Something to the extreme, all right

A little while ago I posted on what I thought was taboo-word avoidance taken to the extreme by the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Specifically, if you don't want to go back, they quoted a guy as saying:

"He got in my face. I didn't flinch. I said, 'Dude, back off,' pardon my French but that's the words I used."

Naturally, I figured the reporter, or editor, had changed something a bit more raw into "back off", and noted that the effect was odd, as if the guy was actually apologizing for something pretty innocuous.

Well, I sent a note to Language Log, where they have "taboo vocabulary" as a topic, and one of their commenters says:

The newspaper quote matches supplied footage of the press conference. In the press conference video, at 0:40 he says, I said, 'Dude, back off,' pardon my French but that's the words I used.' Then there's a flash cut on the video, and then he's saying "I just don't know why he …"

If they edited the quote for the newspaper, then they edited the video sequence perfectly to eliminate any trace as well.

Wow. I ... Wow.

That's Minnesota nice taken to the extreme, that is.