- Imagine winning 106 Pulizer Prizes awarded for excellence
in journalism, more than any other broadsheet, for delivering managed,
not real news, information and opinion.
-
- Imagine doing it since 1851. Imagine being called the
"newspaper of record," producing "All the News That's Fit
to Print."
-
- Imagine an establishment publication representing wealth
and power, backing corporate interests, cheerleading imperial wars, ducking
uncomfortable issues too sensitive to report, and functioning as an unofficial
ministry of information and propaganda.
-
- Imagine relying on it for real information and analysis
at a time it's vanishing except online.
-
- At first, its Occupy Wall Street Coverage was scant,
then mostly dismissive and offensive.
-
- A previous article discussed Ginia Bellafante's September
23 article headlined, "Gunning for Wall Street, With Faulty Aim,"
mocking real grievances.
-
- On September 26, Times writer Joseph Goldstein headlined,
"Wall Street Demonstrations Test Police Trained for Bigger Threats,"
saying:
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- "When members of the loose protest movement known
as Occupy Wall Street began a march from the financial district to Union
Square on Saturday, the participants seemed relatively harmless, even as
they were breaking the law by marching in the street without a permit."
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- Fact check
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- The Constitution's First Amendment protects free expression,
the press, the "right of the people to peacefully assemble, and to
petition the Government for a redress of grievances."
-
- Occupy Wall Street protesters lawfully expressed their
First Amendment rights without which all others are at risk. They don't
let Times writers like Goldstein play fast and loose with the truth, but
he and others do it daily in Times articles, op-eds and opinions.
-
- For New York cops, "the protesters represented something
else: a visible example of lawlessness akin to that which had resulted
in destruction and violence at anticapitalist demonstrations, like"
past ones against the IMF, World Bank, WTO, G-20 meetings, and Republican
and Democrat conventions.
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- Fact check
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- Since Seattle in 1999, all were peaceful. Police, however,
violently disrupted them. It's what cops do, deployed to subvert, not protect
democracy.
-
- Regularly, they cordon off activists in so-called "free
speech zones," contain them behind barriers, beat up on people, arrest
hundreds, and use thuggish provocateurs to smash windows, set cars ablaze,
and commit other unruly acts - unjustly blamed on protesters.
-
- Moreover, surveillance cameras monitor everything. Helicopters
at times patrol overhead. Military forces are positioned nearby out of
sight. Snipers man rooftops, and thousands of police, mounted patrols and
private security guards use tear gas, pepper spray, rubber bullets, batons,
and other tactics to intimidate peaceful protesters.
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- Welcome to America! In disturbing ways, it resembles
despotic regimes elsewhere.
-
- "The Police Department's concerns came up against
a perhaps 'milder reality' on Saturday, when their efforts to maintain
crowd control suddenly escalated: protesters were corralled by police officers
who put up orange mesh netting; the police forcibly arrested some participants;
and a deputy inspector used pepper spray on four women who were on the
sidewalk, behind the orange netting."
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- Fact check
-
- Police confronted peaceful protesters violently. They
slammed them to the ground, pepper-sprayed them repressively, brutally
tackled others, and beat some for expressing their First Amendment rights.
-
- Goldstein implied their lawful presence "create(d)
a vexing problem for the Police Department." They, in fact, acted
brutally outside the law, blaming protesters for violence they incited.
-
- On October 1 Times writers Al Baker, Colin Moynihan and
Sarah Nir headlined, "Police Arrest More Than 700 Protesters on Brooklyn
Bridge," saying:
-
- "Police said it was the marchers' choice that led
to the enforcement action."
-
- Police spokesman Paul Browne said:
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- "Protesters who used the Brooklyn Bridge walkway
were not arrested. Those who took over the Brooklyn-bound roadway, and
impeded vehicle traffic, were arrested."
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- Fact check
-
- Police let protesters use the roadway, then confronted
and arrested about 700 for doing so. It represented a major escalation
of brutality and intimidation, suggesting much worse ahead to confront
growing numbers coming out.
-
- Many protesting Saturday accused police of entrapping
them to arrest mass numbers, hoping to intimidate others to back off.
-
- Video footage, in fact, showed police leading thousands
of peaceful protesters as they entered the roadway. However, near the middle
of the bridge, others blocked them front and back, stopping their march
and arresting hundreds.
-
- The Times quoted Occupy Wall Street media spokesman Jesse
Myerson, saying:
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- "The cops watched and did nothing. Indeed, (they)
seemed to guide us onto the roadway."
-
- Blogger Kevin Gosztola said, "The NYPD could have
just kept going on the bridge and then led the protesters to a side road
on the other side and asked them to disperse."
-
- The Times reported that protesters "insisted that
the police had made no mention that the roadway was off limits."
-
- Police, in fact, planned mass arrests. Buses were positioned
near the bridge, and every cop had zip-lock handcuffs to restrain protesters.
An unidentified police official called what went on "a planned move
on the protesters."
-
- Many were charged with disorderly conduct and released,
New York Times writer Natasha Lennard among them.
-
- Brooklyn psychotherapist Etan Ben-Ami said police let
protesters use the road. "They weren't pushed back. It seemed that
they moved at the same time. It seemed completely permitted. There wasn't
a single policeman saying 'don't do this.' We thought they were escorting
us because they wanted us to be safe."
-
- According to police spokesman Browne, "This was
not a trap. They were warned not to proceed." He lied.
-
- Mayor Bloomberg let cops act disruptively, saying they
"did exactly what they are supposed to do."
-
- Protesters show no sign of backing down. Their numbers
keep growing. Media scoundrels are largely dismissive. Cops do what they
always do, acting as "enforcers for crime bosses," according
to Trends analyst Gerald Celente.
-
- Co-Opting Occupy Wall Street Protesters
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- Step one involves providing corporate foundation money
with strings. According to Infowars.com writer Kurt Nimmo, Occupy Wall
Street organizer Adbusters "is a creature of globalist foundations."
-
- "According to research conducted by Activistcash.com,
Adbusters takes money from a number of supposedly progressive foundations,
including....the Tides Foundation and Tides Center."
-
- Tides gets Soros money. A charity, not a private foundation,
it funds "a spectrum of left-wing organizations."
-
- Soros is also connected to "Day of Rage aka Occupy
Wall Street through The Ruckus Society." Ruckus gets Tides money,
and Soros' Open Society Institute funds Tides.
-
- At issue is insulating Wall Street, controlling the movement's
message and goals, and assuring two key issues go unaddressed: namely,
the power of money in private hands and unbridled corporate dominance.
-
- Key to equitably resolving other major issues is returning
money power to public control through Congress, according to Article 1,
Section 8.
-
- Also crucial is establishing viable state-owned public
banks and breaking up too-big-to-fail Wall Street ones.
-
- Occupy Wall Street protesters aren't addressing either,
and major media coverage ignores these and other major issues entirely.
-
- Step two involves politically hijacking the movement.
Democrat party leaders took notice. So did party-connected union bosses
offering support, including New York based Transport Workers Union (TWU)
Local 100, the United Federation of Teachers, and SEIU.
-
- Party-connected activist groups Working Families Parties
and Moveon.org also joined in. Look for others to follow in New York and
elsewhere to smother efforts for major change.
-
- In other words, control public anger. Circumscribe its
message. Let it play out before cold weather diffuses it in major northern
cities.
-
- At the same time, channel it to support Democrats and
Obama's reelection, while business as usual stays unchanged.
-
- Protesters across America and Canada need to refocus
energies to end big money power controlling Washington and their lives.
-
- Sustaining efforts for the long haul is essential. So
isn't effective leadership and enlisting mass nationwide support.
-
- Moreover, addressing what matters most is crucial - returning
money power to public hands representing everyone, not privileged elites
alone at the expense of all others.
-
- Fixing a broken system isn't easy. Dark forces will go
all out to prevent it. Change depends on people putting their bodies on
the line for what's only possible that way.
-
- It took decades in America to achieve major social change
now largely lost because committed energy waned. What better time than
now to reignite it.
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- Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at
lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.
-
- Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and
listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive
Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central
time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy
listening.
-
- http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour/.
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