Spread the word.

[mylittleredgirl]

I just got the news about what happened to #OccupyPortland protesters - in the city I am currently in - last night by watching video footage on Al Jazeera. I had to get news about #OccupyOakland's general strike which shut down the fifth largest port in the country and a good chunk of their entire city on Twitter. #ActualFirstWorldProblems

The headline news story reported locally? Two elementary-school kids got their Halloween candy stolen by teenagers.

The major news story reported nationally? Lindsay Lohan gets sentenced to jail for the fifth time.

I happen to strongly agree with the message of the Occupy movement and their methods, but the thing is - if this were a Tea Party movement, if these were different Americans wearing different outfits assembling and chanting things I don't agree with, I WOULD STILL WANT TO KNOW ABOUT IT. I would still be horrified at the footage of largely peaceful protesters being tear-gassed and shot at with rubber bullets again and again (because they kept returning to hold the line). I would want to get angry. I would want to get scared. I would want to have real information about what's happening so I could form educated opinions about it. I wouldn't want to think Oakland is some far-flung island nation and that sort of thing could never happen here when it is, actually, happening here.

Remember when Donald Trump was pretending to run for President, and all the networks would not shut up about it, and so suddenly the poll numbers showed that America was practically demanding that TRUMP be emblazoned on the white house? And then some actual news happened, so they stopped talking about him and within a week he was barely on the polls at all? If we hear about something, if we see a lot of people whose names and faces and logos we recognize talking about something like it's important, it gives it legitimacy. They know that. They seem to be hoping the reverse is true too - they can ignore it out of existence.

I don't know who "they" is. I don't know who's making the decision to pretend that Occupy Wall Street isn't as popular as it is, as resilient as it is, as well-organized as it is while being run by consensus. But look, you don't have to know who tripped the breaker to notice the blackout.

Occupy - a movement without a charismatic and media-friendly leader with a PR squad - has just shut down the fifth largest port in the country. Last week, police in riot gear used flash-bangs, tear-gas and rubber bullets to stop a peaceful Occupy Oakland march that happened to be led by Oakland public school teachers (edit: I got confused - the teachers leading the march with giant awesome banners was the day after, when they retook the plaza, but check out some awesome photos and on-the-ground reporting here). A veteran Marine is in a coma. I know it's no Kardashian divorce or anything, but at what point does this become news?

Just because the media isn't reporting on it doesn't mean it's not important. It doesn't mean it will go away. Ask questions. Talk to people. If your city is occupied, go check out the camp. Read the posters. Search their twitter hashtags for news, reasonable arguments on both sides, and plenty of trolls. Consider the sources, but go looking, because the news is not going to come to you.

ETA: Pretty.

Comments

[naushika.livejournal.com]

All the mainstream media outlets are joined at the hip with major corporations - and banks. That's why we don't hear anything about it.

I'm so glad to see this post. The occupy protesters have my 100% support and I fully believe in what they're doing. I'm glad the message can at least get out through the internet at least.

I wanted to go to my local occupy protest but.. I must admit to being a bit of a wuss because I was seriously afraid of action from our local police, which, here in Phoenix, are pretty much all assholes. The sheriff bought a tank for the police force. Not sure why nobody else doesn't think that is as insane as it is.

Anyway I love Al Jazeera news. BTW I dunno if you have a smartphone but Al Jazeera has a free app that streams news. I love it.

[muldy.livejournal.com]

The thing that absolutely fascinates me about Occupy[insertplacehere] is the lack of media reporting of it in the US. The fact no one really knew about it for days.

It's reported here, the OccupyMelbourne anyway, so the fact that in the US it's not being reported is actually rather scary, because that means that it is being blocked somewhere...

[ljs-lj.livejournal.com]

I can't get twitter to show me the "Pretty" picture. Do you have a link to it elsewhere?

[miera-c.livejournal.com]

The Marine, Scott Olsen, is actually out of the coma and doing well. He suffered from some speech impairment but he could communicate and was facing surgery. I've read some stories indicating his family could be facing major hospital bills, though. If there's any kind of concerted fundraiser for that I'll let you know.

The thing that made me cry hardest was the reaction of other Marines and vets to what happened to Olsen. Brigades of vets and active servicemembers on leave formed spontaneously and came to occupy protests, including the NYC one, to protect the protesters. And also this:




Two of the progressive blogs I follow have been posting daily news roundups about the Occupy movement:
http://shakespearessister.blogspot.com/
http://www.dailykos.com/

You can't get news from the news channels. MSNBC is owned by Universal, CNN is owned by Time Warner and Fox is, well, Fox. These large corporations have close ties to the banks in a lot of cases, and the people running these companies are the 1%. From their perch, everything is fine and the riff raff just need to work harder. The richest people own the corporations that own the media. They're going to ensure that the status quo gets upheld. Of course, they're all shitting in their pants because the status quo has become untenable and the rabble at the bottom of the food chain isn't being easily distracted by shiny objects anymore. When their media baubles can't divert our attention enough that's when things start to get ugly.

[joyfulfeather.livejournal.com]

Really damn well said. Can I share this post?

I'm following OccupyWallStNYC and OccupyHouston on twitter. That seems to be the best souce of information about the whole thing. I want to do something to support the movement, but I have a fear of cities so I don't like going downtown. But I think it's amazing to see that people are standing up and saying, we're not taking this. I want this to get even bigger. The media needs to figure out that this is for real. Yes, a lot of the people are hippies of various ilk, but that doesn't mean it's a bunch of irrational slackers. There are a *lot* of people unhappy with the way things are right now. I hope some kind of change comes of this in the end.

[in-parentheses.livejournal.com]

This morning on NPR they played Mitt Romney talking about "the 99%" and "the 1%." You guys, we have fucking shaped the language of the debate. Seriously, I don't remember the last time anyone I agreed with did that. I was very sniffly at 6 a.m.