Did you see all the major headlines or national news stories about the amazing happenings with the OccupyWallStreet movement? Neither did I.
Here a few of the happenings that have at least been mentioned, although not really covered in detail:
- A police captain walked up to a young woman and sprayed in her in the face with pepper spray for no reason. A few minutes later he did the same thing to another group.
- Despite the peaceful actions of the demonstrators, there have been hundreds of arrests. Over 1,000 protesters were detained during a take-over of the Brooklyn Bridge on Saturday, October 1.
- The New York demonstration is now in its 3rd week and still going strong—and it’s spreading to Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Seattle…
You might think the media would cover one of the largest and longest protests in decades, even if they’re not quite sure what it means. You might think they’d at least go for the easy story about police brutality and intimidation of free speech, but they’ve been staying away from this one. (I guess we shouldn’t be too surprised when the mainstream media gives only minimal coverage to a movement that challenges media owners, partners, and advertisers.)
I think it’s reached the point, though, where the media will be forced to do more—but normal coverage won’t really work with this movement. Can they figure out how to understand and report a leaderless movement that makes decisions by consensus, a movement that connects the dots and refuses to be simplified to a sound bite?
Speaking of sound bites, there are a couple of cute signs that could betaken as ‘sound bites’—this way risks oversimplifying the movement, but they can serve as food for thought. Here’s a sample :
- ‘We are the 99%’
- ‘Robin Hood Was Right’
- ‘The power of the people is stronger than the people in power’
- ‘When injustice becomes the law, resistance becomes duty.’ (Thomas Jefferson)
Another had an excerpt from the 1970 album by poet & musician Gil Scott-Heron:
You will not be able to stay home, brother.
You will not be able to plug in, turn on and cop out.
You will not be able to lose yourself on skag and
Skip out for beer during commercials,
Because the revolution will not be televised.The revolution will not be televised.
The revolution will not be brought to you by Xerox
In 4 parts without commercial interruptions.
.…
There will be no pictures of pigs shooting down brothers in the instant replay
.…
No, the revolution will not be televisedHear the original at <www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGaRtqrlGy8>