Wall Street protests

One Aspect of Springsteen's Obama Campaign Involvement Which Will Likely Be Ignored: His (and Obama's) Occupy Endorsements
By Tom Blumer | October 15, 2012 | 8:35 PM EDT

The Left and the establishment press (but I repeat myself) are taking heart in the fact that Bruce Springsteen has agreed to campaign for Barack Obama in Ohio and Iowa later this week.

The campaign of Mitt Romney, and Republicans in general, are the ones who should be cheered by this development for two reasons. One of them, which is being reported, is that Springsteen said earlier this year that he wouldn't be campaigning; the fact that he has changed his mind proves that Team Obama is genuinely worried about their boss's reelection prospects. The second isn't as well-known, but should be. "The Boss" (i.e., Springsteen) went all-in with the Occupy movement earlier this year, essentially ratifying our incumbent president's endorsement. Springsteen's stance was described in several places in February, including at the Gothamist:

Few Show Up for Occupier Anniversary, But WashPost Pretends It's Significant
By Tim Graham | October 2, 2012 | 7:22 AM EDT

The Washington Post proved on Tuesday that it will promote “Occupy DC” protests as real “news events” no matter how poor the turnout. “About 50 protesters took to the streets waving signs, chanting and singing,” wrote the Post’s Annie Gowen. “They were trailed by a large cadre of D.C. police, in vans, on foot and on Segways, who obligingly shut down streets for them.”

And the Post obligingly awarded the protest with three splashy color photos, two on the front page of Metro, and a large 5-by-8-inch photo on the section’s back page. The paper's headline was “Occupy D.C. plans to stage its Act 2.” And it didn’t matter if this “stage” is sparsely attended, and only 30 people show up for events: 

AP Report on 'Occupy' Anniversary Wallows in Nostalgia, Ignores Blockade Plan, Obama's 2011 Endorsement
By Tom Blumer | September 22, 2012 | 9:54 AM EDT

Gosh, those were the good old days. Or so Meghan Barr at the Associated Press apparently believes.

As what's left of the Occupy Wall Street mobs from last year staged a pathetic anniversary protest in New York on Monday, Barr, in one of the most embarrassing reports I've seen emanate from the self-described "essential global news network," described them as "celebrating" and "giddy." At the end, in a desperate attempt to show that the movement actually accomplished something, Barr cited vague and I believe completely unrelated statements from two banks about "working with their customers." For those with strong stomachs, the first five and final paragraphs of Barr's beclowning follow the jump.

NYTimes' Laudatory Occupy Wall Street Anniversary Coverage Vindicates Public Editor's Concerns
By Clay Waters | September 18, 2012 | 9:18 AM EDT

The New York Times celebrated the one year anniversary of the Occupy Wall Street encampment in Zuccotti Park near Wall Street in a fashion that vindicates former Public Editor Arthur Brisbane's concern that the paper celebrates left-wing movements like Occupy "more like causes than news subjects."

First was Sunday's "Dear Bankers: Thanks for Wrecking Our Lives..." by Mark Greif, the founding editor of n+1 magazine and editor of “The Trouble Is the Banks: Letters to Wall Street." His article in the Times featured illustrations by Mike McQuade of letters written to the big bad banks. Greif introduced the letters:

NPR Marks Occupy Wall Street Anniversary, Even As Occupiers Admit It Was a Failed 'Political Woodstock'
By Tim Graham | September 15, 2012 | 9:48 AM EDT

On Thursday’s All Things Considered, NPR anchor Melissa Block announced it was time to mark the anniversary of Occupy Wall Street protests. “One year later, the tent camps are gone. So what's happened to the movement and the people who joined it?” Question: If it failed utterly, why celebrate the anniversary?

For "reflections" on the state of this amorphous radical movement, Block interviewed two Occupiers NPR had previously interviewed when the protests were most heavily celebrated by the media. She had no conservative questions (or critical guests). At least, Occupy Boston activist Jason Potteiger has a sense of humor about it, telling NPR it was a failed political Woodstock:

Reuters Notes Anniversary of 'Failed' OWS Born With Extreme MSM Hype
By P.J. Gladnick | September 15, 2012 | 8:55 AM EDT

Reuters has noted the one year anniversary coming this Monday of the Coffee Party, oops, I mean Occupy Wall Street. I can be forgiven for the error since both proved to be as big a flop as Joe Scarborough's No Labels. All of these failed movements had one other thing in common: they were given a boost at birth with extreme media hype. However, first the anniversary/obituary from Reuters:

(Reuters) - Occupy Wall Street marks its first anniversary on Monday, and, in a bid to rejuvenate a movement that has failed to sustain momentum after sparking a national conversation about economic inequality last fall, activists plan once again to descend on New York's financial district.

WashPost Promotes Photo Exhibit Glorifying Occupy Wall Street 'Emotional Impact'
By Tim Graham | September 3, 2012 | 2:20 PM EDT

The Weekend Pass section of the Washington Post’s Express free tabloid on Thursday promoted a photography exhibit glorifying Occupy Wall Street. Over a full-page photo of Occupiers climbing the statue in McPherson Square was the headline “Picturing Protest: The Occupy movement’s early days come into focus with an exhibit of photos at American University.”

The Post’s Katie Auerbach explained the exhibit features photos blown up to near-life-size proportions for their “emotional impact.” The exhibit’s curator Allison Nordstrom insisted “We picked them for a level of drama and the way the pictures created a feeling. As you move through the exhibition, our hope is that you end up feeling like you’re a part of it.” 

Soledad O'Brien Challenges Tea Party's Christine O'Donnell for Calling Obama a Marxist
By Noel Sheppard | August 20, 2012 | 9:52 AM EDT

CNN's Soledad O'Brien just isn't comfortable with anyone criticizing Barack Obama.

On Monday's Starting Point, the host seriously challenged her Tea Party guest, former Republican senatorial candidate Christine O'Donnell, when she had the nerve to say the President's policies were Marxist (video follows with transcript and commentary):

New York Times London Reporter Alan Cowell's Obsession With 'Capitalist Greed'
By Clay Waters | August 14, 2012 | 2:13 PM EDT

A Tuesday story from London-based New York Times reporter Alan Cowell on London's successful staging of the 2012 Olympics had this aside blaming last year's riots on societal "greed."

The Games took place almost exactly a year after riots and looting spread from London to other British cities, shocking the country with a vision of a society whose greed had produced an underclass fueled by violence, envy and alienation.

'Occupy Unmasked' Blazing Trail for Conservative Films
By Christian Toto | August 7, 2012 | 11:32 PM EDT

The upcoming documentary "Occupy Unmasked" is getting the kind of promotional push too rarely received by right-of-center films.

The movie, directed by Steve Bannon and featuring the late Andrew Breitbart, tells the story of the chaotic, destructive Occupy Wall Street movement. The message hardly fits the standard theatrical template, which routinely sides with or sympathizes with the bedraggled protesters seeking their "fair" share of the one percent's cash.

AP Report on Guilty Plea in Cleveland Bombing Plot Grudgingly Notes, Then Downplays Occupy Movement Connection
By Tom Blumer | July 26, 2012 | 8:25 AM EDT

On May 2, Matt Sheffield at NewsBusters ran down a list of national media outlets which failed to report the Occupy movement connections of the five men arrested by the FBI for plotting to blow up a suburban Cleveland bridge, despite the fact that the Cleveland Plain Dealer began noting those relationships from the get-go.

Matt wrote that the Associated Press recognized the connections, but watered it all down by "letting an Occupy Cleveland spokesman's claim the men 'weren't affiliated with or representing the group' go unchallenged." Yesterday, after one of the five arrested entered a guilty plea to avoid a probable life sentence, an unbylined AP report waited until the final of 13 paragraphs to even mention Occupy, and then proceeded to engage in the same dishonest downplaying -- even though evidence revealed a few days after Matt's post proved an undeniable, high-level relationship (bolds are mine; HT Instapundit):

Occupy Movement All Over the Sunday New York Times, from Three-Kid Summer Camp to Police at the Pool
By Clay Waters | July 16, 2012 | 3:38 PM EDT

It was all Occupy Wall Street all the time in Sunday's New York Times, with no less than four favorable references to the left-wing sit-in scattered throughout the paper. The Tea Party movement certainly hasn't permeated the pages of the Times in such friendly fashion.

Meanwhile, the paper continues to downplay or ignore violence committed by the Occupy movement. The Times did not cover the riot by Occupy LA the night of July 12, where four officers were injured and 17 protesters arrested after protesters tried to transform a monthly "Artwalk" event into a "Chalk Walk" protest and begin hurling rocks and bottles at police officers in riot gear.