Eviction Time In Augusta, Philly and LA, The Media Axiom, The Fight Is On In Cairo

November 28th, 2011 - by: danny

Breaking from OccupyWallStreet.org: Occupiers have refused to leave Occupy LA, and the police are currently enclosing. Thousands have arrived to defend Solidarity Park, forming human chains. Watch it live on this site or here.

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‘
One By One, the Occupations Are Bring Rolled Back

OccupyWallStreet.org reports:

See: occupyphiladelphia at livestream.com

Despite having sent a letter of appeal to City Hall, Occupy Philadelphia is facing imminent eviction:

[Mayor] Nutter has joined the chorus of Mayors nationwide to silence and render invisible this movement against Wall Street greed. The City told us to leave City Hall with all of our belongings by 5pm today. At 5pm let’s show them how much support this movement has. Come to City Hall and stand with the 99%! Chances are police will not move in at that time. The City will probably unleash them in the middle of the night to start ripping down tents and displacing the homeless.

Earlier: Occupy LA Prepares for Eviction

The mayor of Los Angeles, Antonio Villaraigosa, has ordered Occupy LA to pack up and leave Solidarity Park (formerly City Hall Park) by 12:01AM tonight or face arrest. Villaraigosa – who initially claimed to support the Occupation and has lauded OWS for “awakening the country’s conscience” – is now citing “public health and safety” as justification to evict the encampment, even as LA police chief Charlie Beck refused to reject the use of tear gas and rubber bullets against nonviolent protestors.

As Villaraigosa held a press conference announcing the park would be closed indefinitely after eviction, Occupy LA held a counter press conference outside City Hall. Meanwhile inside, Occupy LA delivered part of its General Assembly’s response, including their so-far unmet grievances:

As a collective, Occupy Los Angeles would like to express their rejection of the City of Los Angeles’ alleged proposal that we leave City Hall by November 28th, 2011, in exchange for an apparently now rescinded offer of a 10,000 square foot building, farmland and 100 SRO beds for the homeless. . . .

We the people have peaceably assembled in public space seeking at minimum a full of redress of grievance for the government’s criminal mistreatment of the people and fraudulent application of judiciary responsibilities, in large part for the interest of exploitative corporations and weaponized banks.

•Slate: As Eviction Nears, Protesters Say They Will Stay

‘Dissector Essay: Occupy Wall Street is All Over The Media: But for How Long?

This is the first in what we hope will be a series of Mediachannel1 reports exploring the media and the Occupy Movement. Share yours with dissector@mediachannel.org

One of the oldest patterns of media coverage can be summed up this way:

First, they ignore you. Then, they ridicule you. Then, they realize you are a story and fall in love. So they build you up at first but then. all at once, tear you down

You may not have changed, but they have, addicted as they are to keep coming up with shifting story lines, more to fight their own boredom and fear of tune out, than the validity or importance of the topic.

In the same way, that political sound bites went from nearly thirty seconds to five, or that MTV style editing soon invaded the newsrooms with quick cutting and razzle-dazzle effects, to “cover news” while making it difficult to concentrate on, much less comprehend the fast paced presentation techniques.

When asked by researchers, audiences could barely tell you what they had just seen, much less what it means.

We saw this in Iraq, when during the invasion, it was war all the time, literally around the close but when you looked closely, it wasn’t about Iraq or Iraqis, its was about a narrative of US slaying the bad guys, cowboys versus Indians, Good guys versus bad guys. There was no other news, but what there was AAU—All about US.

Now, with Occupy Wall Street, the pattern is similar. The issues largely don’t exist—if they require any explanation or analysis. Knowledge about Wall Street and the economy is assumed.

Conflict drives the news.

There was little reporting on the occupation when it started. It was only after the cops began pepper spraying or mass protest that the media arrived en masse. They had adversaries. That, they could understand.

Soon, they flocked to Zuccotti Park like blue birds. When one landed, they all landed. The TV trucks were everywhere especially at 6 and 11 pm. so that local reporters could do silly live stand-ups and show off colorful characters to reinforce the narrative that the protesters were just having fun, and no serious ideas.

Many of these “frontline” reporters couldn’t tell you the difference between a derivative and a donut, but that didn’t matter because what does matter is face time, airtime, visibility.

First the international press recognized that this movement was important. The Park became a mini United Nations with crews from BBC, Al Jazeera, Xinhua News Agency, Russia Today, Press TV.

When they took it seriously, the press began to do the same, and then American TV got into the act once it was realized that this was a national, even a global story

Occupy Wall Street soon had a press desk trying to help reporters who often showed up with preconceived story lines demanded by their editors. Soon the stories about sex, drugs and drumming—no rock and roll yet—were everywhere as they turned over rocks and looked for the homeless and the harassers.

When one station did a the Park is a “Walmart for Rats,” story, City Hall saw an opening and harping on cleanliness (Which has always been next to godliness.)

Most activists were happy to be interview but few every watched how the stories were edited: what was covered and what was not.

That’s also because many of the occupiers hate television and what it has become. They don’t read ponderous editorials or inflammatory headlines.

They do read and create social media—Twitter, Facebook, and You Tube etc.

The advantage is that they are then exposed to their truths and the news they believe they need to makes a difference.

Its news for the community, not the country! The disadvantage is they often are not reaching out to millions of Americans who won’t join the movement because it’s cool. The 99% needs to be educated and inspired—but, alas, they rely on the papers and cable news that is least sympathetic to the movement,

You have to use media if you want to occupy the mainstream—and build a larger movement as opposed to being depicted as a tribal subculture of misfits and the angry,

I would suspect that the media has not met with or tried to persuade editorial boards or newsroom execs, They tend to react more to what they are saying than to act more proactively with their own media campaigns to shape a message that gets disseminated widely.

As the movement moves on, messages have to change and target specific communities. That may be coming, but not quickly enough.

Already some big media outlets like The Washington Post, the paper still living off its Watergate reputation even as it finds few wars it won’t support, is saying Occupy Wall Street is “Over.”

You can bet they want it to be over because their focus on politics starts with the top—The White House and specializes in inside the beltway stories. For years, black people in Washington –the majority–have complained that they are largely ignored by their own home town newspaper.

Post editors are proud and cloistered 1 percenters who love to cover social movements of the past, not the present.

I once looked at how the Post covered the March on Washington back in l963. The story line was how violence was averted. MLK’s “ I Have A Dream” speech was barely news. The march’s focus they on the need for jobs were downplayed then just as Occupy Wall Streets economic critique is downplayed today.

The Movement is being challenged by Mayors—armed with the latest “non-lethal” toys—and coordinated by the Feds (a story few media outlets have investigated) who want to shut down the encampments.

Yes, it’s wrong and unconstitutional and unfair, but is this a battle they can win? Yes, many can go to jail but what message does that send?

Occupy Wall Street is not about camping, its about crusading for justice.

Even Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal (Not the Occupied version) is praising the protests. “This Thanksgiving weekend, Wall Street should say a prayer of gratitude for Occupy Wall Street. While some bankers and brokers have sympathized with or supported this ragtag protest movement, others grouse that they are being demonized.

But compared with financiers of the past, who faced nasty rhetoric, political hostility and physical danger, today’s bankers and brokers seem like a bunch of babies when they whine about being targeted by these dissidents.”

The “Occupy” rhetoric might sound overheated, but it is golden praise alongside what bankers used to hear.”

At least some in the l% is hearing the message.

It’s the 99% that the movement should aim at with actions and media that shows they are on their side and find more creative forms of outreach and organizing to turn a community of activists into a mass movement with demands that the people can resonate with and find ways of supporting.

Media hype can help but its no substitute for ;less glamorous organizing. In the end, that will be the test of whether the movement is “over” or over the top. Comments to dissector@mediachannel.org

Occupy News

Huff Po: : Cities Spend Cash To Evict Protestors While Ignoring The Homeless

•Student Goes Missing, found at Occupy

RSN: “Egyptian security forces are believed to be using a powerful incapacitating gas against civilian protesters in Tahrir Square following multiple cases of unconsciousness and epileptic-like convulsions among those exposed.”

Change takes Time

Filmmaker Jehane Noujaim has been working in Tahrir Square protests for 10 months for a film about Egypt’s revolution. She admitted in the interview that the process was slow.

“These changes take time,” she said, “and I don’t want to put this gigantic blame on the poor kids in the police or the poor kids in the army.”

•Arab League Sanctions Syria

•Wadah Kanfer, Ex-AlJazeera Chief on Rise Of Political Islam (Guardian)

•Mohamad A.El-Erian, Egyptians Will Not Settle For Half-Revolution

•England Preparing for Mass Strike: The November 30 Strike: Will Britain Shut down?

As the long, mild autumn turns into a cold, harsh
winter, it’s not just the frost that’s biting.

Cuts to public spending and a deepening crisis in the
Eurozone have as good as frozen Britain’s economic
growth.

Unemployment is at 2.62 million, with over a million of
those being young people. Inflation is 5 per cent, more
than double the government’s 2 per cent target.

Relations between government and unions are chillier
than ever – and set to reach a bitter head.

On Wednesday, November 30, millions of public sector
workers across Britain will walk out of their jobs on
what’s billed as a “Day of Action”.

London Mobilzing for Major March To Save The National Health Service

With even The Daily Telegraph admitting that the NHS is still “among
best health care systems in the world”, and in the wake of revelations
that Andrew Lansley twice broke Freedom of Information law to suppress
publication of his own assessments of the threat posed by his NHS
reforms, the 38 Degrees petition to protect the NHS currently stands a
little short of one half million signatures. If you’ve not signed
already, please do so now, please also sign the new NHS petition
created by Dr Kailash Chand, OBE, and send these links to all your
colleagues, work-mates, family and friends…

http://www.38degrees.org.uk/page/s/Protect_our_NHS_Petition

http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/22670

Zero Hedge:_ Britain’s Foreign Office Prepares For Riots In Europe:
Sees Euro Collapse “When, Not If”

Financial Times: How Iceland Survived Economic Meltdown

Other News

M&G: ‘Last-ditch’ UN climate talks kick off at COP17 in Durban

UN talks to save the Kyoto Protocol begin today in Durban, aimed at cutting emissions blamed for rising sea levels, intense storms and crop failures.

Daily Mail: 5 Billion Bailout For Spain

FT: Europe’s banks feel funding freeze

The funding hole for European banks is deepening following a sharp fall in bond issuance this year as market turmoil leads to a region-wide credit crunch. European banks have sold $413bn worth of bonds this year, equivalent to just two-thirds of the $654bn that is due to be returned to investors in 2011 as the debts mature, according to data compiled for the Financial Times.

WP: Dems Raising Record Amounts of Money

Democratic leaders raising money to be spent on the most competitive House races in next year’s elections are doing something remarkable: outraising their Republican counterparts, despite a historic drubbing a year ago that left Democrats in the minority.

House Democrats have raised $52.1 million to the Republicans’ $48.7 million. The difference is small, but it’s significant given that no minority party has been able to get such an edge in fundraising since the 1994 election cycle.

How Americans Regard Congress: Houses of Pain:

•Black Friday Sales Set http://fluentnews.com/s/27258850″>Record,But No one is talking about usual high rate of returns

•Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker Campaigning To Keep Job

More Americans Support Communism than Approve of Congress

NPR’s All Things Considered featured a story on Friday [1]regarding growing discontent in the US over Congress and lawmakers’ sentiments on political problems in America. In October, a CBS News/New York Times poll showed that Congress’ approval rating had sunk to 9 percent, an all-time low. It appears that the vast majority of Americans do not approve of Congress as we hobble towards the 2012 elections.

Financial Times: How Iceland Survived Economic Meltdown

Media

Business Recorder: Al Jazeera, the high-profile Middle Eastern broadcaster, could launch an initial public offering as early as next year as the Qatar government looks to offload stakes in state-owned entities, a senior executive at the country’s bourse said.

“Al Jazeera would like to list next year subject to regulatory approvals and market conditions,” Olivier Gueris, chief operating officer at Qatar Exchange, told Reuters in an interview on the sidelines of a conference in Dubai.”They (Al Jazeera) have a strong desire to go for an IPO and list the company at Qatar Exchange.

But due to some regulatory requirements with the Ministry of Business and Trade and the Qatar Central Bank it may be next year.”

Al Jazeera was not immediately available for comment.

EJC: Wikileaks Receives Journalism Award in Australia

WikiLeaks has been recognized in Australia for its “outstanding contribution to journalism”, with founder Julian Assange lashing out at “cowardly” Prime Minister Julia Gillard in an acceptance speech. The anti-secrecy website was lauded at the annual Walkley Awards, where winners are chosen by an independent panel of journalists and photographers, for its courageous reporting of secret US cables.

That’s my blog for today. Please pass it on to friends. Comments to Dissector@mediachannel.org

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