Jon Stewart On The MSM's Dreadful Coverage of Occupy

Oct 7th, 2011

It really is this bad...

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
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It's Not News Because It's Happening Here

Oct 3rd, 2011

UK journalist Tony Gosling speaks to RT on the continuing dismissal of the Occupy movement by the mainstream broadcast media.

"Outside Approved Channels"

Sept 28th, 2011

If a handful of Tea Party activists, with marching orders from a manufacturing and petrol conglomerate, show up almost anywhere, anytime and carry American flags made in China... well, by golly, that's "news." But, when more than 7,000 citizens without pre-printed talking points gather to protest systemized corruption and inequality in the heart of the most important financial district on the face of the Earth?

cue crickets...

For the most part, American news outlets have taken two approaches to the Occupy Wall Street action; disrespectfully dismissive reports or none. It is ridiculous. It was also thoroughly predictable.

Glenn Greenwald puts it succinctly:

"It's unsurprising that establishment media outlets have been condescending, dismissive andscornful of the ongoing protests on Wall Street. Any entity that declares itself an adversary of prevailing institutional power is going to be viewed with hostility by establishment-serving institutions and their loyalists. That's just the nature of protests that take place outside approved channels, an inevitable by-product of disruptive dissent: those who are most vested in safeguarding and legitimizing establishment prerogatives (which, by definition, includes establishment media outlets) are going to be hostile to those challenges. As the virtually universal disdain in these same circles for WikiLeaks (and, before that, for the Iraq War protests) demonstrated: the more effectively adversarial it is, the more establishment hostility it's going to provoke."

Whatever structural critiques can be made about the movement, an area where Greenwald and I don't see things eye to eye, the broad refusal to objectively report on the events in lower Manhattan is a betrayal of the most basic principles of journalism.

Olbermann On The MSM Blackout Of #OccupyWallStreet

Sept21st, 2011

Chicago Rally For Wisconsin Update

Feb 28th, 2011
by F. Grey Parker
ClICK HERE to view our coverage from the rally on Saturday

Photo copyright © 2011Nicole Zimmerer

The relative broadcast media blackout of coverage for the largest nationwide pro-labor rally in America in a generation is but the beginning of the marginalization of it's importance. 


What print/interweb coverage has been disseminated over the last 48 hours is alarming for different reasons.

Prior to this weekend's rally outside the State of Illinois Building, we contacted the city and inquired about access to the building's upper floors. We were told the building would not be open for reasons of security and liability. Our interest in access was to make as accurate an assessment of crowd size as possible with an aerial view. In the last 48 hours, numbers have been reported as low as "several hundred" by the Chicago Tribune going up to "850 to 900" as reported in the LA Times.

As is always the case with political demonstrations, there is some argument over attendance. Several angry Walker supporters have e-mailed us to complain about our numbers. Allow me to explain our estimate of "several thousand." The width of the crowd both in front and in back was between 70 to 80 persons. The length of the crowd on either side was between 60 and 70 persons. The crowd was dense enough to make movement throughout it quite difficult. I counted these numbers myself repeatedly from 12:15 pm to 12:45 pm. Let us for moment suppose that my lowest figures were double the actual size; that would still give us a crowd of over 2000.


Of course, this may be the first you've heard of any of this. That "liberal media bias" sure is hard to find lately.