Has the Occupy media coverage changed your feelings about the movement?Michael Malone of Broadcasting and Cable thinks public sentiment has turned negative. It's a reasonable conclusion.
I think it depends on where you live. I still believe the movement has the backing of most urban citizens, particularly the Bay Area, NY, Boston, and other large cities.
But I also recognize a sea change. I think repeated TV news footage of encampments being torn down and protesters told to leave has some past sympathizers more or less feeling, "hey, let's move on."
Then again, the pepper spray incident last Friday at UC Davis has reinvigorated the story--or has it?
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Hasn't changed mine. It validated it,as I was the first-and only- 415RLmedia poster to bring up the police state we live in and police brutality amok. Davis was near another Kent State. I also have NO admiration for any campus police that I learned long ago are right wing anti student,and anti employee unions(Penn State is more of campus police think) You see in Texas police are ticketing people who honk in support of occupiers?...people who think police are republicans are right on target. The Davis officer just flaunted his breaking the law with a poison-and not one single other officer stood up for good. NOT ONE!..same as for Oakland.
ReplyDeleteThe fact its a world wide phenomena with occupiers should tell the public something is in the air..and thats change.
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Does anyone care what Michael Malone (a millionaire many times over) thinks or has to say about anything? I know I don't.
ReplyDeleteBTW- I've noticed that the people who seem to be most upset at OWS- Oakland / Davis / S.F. etc. . are (1) paycheck-to-paycheck, broke-ass ignorant right wing redneck types who are screwed over the most by Wall Street's invisible hand of the marketplace, or (2) 1%ers or people approaching the 1% strata.
I hate the Occupy people. They are entitled spoiled brats who expect everything to be handed to them on a silver platter. Get a job and take a bath. Stop taking over my park, stop wasting my city's resources. You guys need to get a life.
ReplyDeleteI think there's a lot wrong with the economy here and around the world, but I'm not sure anything gets solved by letting the "we hate everything about the U.S. except its freedoms" crowd congregate and create disease and filth and hurt the low-wage hourly workers they profess to be helping.
ReplyDeleteWhat most Occupiers fail to understand -- which is natural as they don't seem to understand anything which is inconvenient to their own interests -- is the small coffee shops, lunch places, and other small merchants in downtown Oakland and elsewhere, are run by assistant managers and hourly workers without health insurance or other benefits who lose shifts when customers go elsewhere. A lot of these workers are living right on the edge and because I'm busy wasting money on things like rent and food. I know because I'm one of them.
Even banks -- the bane of Occupiers -- are largely staffed by part-timers. Most tellers and even some junior bankers are not full-timers. So when you target a bank branch, you're hurting them too.
The real problem is the original message (that high finance is corrupt and morally bankrupt) is being lost because the Occupiers got occupied, not just by the "anti-[fill-in-the-blanks 60s burnouts] but by the news media looking to fill time. Marshall McLuhan would have explained it better than me, but when I look at the coverage and I see filthy wretches who I'd seen before whenever someone wants to cut down a diseased tree, I shut down. They're not me and they don't speak for me.
Yes, I use to think some of them were morons. Now I think they all are morons. Creating chaos and inconvenience for people will not win the heart's of those individuals and bring them to your point of view. Have you noticed that the news is really no longer about the issues but about the protesters and what a bunch of fools they have become the mess they leave behind. Start protesting in front of the Capitol or the White House. who do you think is in the back pocket of Wall Street.Change we can believe in, yeah how's that all working out along with all that transparency.
ReplyDeleteOh and BTW - I am neither 1 or 2 of the examples given earlier on who is upset with the OWS people. I guess you need a third example.
Lefty garbage. Bye Occupy Wall Street scum.
ReplyDelete12:41 is on target with smaller businesses taking a hit. Now the bills for overtime police are adding to the problem.
ReplyDeleteI'm sympathetic to OWS up to the point where destruction is done. I think that OWS is at a crossroads now where they have to "Evolve or Die", basically. Their original message has been co-opted by the bad elements and they now need to rethink their goals and organize politically. Some don't want to do that and then the movement then ceases to get anything done. I'm no fan of the Tea Party people but they organized and moved forward with their agenda. When it comes to organizing politically, the conservatives always seem to have their shit together.
There are some news outlets and talk show media pundits who were already going to spin a negative light on OWS but the movement is risking losing that average joe worker as well. Public perception by the ordinary worker IS important for public support for getting any change they want to see done. The average worker can relate to the financial hardships but too much of a, yes, radical left hippy vibe, and the average guy can't relate.
I've never been a Protest and March guy, preferring to channel my time and energies in different directions. Yeah, the economy sucks all over. But at some point, rather than just complaining about it, one has to work within the system to change it or suck it up and work harder to build things up rather than always complaining.
OWS needs to now work Smarter, not Louder.
Too much time give to this "movement". I thought there was only one type of a movement!!
ReplyDeleteThis is absurd use of the radio & television time. The media has stooped to a new low to devote as much time to this absurd behavior.
I spent a couple of hours wandering through Oakland a two weeks ago and I found most seemed to be either homeless, recently released prisoners, young students (or non-students) and a cast of ne'er-do-wells (generally defined as "an improvident, irresponsible, or lazy person"). I think that's a real good definition.
One of the things that surprised me, is that most of the "occupy 'residents' " didn't stay in their tents overnight!!
I specifically inquired of that since a report showed that in London, a flyover by a helicopter heat sensing equipment found that 90% of the tents were empty overnght.
So, a big part of this a big sharade that the media has bought into. Add the filth, violence, drugs, free-loading and closing of small businesses ... who could approve of this?
It's a big joke and the media has fallen for it.
Police are just doing their job. What are they supposed to do when campers won't move after repteadly being asked? Any use of force at all is called police abuse. Do the people who refuse to move when asked repeatedly share any responsibility at all for the confrontations? Any honest not overly-partisan person would say "yes."
ReplyDelete...and by the way these campus or occupy camps do nothing to inconvenience the fat cat Wall street types.
Once the Occupy movement became less about Wall Street and more about resisting police and spurring a confrontation for the TV cameras it jumped the rails.
ReplyDeletePerhaps that's the nature of things though - you've got to give the TV people something new to aim their cameras at or they'll leave. And a protest without press coverage doesn't make a sound.
Only 60's retreads and their younger fellow travelers support these losers.
ReplyDeleteThe bill for all the citys so far? 13 million. What we spend fighting in Iraq for a couple of hours. I dont even have to bring up the trillions looted by the rich DO I?. How about that the rich paid 90% on their taxes in 62? America had great prosperity. Now? they pay 14%. Dont talk money and cost to me for what the true patriots are doing in the parks.
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Police just doing there jobs? HEY Rich,maybe you could post the Youtube of the O Reily factor and Monica Crowly calling the pepper spray only "A food product"!!!
ReplyDeletePepper spray is banned in every civilized country as a chemical weapon. Except ours.
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Many people seem to miss the point about the Occupy movement. Yes there are plenty of homeless folks and 'anarchists' in the camps, and yes, there are plenty of annoying, irrational folks who are being
ReplyDeletehighlighted by the media on a daily basis.
But there are also a lot of angry, unemployed people out there who feel their dreams have been hijacked and that they have no voice.
The Occupy movement is organic, and has many participants from many parts of society, much as the Civil Rights, the Environmental movement, and the Gay Liberation movements back in their days.
If the Occupy movement is so shabby and lost, why are there literally hundreds of web sites that are being used and have recently started up
that post news and opinion about t he activities?
Americans also need to go back and read their history books.
We are so caught up in the 'here and now' that we don't seem to realize that in many respects, what is happening to this country is also what
happened in the 1880s and 90s, and the 1920s, when "'the business of America was business, " and Robber Barons ruled supreme.
By the way... Where in our US Constitution or Bill of Rights is there any mention of of capitalism and free enterprise? Yet, we've created a system of free enterprise in this country that is unfortunately too liberal (now isn't that ironic) when it comes to keeping track of what has been going on. Many businesses can still do pretty much whatever they want to, as long as they have deep pockets and plenty of well-connected legal representation.
Wrong doers, cheats, and thieves have managed to hide behind their high priced legal guns, and the Supreme Court has made a bad situation worse by allowing out American
corporations to be classified as individuals. This allows them to subvert the process we use to elect leaders and they can spend in untrammeled fashion, any amount of money they want anonymously
as they wish on a political candidate of their choice without having to
try and elect a candidate who will favor their practices.
Eventually, the criminals who have hijacked much of our free enterprise system and given businessmen and businesswomen a bad name (which most don't deserve) will be rooted out and some will be brought to justice, but it will take a long time. Patience is the key but good things take time and this country still has hope! After all, this country is 225 years old and is still pretty much the best place to live in the world!