What the MSM Isn’t Reporting
Posted: November 5, 2011 Filed under: #Occupy and We are the 99 percent!, Corporate Crime, Democratic Politics, Economy, financial institutions, Main Stream Media, poverty, The Media SUCKS, unemployment | Tags: 2011: days of revolt, Financial Crisis, U.S. Economy 15 CommentsIf anyone had doubts that the mainstream media is deliberately fudging the details on the events surrounding the Occupy Wall St. Movement in general and the Occupy Oakland protests in particular, the following video is unlikely to dissuade you of that doubt. Cenk Uygur was actually in Oakland on Wednesday during the general strike in Oakland—feet on the ground, eyeballs watching the events unfold.
Surprise!
The MSM had no cameras present. They had no cameras available during the Oakland police department’s original raid on protesters, The Night of Tear Gas and Batons. That was also the night of the strange, weird coincidence when both the ABC and CBS helicopters needed refueling at precisely the same moment.
The world is being blanketed by stunning coincidence.
Fortunately, [but to the shock of many Americans] that night was recorded independently, the startling images preserved.
Cenk Uygur [The Young Turks] as some may recall had a brief 6-month stint on MSNBC, an hour-long show during which he was often critical of Barack Obama’s less than stellar record. Uygur’s ratings were excellent but he was called in by management and asked to ‘tone it down.’ Translation? Stop knocking POTUS and the Democratic Party’s slide to the corporate right. Though offered more money to host a new show, Uygur politely turned MSNBC management down, and then went on the record and told his audience what had happened. His slot was quickly filled by the Reverend Al Sharpton, who is happy as a clam to shill for the President and all things Democratic. That would be the ‘My Party, Right or Wrong’ strategy.
For myself? It’s the reason, I no longer watch MSNBC’s 6 pm broadcast.
The You Tube video is revealing—Uygur’s astonishment at how underreported the crowd size in Oakland truly was. But I also found some startling photographs that belie the MSM’s attempt to undercut the groundswell of support this movement is capturing. It’s growing despite the naysayers and critics. It’s growing despite the MSM’s attempt to edit and minimize. It’s growing against all odds.
The Tea Party, of course, wants everyone to go home and get a job. Which a lot of these people would probably happily do if there were jobs to get, the sort that pay a living
wage—that small complication of making enough money to feed yourself and your family, pay the rent, keep the lights on. We were told yesterday morning that unemployment ticked down a tenth of a percentile. That would make the ‘official’ unemployment number 9 instead of 9.1%. And there have been reports coming out suddenly to tell the country that stories of poverty and inequality are vastly exaggerated, even though the Census Bureau’s numbers show 1 in 15 Americans now categorized as the ‘poorest of the poor,’ the biggest jump recorded in 35 years. Btw, that would be 50% or less than the official poverty level, which translates to $5,570 for an individual; $11, 157 for a family of four.
Seems to be an awful lot of sputtering, squirming and spinning going on.
Surely, it’s mere coincidence.
peej
Carissa
ecocatwoman
grayslady
mablue2
NW Luna
peggysue22
skydancingguestblogger
Mona (aka Wonk the Vote)
Sky Dancing 
Today is Move your Money out of the TBTF banks day, if you haven’t already.
Prior to today about 650K people have moved $4.4 billion dollars into credit unions. That ain’t bad for a ragtag bunch of hippies in a park 🙂
Keep that up and hit them where it hurts!
I agree, Ralph. The momentum is there. Not too shabby for a bunch of ‘slackers.’
Btw, I read that the number of transfers from the TBTFs to regional banks and credit unions last month was larger than for the entire year of 2010. People are paying attention.
Info on how to find and switch to a credit union:
http://www.asmarterchoice.org/
Wonder why of all days, today, Saturday?
I don’t know about the TBTF banks, but my local bank is open seven days a week and until 9PM some days.
Excellent post, Peggy Sue.
Thanks, Beata. I agree with you that Democracy Now is doing a very good job. The traditional press and networks?
Not so much.
Democracy Now has been doing a very good job reporting on the OWS movement.
Great post, peggysue. I’ll admit that I haven’t paid as much attention as I should, but I was kind of wondering how 3 thousand people were able to shut down the port of Oakland. Now that I’ve learned it wasn’t 3 thousand it was fifty thousand, it all makes sense.
OMFG! That is amazing…just like janicen, I had no idea that there was that many people and that they closed down the highway to the port like that. Nothing on the news…wow. Thank you Peggy, what an amazing post and thank you for bringing it to our attention.
My reaction was the same as yours and Janicen’s. And frankly I trust Uygur’s take on this because although he’s admittedly a liberal, he tends to call things the way he sees them. Which means speaking a semblence of truth to power.
That’s been lost in our traditional media. The MSM seems more than willing to be cuddley lapdogs to whoever’s on the throne and/or play partisan spin games. I think Janicen is right: it would have taken far more than 3000 people to take over that port with the sort of mindset that the Oakland police have demonstrated. I’d reported 7-10,000 in an earlier post but Uygur’s report that there was over a 2-mile swath of protesters filling the roads?
That’s a heck of a lot more than I thought.
Excellent reporting of Michael Moore’s talk to OccupyDenver
FDL: Behind the Yellow Tape at the Back of the Bus
That’s a wonderful report. Thanks!
Wow, this is an amazing post! I know back when I was participating in demonstrations the police and media would always underestimate the turnout. I had no idea the crowd in Oakland was that large. Thanks so much for keeping us informed, Peggy Sue.
Sorry I’m late to the party. I was working on a long post that will go up in in a bit.