Here’s how Nathan Schneider of Democracy Now! responded when police violence — and the documenting of it by amateur videographers — finally forced some mainstream publications to stop pretending Occupy Wall Street isn’t happening:
In an article that recounts as many gory details as will fit, the [New York] Daily News devotes only two short paragraphs to what the protest is actually about and what protesters have been doing all this time: “attempting to draw attention to what they believe is a dysfunctional economic system that unfairly benefits corporations and the mega-rich.” True, but too little. The real story for the Daily News, it seems, is not this unusual kind of protest, or the political situation which it opposes, but the chance to have the word “busted” on the cover next to the cleavage of a woman crying out in pain.
The DN’s front-page story wasn’t good enough for Schneider because it didn’t offer a detailed explanation of what has sparked the protests. WTF! What did Schneider expect from a tabloid, or from any other mainstream media outlets on the scene? Police violence was the story on Saturday, so that’s what was reported.
The MSM has had plenty of time — years, in fact — to report the unfairness and, in many cases, the possible criminality of those who work “the system,” especially the Wall Street banksters. They chose not to report these things, except in vague terms that masked the direct link between the banksters’ conduct and the ongoing economic meltdown.
Schneider should be celebrating a victory, but he seems wistfully disappointed. In regard to the MSM, he’s like Prince Andrei in War and Peace, lamenting the madness of war.
Above all, Schneider’s tone is reasonable, like that of the faux Democrat Barack Obama:
We in the press need to think more highly of our readers, as well as of our own ability to report on stories that don’t depend simply on the shock value of violence, or on cheap-shot ridicule, or on stifling formulas. For many Americans, nonviolent direct actions like this occupation are the best hope for having a political voice, and they deserve to be taken seriously as such.
Sometimes liberals make me sick.
Odd Man Out 
Pingback: Suburban Guerrilla » Blog Archive » Liberal decries DN’s report on police violence… Huh?
DeLillo analyzed this perfectly in Cosmopolis.
And of course your excerpt straight out of The Medium Is The Message.
Have you encountered Zizek yet?
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Zizek, the Slovenian, yes. A very funny fellow… I tried to link to abbeysbooks, but there’s no such account. Are you spam?
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no she isnt she is my friends ex’s aunt in missouri
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I have a genuine concern that, just as 11 yrs. ago at the G8 ,as depicted in the movie : “Battle in Seattle” ,outside thugs will be brought in to do violence and cause property damage to be blamed on the good young people who are legitimately trying to make a statement and move toward bringing us the real change that the current adm. said they would in the 08′ election .
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A legitimate concern but misplaced, I think. The NYPD is a very well-run army trained to contain protests, and to use exactly enough brutal treatment of protesters in the process. Its mission is to make the Wall Street protesters all but invisible in order to discourage media coverage. I could be wrong, but I don’t think the cops would risk bringing in thugs to do property damage — or allow anyone else to bring in thugs — because there’s always a chance they’d get caught playing that game. The country was a different place during the battle in Seattle. Most people couldn’t understand what that protest was about, so the protesters were automatically condemned. This time, with the economy a wreck and the country visibly going down the tubes, protesters might be perceived by many people as heroes — IF they get enough publicity. But the publicity won’t be there unless they don’t allow themselves to be penned in by cops. It’s hard to be persistent in the fact of police violence, but it’s what has to be done in order to get media attention.
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Indeed!!!. I understand their is some intelligence groups,in our own country, that can and would do.something like that to break apart the original plea of the mass group of people gathering in front oc Wherever.. The Intel. group would pay some misguided teens who are in desperate need of money.. (The same kids who are enlisting in our military because they think its their only option!!!) They would give them bats and such to make the pleaing group, in the media’s eyes and in the local community’s eyes, think that they are a bunch of unruly young people which of course would make the locals have a sour taste in their mouth and by that time, not even hear the original reason why they set up a gathering in the first place…. Simple Psyops Tactic..
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