N.J. Doc's Occupy Wall Street Involvement Ignored in AP Coverage of His Indictment

Tom Blumer
June 2nd, 2013 10:23 AM
Font Size

The indictment of Occupy Wall Street-connected Doctor Roberto Rivera on a number of charges, including "stashing large amounts of bomb-making materials at his home," apparently wasn't news anywhere until Friday afternoon at NorthJersey.com. The Associated Press's unbylined five-paragraph report (HT Legal Insurrection) appeared Saturday aftenoon.

Kibret Markos's Friday report noted the doctor's Occupy Wall Street sympathies ("Rivera also was quoted in a Bloomberg News report last year voicing his support for Occupy Wall Street protesters"). The AP, whose union was among OWS's most ardent supporters, did not. Instead, it "cleverly" misdirected by telling readers that "Prosecutors haven't said why Rivera had the items or what he planned to do with them." Evidence of those sympathies and of that involvement follow the jump.

The New York Post reported the following shortly after Rivera's arrent in November of last year (bolds are mine throughout this post):

Rivera, who is licensed to practice medicine in New York and has another home in Yonkers, was vocal in his support of the Occupy movement.

“I’m glad that at last the youth of America is able to stand on two feet and take a position that millions of people around the world have taken that they will not be intimidated by the capitalist free-market paradigm and they will fight against gross inequality in distribution of income and assets,” Rivera told Bloomberg News in October 2011.

Rivera also told the Tribeca Trib that he was a volunteer medic who walked around Zuccotti providing medical aid to those in need.

Here's how CBS New York opened its coverage of Rivera's November arraignment hearing:

He’s a doctor and a passionate supporter of the Occupy Wall Street movement, but prosecutors say the New Jersey physician was hiding something in his apartment that could have proved deadly.

Later in the report, there was a testimonial of sorts:

... His roommate said Rivera, who last practiced internal medicine at St. Vincent’s Hospital in Manhattan, was deeply involved in the Occupy Wall Street movement, volunteering his services to protesters.

“He’s a nice guy,” Rivera’s roommate said.

While investigators wouldn’t say why Rivera was stockpiling the bomb-making materials, the doctor has not been charged federally.

Now he has. Other charges noted at NorthJersey.com include:

Roberto Rivera, 60, also is charged with the criminal possession of two Cobray M11 9mm assault rifles, a stun gun and a large-capacity ammunition magazine that authorities said were found at his home.

The 11-count indictment returned Wednesday by a grand jury in Bergen County also charges Rivera with possessing two other rifles and a .40-caliber handgun despite having been prohibited from possessing firearms because he had previously been committed to an institution for a mental disorder. Prosecutors declined comment on Friday about his commitment to a hospital.

If the doctor had ever attended a Tea Party rally, the AP and the establishment press would have made sure that everyone knew it.

As I have noted on several occasions, including in October of last year in connection with Bruce Springsteen's campaigning for his reelection, President Barack Obama was an Occupy movement fan:

So were quite a few members the Democratic Party, who similarly have never retracted their support, even after murders, rapes, attempted terrorism, and other crimes, all accompanied by boorish incivility, a strange sense of entitlement, and unspeakable filth:

Occupy Wall Street's home page now tells us that "The only solution is world revolution." Well, at least they're not pretending any more.

Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.