Occupy Wall Street’s first media problem was that there was no media. On September 21, Keith Olbermann chastised New York newspapers and major news outlets for ignoring the demonstrations in their first five days.
“[The protesters] are not going to be able to refine their goals based on reading bad reviews in the protest critics of the New York Times,” said the Current TV anchor, formerly of MSNBC. Mr. Olbermann did not explain why the Times would be obligated to help Occupy Wall Street crystallize unrest into specific demands.
(via twitter.com/danlatorre)
To Mr. Olbermann, The Observer‘s mildly skeptical coverage rendered the paper “a piece of crap” that “didn’t really fit into this explanation,” but once the New York Times review came in, it sounded a lot like ours.
With a list of demands as schizophrenic as ending joblessness, “the modern gilded age,” political corruption, and capital punishment, The Times’ Ginia Bellafante concluded on Saturday that protesters were “pantomiming progressivism rather than practicing it knowledgeably.”
Upon reading her piece, Occupy Wall Street’s de facto PR man, Patrick Bruner, shaved off his punk hairdo, to show he meant business.
A visit to Liberty Plaza later that night illuminated the demands and challenges of creating a media narrative out of a non-hierarchical demonstration.
Occupy Wall Street’s media camp anchored the protest—a heap of equipment circling a tripod from which a handful of volunteers manned a live stream, updated a blog, and operated an information booth. The tables were strewn with granola bars and the ground was littered with cigarette packs and Red Bull cans. During the quiet first days of the protest, the media team provided a steady stream of free photo and video footage to the bloggers and news sites that began to give the protest media traction.
At about 9:30, the information booth was visited by a man whose long gray hair suggested he had seen a demonstration or two, who was earnestly concerned about the scattershot cause of Occupy Wall Street. We caught the end of the defense offered by the booth attendant, a young man with dirty hair and thick framed glasses.
“…and plus this whole generation’s been depoliticized,” he said, half apologetic, half vexed, as he stuck out his hand.
“Listen, I’d love to talk to you about this more later, but right now there’s a line of people,” he said, gesturing toward The Observer and the young man beside us in a name tag that said Occupier Justin.
Justin had dropped by to make an announcement on the live stream—the online video feed that had been continuously broadcasting from Occupy Wall Street since September 17. The Observer was looking for someone to talk to about it. Who was running the show around here?
“You should talk to Nikki,” the Information guy told The Observer, pointing to a twenty-something woman in leopard print pajama pants and a red silk camisole.
Nikki’s attention could not be diverted from a cell phone call, in Spanish, before she wandered out of the media camp. The Observer lingered.
Because the protest was continuously documenting itself, it was hard to tell who was participant, who was reporter, and who was tourist, snapping photos for their Instagram feed as they would of their cat or their breakfast.
While we waited for Justin to make his announcement and free up the man with the Information, a petite blonde recruited us to hold a digital voice recorder to his face.
“This is Justin from the Arts & Culture committee,” he said. “I’m here to announce that we’ve built a police barrier made out of votive candles, peace and love.”
80-odd protesters had been arrested that afternoon, and the police presence was still felt even blocks away from the plaza. A rumor circulated that they would make another round of arrests once the TV cameras had packed up for the night.
“Just make sure you have a bag packed and ready to go,” someone told a strung-out couple who approached the Information booth.
Justin gestured to aim the camera over his shoulder. On a small stone ledge bordering the park’s trees—where on a normal day the Wall Street workers who don’t get bonuses sit and eat Halal cart lunches—small candles had been lit at one foot intervals.
It was exactly the kind of gesture that made Occupy Wall Street hard to take seriously—it was superficial, lighthearted and lacked urgency. Occupation is not a permanent state; yet the line of candles said nothing of what would have to change in order for the demonstration to disperse. Worse, it displaced the movement’s anger and energy toward NYPD, which is not responsible for the country’s unemployment or yawning income gap.
While Justin made his announcement, Barbara Ross, a member of the Occupy Wall Street photo team, was hunched over a MacBook, uploading a video clip to YouTube. A young man with a crew cut and leather bracelets had snuck under a barrier and crouched down beside her. He read her an open letter to Wall Street which he had scratched in a composition notebook.
He hoped to get it published.
“It’s a lovely letter,” she told him, “but I don’t know anything about how to get it printed. Try the Arts & Culture committee.”
Ms. Ross, the eloquent and crunchy-pretty spokeswoman for the environmental organization Time’s Up!, told The Observer that the profusion of citizen journalists among the protesters was a mixed blessing. They provided a lot of raw photo and video, which allowed her to be stationary and keep an eye on the equipment. Even in the calm before and after the arrests, security is dicey.
She had to remove one attendee she believed was covering the protest, she said, when she saw him zooming and focusing his lens on the screen of a team member’s laptop as they entered a password.
Occupy Wall Street’s media output is critical to keeping the demonstration inclusive, accessible, and democratic, but the content of the demonstration is a secondary concern for the live stream, according to Ms. Ross. (How many will tune in for another hour of drum circles and acoustic ballads?) The documentation doesn’t really become important until things go wrong.
During the arrests Saturday afternoon, police targeted those central to the protest, according to another live stream team member, Vlad Teichberg. Thanks to a broadcast buddy system, they were able to document the arrest of one of the bloggers, he said, and grab a computer from another before his hands were cuffed. According to Ms. Ross, recent photos showed a cop lunging at a protester unprovoked, yet the man had been arrested for aggression against the same officer.
Mr. Teichberg, a 38-year-old Russian émigré and self-described “media activist,” staged similar media operations at the Republican National Convention and G8 Summit. With Ms. Ross, he helped document the monthly cyclist demonstration Critical Mass. Video footage of the Friday night group rides was crucial in 2008, when it served as proof that the cyclist Christopher Long, who had been charged with assault, was in fact a victim of police brutality. NYPD later paid a $965,000 settlement to cyclists who were wrongly arrested.
With a viral video and a shamed cop, the obscure social event for environmentalists and DIY kids became front page local news. Now, it’s a launch pad for bigger targets.
“We’ve been using the monthly Critical Mass rides to train media warriors,” Mr. Teichberg said.
Police brutality wasn’t among the disparate reasons people gathered to Occupy Wall Street last week, but it’s quickly rushing in to the protest’s ideological vacuum. Mean cops offer a tangible stand-in for a decade of abstract bullying and bondage by financiers who are unregulated, profiteers who are untaxed, and elected officials who are for sale. Many of the protesters are too young to have registered these shifts in society’s tectonic plates as they happened, but are not far from the age when the pigs broke up their house parties.
Protestors like to point out that they’re on the cops’ side—NYPD salaries place officers safely among the “99%” they represent—but, as one might have predicted from the trajectory of Critical Mass, altercations with the police are the fastest way to legitimize and draw attention to an otherwise juvenile movement. Arrests provide concrete numbers for headlines and handsome young faces with bloody noses make good homepage photos.
Yesterday, a video made the rounds which, unless Warren Buffett arrives with a confetti cannon full of twenties, will be the most popular to emerge from the first eight days of the demonstration.
Two young women are penned against the sidewalk by an orange net, but they strain against it as they look down the sidewalk in horror, where someone is being aggressively handcuffed, bloodied face down on the pavement. While they’re looking away, a high-ranking police officer in white swiftly approaches them, douses them with pepper spray, and slips back into the crowd. The two young women, blinded, drop to their knees screaming and clutch at their faces. Two women behind them also begin to cry as their faces visibly redden.
The video won’t bring regulatory reform to financial services, reinstate capital gains tax, or repeal Citizens United, but it is one way to end a media blackout, or bounce back from a bad review.
“The cops spraying a bunch of white girls, well, our donations have tripled,” one of the victims, Chelsea Elliott, told the Village Voice.
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I bet that high ranking officer, as you call him, received a bonus for dousing women with mace. It’s part of the ‘Good ol’ Boy’ regime and mindset and is one of the biggest problems in our world. Second, the women who play the game of the ‘Good ol’ Boy’ regime.
The movement might be more focused if they were forced to function inside a corporate dictated framework like the Tea Party puppets. This is what genuine free-form grass roots efforts look like. How pathetic that the genuine democratic, collective, sincere nature of this protest is the very thing that the Observer uses to dismiss it.
This is the place where I want to write something vulgar and insulting but I refrain.
The job of the Observer is to dismiss…
“First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win.” -Gandhi
most absolutely… and the world is watching!
Yeah the world is watching a bunch of people that cannot even even articulate why they were there.
Before you join to occupy anything find out who your true organizers are. Ex Obama Czar and Communist Van Jones people are calling themselves anti-capitalists. So anyone that makes good they feel is keeping them down. some have complained about no insurance at their job. Lol they need to look at Pres Obama and thank him for all the crap. His medical plan is going to screw us all. I cant afford insurance so i will be fined for it because i am self employed. Lol the corporations fines will be cheaper than providing insurance. Also the insurance companies who are in business to make money because hello that is why people have businesses. Are not allowed to make a profit any longer so they will soon leave us. Which means loss of jobs. stupidity at its best with alot of followers who have no idea who they are following and why. Some people just want to be “seen” doing the newest trend to show they are social aware. Which is just showing they are totally unaware.
Ah, but Artemis, they are aware. Those kids standing out there in the rain may not be able to put words to it, but they are aware that something is wrong, and they are trying to fix it. They have been told all of their lives what they need to do to succeed; they need to go to school, they need to graduate, they need to go to college, they need get a diploma, they need to get a job. Well, school? That one was a freebie. College? I don’t know about you, Artemis, but where I come from, and moreso where I go to, college is rather on the expensive side. So what do middle-class students do? They follow their orders and go to college. For most, this means taking out a student loan. By the time they graduate, their debt is… shall we say, significant? At this point, all they need to do, according to all sources, is get a job and they’re on the road to success. Well, gee, the job market kind of crashed a couple of years back, didn’t it? So, let’s do basic metaphorical addition: Astronomical debt plus a distinct lack of income equals… hey, wait a minute, this wasn’t supposed to happen! How are they supposed to pay off their debts? How will they succeed?
They won’t. Not unless they decide to take a stand, make their voices heard. I weep, not at society’s lack of social awareness, but at its willful ignorance towards world problems.
What a bold initial statement. Bold and equivocally stupid.
Everybody is there for a different reason. This is a mass protest on the quality of life, which gets infinitely more complex the deeper you go. This isn’t some Tea Party round up, these are legitimate people with legitimate issues like the inability to find a job: the source of income. This attack on the middle class is what’s the issue; it’s that simple. Many may not “articulate” it that way, but THAT’S WHAT IT IS. 8 years of devastation is what brought us to this point: poor leadership, only there to solidify 1% of well-being. President Barack Obama is trying to do the impossible. He’s trying to unify the corrupt, greedy politicians and the general do-gooders together to fix this whole pile of corrupt, political excrement that has been disregarded by the hand that feeds.
You blame Barack for being a catalyst. The only reason that poor health care bill exists is because of republican rebuttal to anything can will lose them or their friends money; the only exception being the opportunity to make the president look bad in the ratings and in people’s minds.
Now, if a progressive, left wing, hippy can realize this, while being baked out of his mind, I’m sure you can see what’s really happening too.
Grow up, Artemis. Get educated.
Except people actually supported and -respected- Ghandi, he also had the majority of the population’s support behind him. Nobody cares about Occupy Wall Street besides those who already agree with you and that is a very small number.
Your going to lose beause you don’t have the majority of americans supporting you or anything remotely close. Your just a bunch of childish extremists.
The spelling should be “Gandhi” not “Ghandi”. The latter is a common misspelling because English has the “gh” cluster (as in “ghost”, “through”) but not the “dh” one — except fortuitously, as in “bloodhound”.
By the way, most Germans supported Adolf Hitler and the Nazis. Those who spoke out against them would surely have been labeled extremists — and worse, and would have been arrested — or worse. We haven’t quite reached that point yet in this country — but we are getting there.
I agree. I was involved with Occupy. It’s a joke.
Kooklafran – I suppose the highly organized and disciplined marches and rallies and protests of the civil rights movement were “corporate dictated framework like the Tea Party puppets?” This is not what genuine efforts look like. This is what a disorganized mess with no messaging or professional help looks like. There is nothing anti-progressive about keeping your rallies well-organized and on-message. In fact, the only successful progressive efforts in history were well-organized and disciplined.
If I race into a burning building to try and save a puppy, are you going to scoff at me for it if I don’t do it efficiently enough? The point is, support and appreciate.
If you race into a building to save a puppy from burning, but then go off and read one of the books inside while the building burns, then you’re letting the puppy die and killing yourself in the process. Focus.
This movement do come off unorganized and without a message, but there is clearly a message. It is necessary to address/face the issue that young american are not naive to sit and watch the 1% rule out all the possibilities of our future. Furthermore environmental issues caused by giant american corporate also needed to be addressed with a slap in the face.
Movements like this may be surprisingly important. In Tianamen square there were no clear demands. Just a bunch of people gathering together around a common sense that something was wrong and needed to change. No clear leadership, no political parties, no understandable demands. This baffles authorities because it is difficult to negotiate with them and gives them time to try to grow… I like it.
That’s not historically accurate. Students at Tiananmen met with leadership to discuss demands and were able to articulate them clearly.
And you really might want to pic another example, as that movement failed.
what ha this “movement” accomplished?
Occupy is about a bunch of people that don’t even know why they are there. Watching them get interviewed is painful. They are bumbling and rambling about nothing. Just because you want to be seen doing the most recent trendy thing does not mean you know anything.
Also Tianamen square was A massive demonstration for democratic reform. Not just about following others to protest something about someone that might keep them down. Please.
http://www.infoplease.com/spot/tiananmen.html
The movement is “leaderless” I think the Observer can’t quite figure out how that would be possible!
This is the most ridiculous article I’ve read to date by the biased, corrupt, corporate-controlled media. If a person wants the true story, watch it unfold on Youtube and livestream. You will discover people of all backgrounds trying to help inform the nation of the intense need to get our country back on track. You will also notice that despite the enormous number of people…which the media always downplays…the area is clean and all are respectful.
This article is disgraceful!!! Reminds me of what we were told of Russian propaganda when I was a kid. There’s a reason the protesters are busy trying to get the truth out themselves. Does this reporter really think she will be taken seriously after trying to demean each protester mentioned? Just horrible.
Isn’t it? You can detect the hate right around the initial paragraphs where this hopeless reporter stands around watching a protester talk on her cellphone……..in SPANISH! This is all emphasized to try and trick people into thinking these protestors are all disoriented in what they want. After all, how can someone who speaks spanish be in agreement with anyone here? They’re all deemed crazy.
There is nothing wrong with speaking a foreign language. There is something wrong when anyone attempts to change our public policies and can not speak English.
Lularib – Tiananmen had VERY clear demands. It was called “The List of Seven Demands”:
(1) affirm as correct Hu Yaobang’s views on democracy and freedom;
(2) admit that the campaigns against spiritual pollution and bourgeois liberalization had been wrong;
(3) publish information on the income of state leaders and their family members;
(4) end the ban on privately run newspapers and permit freedom of speech;
(5) increase funding for education and raise intellectuals’ pay;
(6) end restrictions on demonstrations in Beijing; and
(7) hold democratic elections to replace government officials who made bad policy decisions.It was also very well organized, especially among student organizations. So, I don’t know where you get your information, but it’s wrong, and if people involved in this protest honestly believe they are acting in the same way as the Tiananmen protests, they’re way, way off.
Thanks for putting some more truth out here.
The fact that there IS little organization to this action underscores very well why the progressive left has abandoned or actually never completely taken up the cause of economic oppression in this country. The traditional left is hampered by its own sell-out to the corporate world and its own entrenchment in classism and fractionalism.
While the dominantly white male, upper middle class leaders of the “professional progressive” movement hob-knob with the powers that be and negotiate away the rights and living standards of working people — based on the colonialist assumption that they know best — real working class people are struggling to come together and form their own leadership out of whatever they have.
Don’t like it? Think its ugly? Then apparently things haven’t gotten bad enough for you yet or you are comfortable getting paid off our sacrifice.
If you need examples, look at the union movement; how well have they
done for the last thirty or forty years for the working person? Why
have the working classes been picked up and bought out by the fraudulent
corporate Tea Baggers?
This is disgusting, the epitome of bad journalism in a free country
No institutions affiliated with the government in any way will address such movement, I’m pretty sure. Since said institutions depend on maintaining proper image (typically for funding purposes), these agencies usually also have top-end executives earning six-figure salaries -it’s no surprise that mainstream media attention is scare to none, or simply a press release that’s published.
It’s time to stand-up to those in power, and to not let the autonomous bureaucrats take away our rights as citizens!
So… what is it that they want, specifically?
“Mean cops offer a tangible stand-in for a decade of abstract bullying and bondage by financiers who are unregulated, profiteers who are untaxed, and elected officials who are for sale.”
-see. Everyone knows what this is about. You are just being a dick.
I really don’t understand the antipathy to a solid message and organizing. From anti-slavery to suffrage to civil rights to workers rights, and so on, the left wins when it is well-organized and tight in its message. To Kate, who berates those who advocate organization as white-male elitists, all I can say is that the non-white-male oppressed who overcame did so by organizing and running their movements as professionally as possible. And that’s for good reason.
First of all, if there was a true leadership team that could sit down and put to paper a list of demands the group wants to see, there’d be a natural thing for media to say the group is protesting for. There’s nothing wrong with that. In fact, doing so might actually get people to – GASP - join the fight because they actually have a solid grasp on what you’re fighting for. For starters, how about:
1) An increased and fair tax rate for Hedge Fund managers, as well as the Buffett rule tax, funds of which should be used to for job creation
2) An increase on the Capital Gains tax for profits over $1m, which should be reinvested in education
3) Public financing of elections, to remove corporate and special interest influence from our democracy
and so on…
Second of all, if there was some real leadership structure, it could ask everyone to chip in to hire a real Public Relations person. Someone with an actual, reliable press list, who could coordinate media coverage. For instance, setting up a media tent with wifi, where representatives of the group could give daily briefings, including providing statistics and video of NYPD action directly to reporters, and disseminate statements of support that come in. That PR person also could handle incoming questions and get them answered in a timely and professional manner – rather than leave reporters out there to interview whoever they like, who might not be the best representative for the movement. Again, you’d get more and better press coverage which, God forbid, might entice people to join up. Is it playing with the media on their own terms, or is it being smart and playing their game and using them as a means to make yourself stronger?
Third of all, if there was solid organizing, maybe there’d be a lot more people down there. There is absolutely no case to be made that this protest would be diluted at all if it reached out to unions for some professional organizing help – to bring people in from other areas to join the effort. More people means being taken more seriously. Always has, always will.
In short – better organization and stronger and clearer messaging would bring about stronger coverage, and maybe a real chance to move the agenda. But, as is, it seems like too many people value the lack of organization and free-for-all messaging as a “intellectual statement” more than they value advancing any kind of actual agenda to help the oppressed. That’s a shame. And that’s the real elitism.
Yes, focus would be of help in growing this protest, but what focus did the Tea Party have when the first couple of dozen of them got off a bus in DC? Yet they received very respectful coverage on the front page of the NY Times, not to mention television. From the very beginning the media seized on the rag-tag Tea party protests to broadcast that a populist movement was sweeping the nation.
The so-called “Tea party” had a platform, or at least a cause, from the very beginning. “Taxed Enough Already,” it’s right there in the name.
If you’re just protesting everything, people will tune out. If you can’t define the problem, or come up with a solution, you’re just doing street theater.
These protestors are heroes. They’re the only ones who have the courage to stand up to the oligarchs that have taken over government and are seeking to crush the average american’s standard of living and civil liberties.
Real social change is difficult to generate, and clearly this is a start. Things like this call to mind the movie “Zabriskie Point”, if you’re interested in movements for social change in the US, I suggest you watch it. Social change can be a messy thing. I think in our data driven society we are so steeped in narrativized information ecosystems that we lose track of the loose immediacy of real life and real action out on the streets.
I heard Olbermann’s comment about this paper but, I had never heard of this paper before because I live in Toronto, Canada.
Well, I read about half of this article and that is all I could take. Olbermann is right; this paper is a piece of crap. Worse than that, this ‘journalist’ has gone out her(?) way to make derogatory and disparaging comments about protesters at every opportunity.
Kat Stoeffel, they must pay you well to shit all over these people. You disgust me!
Vincentsanchez – Exactly my point. The Tea Party was relatively small-ish, but had experienced people helping them out (an in some cases astroturfed them) but had a really focused message – namely – no “Obamacare” and “cut spending.” Then it grew into other messages. The point is, the Occupy Wall Street folks can stay grassroots and true to their cause, but still learn from the Tea Party and how they got the coverage they did, and copy some organizational tactics. They didn’t get coverage just because of a corporate-owned media.
Another thing to keep in mind is that newsrooms are shrinking every day. Layoffs mean the reporters left have to file a ton of stories daily. They have less time to spend dilly-dallying around trying to find who the media-rep is at a rally, or try to figure out what the message is that a group stands for. The quicker and easier you make it for reporters, the much better your odds are of getting a story. Now, do I like that this is how things are now? No. But it’s reality. Having a diffuse movement with no leadership and no organizers and no media professionals hurts the cause because it sacrifices coverage. Before complaining about the corporate-owned media, you better be sure you’ve actually done all you possibly can do to get coverage. And at this point, the Occupy Wall Street rallies have not.
I say this as someone absolutely opposed to the Wall Street and bankster takeover of America.
You’re absolutely correct. Though their grievances are genuine, and most are in one way or another related to the damage and inequality wrought by Globalization, to air them all at once makes your head spin. Not to mention that in this country it’s unwise, to say the least, for the message to come off as Socialist Revolution. Or even, sad to say, for the protesters not to look mainstream.
However, it’s a start. I think there is enough passion and enough intelligent leadership that sooner or later, they will focus the message so it doesn’t overwhelm, and protesters will take to the streets in numbers too large to ignore; the hardship and corruption in our country is all too real. In the meantime, grassroots funding is critical.
I sincerely hope you’re right. Because the overall goal of re-balancing power in this country is far, far too mess up.
far far “too important to” Not sure why those words got cut off when I hit post.
the protest does need structure.
what are the protestors wanting?
to get arrested until all the worlds evils turn good?
they need a message, they need to have demands met before they leave.
perhaps legislature that bridges the gap between rich and poor.
what on earth could do that?…i don’t know.
but there does need to be a focus before the numbers dwindle and
the momentum comes to a hault,
because at some point, people are gonna just go home.
I marched in the old anti-war days when the cops signaled they were about to wade in and bust heads by either hiding their badges or just taping over the ID numbers. More recently, I attended a tea party, and again I recognized the good old vibe. They simply don’t want America to keep heading where Europe is already burning. Crazy, huh? On the other hand, Occupy Wall Street reminds me of the New Black Panthers and all the rest of the New Old New Left. You guys are like Civil War re-enactors who don’t know the war is over. You’re boring and so last millennium. I’m younger than that now.
The war isn’t over, and it never was over. You’re a pacified sheep if you think it is.
Silly white trustafarians who never bothered to study social actions or social movements. They are dirty, smell, and perform for the cameras. They make the real problems harder to solve.
Shame on the Observer and “Kat” for an obviously poor attempt to marginalize a grass roots movement that embodies the anger and basic rights of young people to protest against injustice. There is no law that says a protest against the current state of affairs has to be backed by some bureaucratic manifesto. This is just another way the Observer wants you to think that in order for your voice to be legitimate, “they” have to approve it with their agenda, hypocrisy and double talk. Kudos to the young men and women who put themselves out there.
Public officials, politicians and their police robots are scared widening social unrest because they know that these young people represent what everyone is already thinking about this country…. they’re just brave enough to act on it.
Oy vey. ” There is no law that says a protest against the current state of affairs has to be backed by some bureaucratic manifesto.” You’re right, there’s not. But as a practical matter, having a specific message with solid things you want to see done is probably a good thing to have so the wider audience – potential supporters of yours – understand what it is you actually want (in real terms, not in ethereal generalities). A potential supporter’s FIRST question would be, “What is it you guys are asking for?” If there’s no specific demands, no solid agenda for people to grasp, they’re going to walk on by. It’s not the media that loses under that proposition, and it sure as hell ain’t the corporatists. It’s you. So, in the end, you put some silly notion of “not being like the man” by coming up with an agenda above affecting real change.
Another cynical corporate mind controlled “piece of crap”. The only media problem that OWS has is journalists who can’t imagine anyone being relevant if they done have a satellite truck, a million dollars and some bimbo talking head feeding the corporate controlled news to everyone. It’s a revolution in progress Observer who sees nothing.
fuck the cops!!!!!
I’ve watched your paper ridicule and dismiss these protesters for a week… finally at least an attempt at even-handedly telling the story. better late than never, thank you.
If everyone sat idly by because they didn’t have the power, funds, or connections to perfectly organize a politically acceptable (and therefore completely ineffective and useless) protest, none of us would ever do anything to speak out. This is real. This is heartfelt. Maybe they won’t bring about great changes on Wall Street, but at the very least they have started the first of what is likely to be an ongoing stream of peaceful protests. Someone has to start it, and it takes a lot of bravery and passion to do what these folks are doing. Don’t poo-poo on it because it isn’t by the book. You’re disgusting.
Everyone forgets, the Tea Party was taken over by Dick Armey, and the rest of the corporate flunkies. The corporations will do anything to hold power, kinda like Bushir. Only the bullets haven’t been fired here yet. The police will be told to escalate and clear the area soon. Just as soon as the word really starts to get out. It is a shame to be forced to get the news from foreign sources.
You’ve got to love the yellow press huh?
I seriously don’t get WHAT THEY WANT. What do they want the society to do. Dissatisfied with the financial sector? Well what do you propose then?? You want to reform society? Then how should we do it? A baby can whine. A baby can protest that it doesn’t get enough candy. Well we’re adults so we can protest, but shouldn’t we have a possible solution to the problem instead of going to the streets and causing inconvenience to everyone else?
When the corporate-toady media covers these protests, if they do it at
all, they show video and photos of the most extreme twits on the street
and color everyone else with that brush.
I think the most effective tactic that reformers have used to date is the ‘move your money’ campaign.
I’m not sure where it started or who started it, but there’s no doubt it would be far smarter than dressing up like an idiot and waving signs at people who don’t give a shit.
This comments section is embarrassing.
Really embarrassing.
Possibly, the unfocused nature of the protest is the most difficult aspect for the corporate world to fathom and for their PR departments to effectively kill because they can’t create an effective strategy to counter a specific message. The present corporate and media strategy is a classic Andrew Bernays tactic of attempting to marginalize all theses kids as kooks and crackpots, however, we are looking at a generation of kids who are turning on the system they see that promised the moon but delivered recession instead.
There might not be a central articulated message right now. But clearly there is a problem, or many. Otherwise people wouldn’t be camping out on Wall Street day after day after being ignored and mocked, then arrested and tear gassed.
This movement may still be molten, but there is simply too much general discontent for it not to eventually take shape and find a voice (and the Tea Party is simply not an alternative outlet for many).
Look at where the protests take place! Wall Street. For the time being actions speak louder than words.
If you have a leader….the cops will go after the leader. That will cause confusion. If you have a cause without a leader,…but co-operative people working together….the cops can’t stop it. This has worked to help stop nuclear power plants in Oregon.
If the movement is to quote this article: ”superficial, lighthearted and lack[ing] urgency,” why are people being maced, beaten and arrested?
We don’t have a message vaccuum, we have a message cornocopia. It doesn’t take a whole lot of thought to figure out why people came to Occupy Wall St. This is where the money is, and the money is here because people that move other people’s money around always think they should get a piece of it. If you move cd players for Best Buy you don’t get to bring one home every day. But if you invest other people’s pensions somehow your supposed to get $million bonuses every year.
In 2008 the big banks realized that all of the other banks were taking the same huge risks (with little collateral) that they were and they all stopped lending to each other or anyone else. Despite a $1trillion bailout, and then another $3trillion pumped in from the Federal Reserve, they are still not lending, and all of the giant coporations are waiting for the little guy to start spending before they will get back into the economy again.
Well, the median salary is lower now than it was in 1980. We don’t have cash to start spending, so the solution the politicians come up with is to fire hundreds of thousands of teachers, police, firefighters, etc.
If you are sick of being robbed by giant coporations that buy politicians and the laws they write, join the world wide movement to take back our governments, before it is too late.
Occupy Wall St has no leader to make back room deals. We use rotating facilitators to make sure all voices are heard. We put forth agendas, debate, reach consensus and act, together. It is slow and powerful, like a river.
I agree with Kooklafran and jlock… and whoever else I might read here who echoes their sentiments. This piece is dripping with your standard establishment disdain, ie, worthless tripe. It is typical of establishment media types (basically all there are in the establishment media – regrettably, a very COMMON lot) who live to pound out the canned, deadening drumbeat to achieve mass acquiescence to business as usual.
Talk about boring drum circles!!! This article is a ridiculously transparent slab of canned spam, lamely attempting to masquerade as “I know better how to solve the problem” without really acknowledging that there is a problem or showing one iota of concern about the problem (that of our obscenely wealthy elites eating the masses alive… because they can). They writer scores high in lack of originality and abundance of shallowness. Another paid incompetent in the journalistic trenches. Carry on, protestors. We have your back.
So what do you ACTUALLY expect to get out of this protest without a clear list of demands? Do you think every employee on Wall St. will just be like ‘you know what? i’m tired. let’s end the stock market.’?!?!?
Read this article again and realize the author agrees with the protesters fundamentally, but disagrees with the mixed message being put out to the rest of the world.
This article is ridiculous.
With all due respect, anyone who perceives this movement as occupying an “ideological vacuum” has all the journalistic chops of a 7-year-old from Vilnius dropped into the USA last Tuesday. To not understand this movement’s ideology is to look at a blue sky and say, “There’s nothing coherent there.” Just do the kids a favor and…go away.
I agree! I think most of the money people have the imagination beaten out of them. I’m 67 and was a real bastard of a radical in my day – I had a great time, and right now, I think a new generation is embarking on a great directionless adventure. I think most of the pathetic, uptight jerks worrying about making more money are most likely envious and that’s where the vitriol comes from.
I can proudly say, I’m tossing in my support and the Wall St. gang can take a piss. The kids might not beat them, but they sure as hell can give them bleeding ulcers.
I concur.
Did you ask them what their goals were? It’s not something you touch on in this article.
Shame on the Observer. This article is a disgusting exaggeration. Get a grip!
are you kidding me? This is a movement of the people! Of course the media will not vouch for it.
I believe that Occupy Wall Street’s two main goals should be: 1. requiring the indictments of the many bankers/businessmen whose “Wall St.” corruption caused this financial mess; 2. requiring Pres. Obama and Congress to start a W.P.A. program similar to that of Pres Roosevelt. I also think that, b/c we live in a multi-ethnic nation, we need a formally re-affirmation of the so-called “social contract” to assure that rich, reactionary conservatives (and the Establishment), many of whom run corporations, will be unable to hold America economically hostage, b/c they do not like the social/ethnic direction in which the nation is evolving, and thus want to weed out the problem by placing a economic stranglehold on the new middleclass, the working class, and the poor. Obama must figure out a way to recruit and train liberal, middleclass, working-class, diverse persons to become “job creators,” instead of waiting for conservative, upper-class, mainstream folks (who don’t want him in office) to create jobs; b/c those phony Neo-con scumbags aren’t going to hire a damn sole until Obama is out of office—na doy.
Sorry kids, The world is NOT watching….
I must say, I don’t know what these protests are over.
What is parroting progressive sounding buzz words is going to achieve?
The financial mess was caused by excessive subprime lending. Subprime lending was encouraged by Progressives because they thought more people should have access to homeownership. So lending practices needed more regulation, i.e. more loan applications would be denied and certain types of loans would be made illegal.
What good does it do to blame some people of greed and corruption, when they broke no laws?
At least they are doing something and realize something needs to be done to keep compulsive gamblers (investment bankers and traders) from losing everything.
When I was doing research for a BBC journalist about bank prop trading (Alpha Delta Desks), I got into High Frequency Trading (HFT – trades made at near the speed of light – millions per second) – these idiot investment bankers are are so caught up in the game, they are making up boxes of nothing, assigning a value to them, and trading boxes on nothing on the market to make pennies of each transaction.
Goldman Sachs makes $200 million a day off HFT alone.
All of them need to be tossed out on the street, or better yet in prison, but it’s probably too late.
So, RIGHT ON to those kids because they are on the right track.
ugh, keep saying it is unclear what the protestors want – I think it is pretty clear what they want – It’s really not much of a mystery – the media focus, or lack thereof, is not much of one either
The writing is horrendous, you think to yourself, how did they get the job, then you realise, ahh, of course…it’s because the way they think.
Olberman is a douchebag. I have no problem with liberals, but this guy is just so pompous!
If you want to understand the protests and their misportrails in mainstream media Dylan Ratigan has best comment on tv yet:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-r8Dxudjso
Maybe get everyone on the same page so they know what they are there for. Before you jump on the band wagon to occupy anything know your organizers. Ex Obama Czar and Communist Van Jones . maybe protest corporation bail outs instead. not the corporations that are going to hire your sorry selves.
I found it hard to watch people getting interviewed about this. Most of the people could not even articulate why they were there. before you follow know the people you are following. He is a flipping communist.
Oh and all those iphones people were tweeting on at the occupy were made by a corporation. By a visionary who employed many many people. dont buy anything because they were made by someone who worked hard.
these people are calling themselves anti-capitalists. So anyone that makes good they feel is keeping them down. some have complained about no insurance at their job. Lol they need to look at Pres Obama and thank him for all the crap. His medical plan is going to screw us all. I cant afford insurance so i will be fined for it because i am self employed. Lol the corporations fines will be cheaper than providing insurance. Also the insurance companies who are in business to make money because hello that is why people have businesses. Are not allowed to make a profit any longer so they will soon leave us. Which means loss of jobs. stupidity at its best with alot of followers who have no idea who they are following and why. Some people just want to be “seen” doing the newest trend to show they are social aware. Which is just showing they are totally unaware.
http://kleinonline.wnd.com/2011/10/02/blog-occupywall-street-update-professional-agitators-and-labor-groups-join-anti-capitalism-protests/
Yawn…..reminds me of a bunch of 8-year olds, or an old Micky Rooney/Judy Garland movie. Or the early stages of the Bolshevik revolution……and we all know how well that turned out…..
all i can say is newsspeak
Well then. How about a side of dismissive guffaw with your condescending sandwich, Ms Stoeffel?
The key to bringing down Wall Street rests in the ability to make true sacrifices such as removing your 401 k and any other such investments tied to stocks. Cut any ties to Wall Street and learn to function without the corporate world. Learn to re-establish true communities outside of the corporate culture which actually care about the infrastructure and future of our nation.
The center of capitalism, Wall Street and the basis for any human conquest comes down to one thing: MONEY. The secret to keeping the conquest ( staying on top) is controlling the masses through the media. Remember sheer masses of people cannot be stopped by only a few of the wealthy.
“To achieve victory we must mass our forces at the hub of all power and movement, the enemy’s centre of gravity.” – Carl von Clausewitz.” Effectively disabling an enemy’s center and rendering it completely useless requires a collapse from within their structure/belief system and external forces pressuring them at their front gate.”Force the Wall Streeters to fight amongst themselves. Money is their belief system. Collapse the system from within. Pulling a mass amount of stocks at once or by smaller and more decisive financial hits. Withdraw out your money from institutions which are/or support the Corporate regime.
It’s funny that these freaks constantly attack the Tea Party as they are in a way very similar; they are both very extreme. Occupy Wall Street presumably wants a heavily institutionalized society with forced redistribution of wealth a la socialism but in a more palatable form and the tea party wants the exact opposite; they want to whittle government down to it’s bare minimum.
The tea party arised over outrage over the national debt and I really have no idea what Occupy Wall Street wants because they don’t articulate really besides using vague far left criticisms that are very similar to the counter culture(i.e hippies and more like the Chicago 8) of the 60s. I think it’s just the far left exploiting discontent in America to further the goals they’ve always wanted or maybe already left-leaning individuals who are angry over having a high amount of debt and not a job.
It’s not really important because both groups are a threat albeit an extremely weak one; in that they have made no progress at all in achieving their goals. One way I think it’s good occupy wall street formed because it acts as a check against the polar extreme group, the tea party. However ultimately they are both bad news because either implementation of their goals isn’t good for the economy, general society or stability. Thankfully despite all the media coverage Occupy Wall Street is very small. They only have a few thousand members. The last major protest movement in the United States was against the Iraq war in 2003 and hundreds of thousands protested.
Shame Shame on you Mayor Boomberg. Todays actions of spraying the protestors with tear gas and pepper spray and G-d only knows what else, is unforgivable.
These Americans have every right to protest and peaceably express their opinions about todays injustices and inequalities. These young people are our children, our children’s children, our friends, and our neighbors. How dare you? How dare you.
COLEGIO RETAMAR: OPUS DEI BUNKER OF SPIRITUAL ZIONIST TERRORISM, ASSAULTS ON REASON, ADULTURY OF JUSTICE AND PROSTITUTION WITH HUMAN RIGHTS.MADRID.
The HOLY EARTHLY GENOCIDE TRINITY of the BLOODTHIRSTY ORGIES, the CULTURE of DEATH, the IDEOLOGY of LEGAL TERRORISM, the THEOLOGY of VIOLENCE, the CONCEPT of ARABOPHOBIA, the ADORATION of ISLAMOPHOIA, the DEVOTION to PALESTINOPHOBIA, The VENERATION of IMMORAL SLAVERY, the INCARNATION of ETHNIC CLEANSING, the RECRUITMENT of MERCENARIES, the ADDICTION to CRUSADES, the PERSECUTION of PAN ARABISM, the HARMFULNESS of ARAB UNITY, the IMPERTURBATION of ARABIC BROTHERHOOD, the ISENSIBILITY of CONSCIENCE, the MEDIOCRITY of FAITH, the MANDATE of MEDIEVALIZATION, the MANAGEMENT of MASS DESTRUCTION, the CIVILIZATION of BLOODSHEDDING, the WORKSHOP of EVILDOERS, the REGRESSION of the THIRD WORLD, the BLINDNESS of LOVE, the DENIAL of PEACE, the DEAFNESS of JUSTICE, the PROTECTORSHIP of ABSOLUTISM, the INDIFFERENCE of WAR CRIMES, the HOPELESSNESS of the POOR, the GRACELESSNESS of the THIRD WORLD, the MUTILATION of FREEDOM of EXPRESSION, the PERFECTIONISM of HOLOCAUSTS, the DISPLEASURE of ARABIC FREEDOM, the DISSATISFACCTION of ISLAM RISE, the PRECEPT of CHRISTIAN ZIONISM, the CREED of BUSHITLERISM, the CATECHISM of AUSCHWITZISM.
COLEGIO RETAMAR: OPUS DEI AND CHRISTIAN ZIONISM ARE TWINS, WORK IN INVISIBLE CASSOCKS. DEVOTED TO THE CULTURE OF DEATH, THE IDOLOGY OF ZIONIST LEGAL TERRORISM ANDTHE THEOLOGY OF VIOLENCE. MADRID.
CHRISTIAN ZIONISM is RACISM, FASCISM, HITERISM, BUSHITERISM, HOLOCAUSTISM, AUSCHWITZISM, HESSISM, the CULTURE of DEATH, the IDEOLOGY of LEGAL TERRORISM, the THEOLOGY of VIOLENCE, the COCEPT of IMMORAL SLAVERY, the PRECEPT of GENOCIDE, the CREED WAR CRIMES and the CATECHISM of ISLAMOPHOBIA. CHRISTIAN ZIONISM in the NAME´S of CHRIST has converted CHRISTIANITY into SATANITY and CHRIST has been turned into a WAR MAKER and PROMOTER. CHRISTIAN ZIONISM is the major THREAT for the WORLDWIDE PEACE. The PILLARS of the WORLD ORDER stand on LEGAL TERRORISM of CHRISTIAN ZIONISM, WAR CRIMES in the NAME´S of CHRIST, the ETHNIC CLEANSINGS in INVISIBLE CASSOCKS. TIMES has COME to to WAKE UP, REVOLUTIONIZE and SHOW your INDIGNATION.
I was downtown yesterday and didn’t see a single press pass. Guess bloomberg is getting what he wants.