Thom Hartmann Says Broadcasting 'Dumb' Quotes From Wall Street Protesters is 'Media Crime'

October 5th, 2011 8:37 PM

And if you laughed at those remarks, you're a criminal too. Or at the very least, a thought criminal. Yes, you.

Liberal radio host Thom Hartmann is peeved that media outlets such as Fox News and CNN are covering the so-called Occupy Wall Street movement and allegedly interviewing only the most "politically unsophisticated" protesters, after searching all of nanoseconds to find them. (audio after page break)

Here's Hartmann complaining about this on his radio show yesterday after opening a segment with the all-too-apropo "Take the Money and Run" from paleo-rocker Steve Miller (audio) --

You know, this to me is like about as grass roots and about as genuine a populist revolution as you can get. I think it's just absolutely great what is going on out in the streets, what's going on in Washington, D.C., what's going on in New York, and what's going on here. (Hartmann broadcasting from the Take Back the American Dream conference in Washington). There's the absolute outside game, people who are just showing up, may not even be politically aware. They're in fact, in fact, Fox News has made a sport of, and now CNN as well, of going down to the, to the, Erin Burnett with her new show, going down to the, to the Occupy Wall Street group and finding people who are politically unsophisticated and asking them simple questions, getting dumb answers, and then portraying the whole movement as stupid. That, in my opinion, that's a media crime.

Got that? If Fox, CNN, etc., don't cover the Wall Street haters, they're ignoring them and what could be a significant story. But if they do cover them and let the protesters have their say, even those without advanced degrees, the reporters doing this are criminals.

Spoken like a true would-be judge at a show trial.