laugh, I google Biden.
Scaaarrryyy....
Plus he refers to somebody as "barbarians". Nobody is exactly sure who he means.
"
This is a different kind of fight, Biden said. This is a fight for the existence of organized labor. You are the only folks keeping the barbarians at the gate. Thats why they want you so bad.
Now, who might those barbarians be? And why did no one hear of Bidens remarks?
NewsBusters Tom Blumer has the answer to that last question: No one heard of the comments because hardly anyone reported them (with a few notable exceptions, including Politico and The Hill kudos!).
Now, journalists who perceive themselves as gatekeepers do have to apply some standards of newsworthiness when they determine what to cover and what not to cover and, in terms of shock value, Hoffas comments clearly stole the Labor Day show. But Blumer explains why Bidens remark, in some ways, is even more troubling:
Bidens statement is in an important aspect more problematic than the more widely (but not sufficiently widely) noted son of a b*tches comment made by Teamsters President James Hoffa Jr. in Detroit yesterday at a Labor Day event President Obama keynoted. While Hoffa was threatening and hateful, he was at least in theory speaking only for Big Labor (though Obama has essentially adopted it by not condemning it). In Cincinnati, Biden, who was elected to serve all citizens of the country, personally characterized a large plurality of those he is supposed to be serving with a word which means savage, primitive, uncivilized persons.
Did Biden literally mean that opponents of organized labor are uncivilized or did he just mean it metaphorically? Battle imagery is remarkably adaptable to politics and barbarians at the gate is a colorful way to say the fight is now at close quarters. And thats true: The union battles of this year have gone beyond traditional tensions and straight, as Biden said, to the question of whether a need for organized labor still exists.
The expression could work in the opposite direction, too: Earlier this year, in the fight that started it all, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker was literally inside the governors mansion while protesters stormed the state Capitol. WaPo columnist Eugene Robinson thinks Biden would be OK with it if the very folks hes calling barbarian did turn the quote around. As for Bident (sic) barbarians reference, well, I dont think hed get too offended if you called him a barbarian right back, Robinson wrote.
Bu we all know thats the problem. If anyone called union leaders barbarians, Biden wouldnt be OK with it; he and his New Tone cronies would be up in arms er, excuse me, in a tizzy. I probably shouldnt use an expression like 'up in arms'".
Biden’s overlooked comment to organized labor « Hot Air
Whenever I need a laugh, I google Biden.