NYTimes: 'Occupy Wall Street' Like Tiananmen Square; Tea Party Protests Akin to 'Weathermen' Terrorists
The romantic treatment of the leftist sit-in at Wall Street by Michael Kimmelman in his Sunday Review “news analysis” “The Power of Place in Protest" was bad enough, with talk of Aristotle and “the size of an ideal polis” and how “Zuccotti Park has in fact become a miniature polis, a little city in the making.” But the real offense came in the New York Times's choice of comparison photos.
The think-piece by the paper's architectural critic was accompanied by archive photos of other massive legendary protests; Kent State in 1970; the Central Park protest against the Vietnam War in 1967; the famous man in front of the tank in Tiananmen Square in 1989; the fall of the Berlin Wall that same year. Of more recent vintage was the Tahrir Square protest in Cairo and Occupy Wall Street.
That’s pretty flattering company – as if standing up to Chinese Communist tanks was comparable to eating donated food in Lower Manhattan for a month. It’s also quite different from the kind of historical image the Times used in its Tea Party coverage.
A March 28, 2010 Times story by Benedict Carey carried an ominous title cribbed from the famous scene in the movie "Network," “RAGE's DNA: Mad As Hell. And...” The online headline was even blunter: “When Does Political Anger Turn to Violence?”
The story was accompanied by a photo illustration of an open book of matches, one of them lit.
There was also a really strange pair of photos on the jump page: an archive photo, courtesy of Getty Images, of the late-1960s left-wing domestic terrorist group The Weathermen, directly above a similar picture of marching Tea Party protesters. The caption suggested the two movements share some DNA: "VARYING DEGREES OF RAGE The Weathermen, including Bill Ayers, second from right, during the Days of Rage in 1969, and anti-health reform protesters in Washington on Sunday."
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Comments
Some days, you just feel like reality itself has gone sideways.
Submitted by kata on Tue, 10/18/2011 - 4:47pm.
.
Beyond absurd.
Submitted by hbnolikeee on Tue, 10/18/2011 - 4:50pm.
How many Tea Party people have been arrested in the past say 12 months? Zero? How many Flea Bagger in 1 month? 1000 or more. Oh yea, they're indistinguishable.
How many Tea Party people have blocked roads and bridges and taken up residence in parks? Zero. Yup, can't tell one from the other.
Which group wants the government to GIVE them other people's money? Hmm, let me see. NOT THE TEA PARTY.
What a bunch of sheep dip.
We agree, the Tea Party and the OWS want different things
Submitted by TheHistorian on Tue, 10/18/2011 - 5:21pm.
We agree, the Tea Party and the OWS want different things. OWS wants Wall Street and Fat Cat money. The Tea Party is despicable because they want their own money instead of giving it to the government to reward the OWS (I think the President said to "spread it around"). You have to learn how to think like the liberals and the Republican party in Congress.
Dennis Prager
“Zuccotti Park has in fact become a little city in the making.”
Submitted by Galvanic on Tue, 10/18/2011 - 5:03pm.
Well, in the sense that a day care center or a zoo is 'a little city in the making.'
The current denizens of Zuccotti Park cannot support themselves. They are purely consumers. They produce nothing with which to sustain themselves, or barter for things necessary for sustainment.
They can cause a ruckus, but if they get too unmanageable, they will be restrained,
They are depending on outsiders to sustain them, just like children and animals in captivity.
They have learned to perform in front of cameras as do many children and animals.
So, if that's the makings of a little city, I guess I don't understand the functions of a city.
perfect
Submitted by kata on Tue, 10/18/2011 - 5:08pm.
I like the Day Care Center analogy since it's been established that the general assemblies are there as activities to keep the occupiers attention focused and keep them present and under control.
The media are despicable, but
Submitted by ant on Tue, 10/18/2011 - 5:03pm.
The media are despicable, but then we already knew that. It's such a shame these people are trying to get companies and tax-payers to foot their bill, they were so hoping Obama's stash would be handed out two years ago.
Mr. Kimmelman is not much of an architecture critic.
Submitted by SickofLibs on Tue, 10/18/2011 - 5:14pm.
He should know that occasionally handing out ziploc sandwich bags does not constitute a functional 'Dept. of Sanitation' as he stated in his thinly disguised propaganda piece about The People's Polis.
Modern day "Hooverviles?"
Submitted by CobraMan on Tue, 10/18/2011 - 5:22pm.
I'm surprised they didn't mention the "Hoovervilles." Of course, the denizens of the Hoovervilles were actually poor, homeless, hungry people looking for employment any place they can find it, which is the exact opposite of the "occupiers." But why let incongruities get in the way of a good public image? The liberals have never let that bother them before.
The Citizens of each State shall be entitled to all Privileges and Immunities of Citizens in the several States. The US Constitution
Unless you're a fetus. The US Supreme Court
Or Anwar al-Awlaki.
So long as Conservative media....
Submitted by stage9 on Tue, 10/18/2011 - 5:23pm.
...continues to allow the liberal media to dictate the message, ie that the Tea Party is "violent" and the "Occupiers" are peaceful, then we really can't complain.
Radicals know how to use Public Relations and Marketing to their advantage to spin a story. When will Conservatives begin to use these same outlets to tell the truth?
Propaganda works because it is a continuously repeated stream of lies spewed over and over and over again. Whether they're on Fox News, a Conservative talk show or network news radicals know how to spin a story with well-crafted talking points that are repeated over and over and over again.
The next time you see them on a talk show notice that they all spin the same rhetoric and do so aggressively, silencing the Conservative panelists who sit there and take it like dumb sheep.
We are allowing a small percentage of the population dictate the will of the majority. It's time to fight fire with fire.
"If God is dead, somebody is going to have to take his place. It will be megalomania or erotomania, the drive for power or the drive for pleasure, the clenched fist or the phallus, Hitler or Hugh Hefner." — Malcolm Muggeridge
What is your solution?
Submitted by CobraMan on Tue, 10/18/2011 - 5:26pm.
How are the Conservatives "allowing" the MSM to dictate the message? The MSM isn't listening to Conservatives as it is. They're not going to stop even if we complain. It's not like Conservatives aren't trying to correct the MSM in their falsities and hypocrisies. They've tried for decades with little to no success. So, what do you suggest be done?
The Citizens of each State shall be entitled to all Privileges and Immunities of Citizens in the several States. The US Constitution
Unless you're a fetus. The US Supreme Court
Or Anwar al-Awlaki.
That's Communists for ya'.
Submitted by SpaceManSpiff on Tue, 10/18/2011 - 6:11pm.
That's Communists for ya'. They live in Opposite World. When people are starving, grain production is at all time highs! When everyone is miserable, the people couldn't be happier! When the war is being lost, they're winning on all fronts! Long live glorious Communism!
Tiananmen Square??
Submitted by Tugboat Phil on Tue, 10/18/2011 - 7:31pm.
Well, if that's their analogy, let's go for it. I'm willing to help it end like the event in China. It's been years since I drove a tracked vehicle, but if we advance in a line abreast then aiming really isn't necessary.
"anti-health reform protesters"
Submitted by Schofield Kid on Tue, 10/18/2011 - 7:56pm.
First, that wasn't even the main focus of the Tea party events, but was representative of the out of control spending along with the so-called $800 billion "stimulus" which we now know has mostly gone down the toilet or to a slush fund for union supporters of teh One. But notice the use of the word "reform" as if we were against changing the health system in any way (e.g., tort reform, allowing purchases across state lines, & many other suggestions for which the emperor said "we won-go to the back of the bus"). I'd be interested in knowing how many of these reporters actually believe the bs they spout or are just helping the cause by lying their asses off. Obviously, the OWS crowd at least, believes this crap.
I for one say we should help
Submitted by LAM SON 719 on Wed, 10/19/2011 - 12:43am.
I for one say we should help the protesters, lets all distribute sandwiches made from cat food and rancid egg salad. Everyone distributing will wear SEIU shirts.
The hacks at the NYT must be
Submitted by jessieH on Wed, 10/19/2011 - 9:02am.
The hacks at the NYT must be doing drugs. No one could possibly believe their stupidity.
Tea Party akin to Weathermen???
Submitted by wingnut55 on Wed, 10/19/2011 - 4:28pm.
Let's not forget who's political career started in the living room of Bill Ayers. President Obama is more akin (maybe a kin) to the Weathermen than the Tea Party.
NY Slimes finally ackowledges Weathermen
Submitted by ChuckySchmucky on Wed, 10/19/2011 - 5:51pm.
On the plus side, at least the NY Slimes finally acknowledged the Weathermen terrorist group, after redacting them from their propaganda rag over the last four years.
But naturally, they associate them with the right, not with the president who launched his political career in the living room of one of its leaders.