Jimmy Hoffa and the Tea Party

When two organizations are so radically different in nature and purpose, it becomes easy for strong and sometimes violent rhetoric to be employed. Such is the case with the loosely-confederated grassroots movement known as the "Tea Party" and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (aka the Teamsters Union), particularly it's President, Jimmy Hoffa. 

As I noted in my previous post about the Tuscon shootings, the Tea Party has been often criticized in the media for the use of unnecessarily violent rhetoric. For the most part, individuals like Sarah Palin or some nameless poster-holder are criticized for invoking harsh and sometimes violent language to get their points across. For the most part, however, despite what news outlets like the Huffington Post would tell you, Tea Party gatherings and rallies are almost never seriously violent, and reports say that they are even less violent than past anti-war protests.

On the other hand, little media attention is given to the violence committed by traditionally left-wing organizations like labor unions. As recently as a few weeks ago, there have been violent conflicts involving protesting unions. However, one instance of violent union rhetoric has received significant coverage, presumably because of the proximity of President Obama to the scene. 

"Let's take these sons of bitches out!" yelled Teamster Union President Jimmy Hoffa as President Obama waited in the wings. Hoffa told his predominately Union-affiliated crowd on September 5th that the Tea Party was waging a "war on workers" and that he and his Union "army" was "ready to march." Admirably and obviously, the President has tried to distance himself from these remarks, especially given his party's call for reduced and peaceful rhetoric from their Republican foes. 

Some good lessons as well as questions can be learned from this disturbing event. Does the media concentrate on right-wing rhetoric and "vitriol" while pushing similar left-wing events aside? Can the mainstream media be trusted to accurately deliver the news in an unbiased fashion? I, and I'm sure most of you, would hope that is not the case. We'll explore it more in future posts.