Wall Street protests

MSNBC congressional correspondent Luke Russert today refused to parrot MSNBC host Martin Bashir's left-wing talking points about House Republicans and their proposal to boost the economy and spur job creation.

"This week, Eric Cantor will introduce a jobs bill of his own, so what exactly should we expect?" Bashir rhetorically asked viewers as he introduced his "Divided We Fall" segment, featuring MSNBC congressional correspondent Luke Russert live via satellite from the U.S. Capitol.

"Luke, aside from trickle-down economics, is there anything in Mr. Cantor's proposal -- and you're not allowed to say 'cut taxes and remove regulations' -- now answer the question," Bashir demanded of Russert.

Yesterday (since updated to early morning Monday), in what should be seen as a thoroughly embarrassing report -- but mostly won't be -- the Associated Press's Jay Lindsay in Boston, with help from Karen Matthews in New York, devoted almost 1,000 words to the involvement of various religious clerics in the ongoing Occupy Wall Street activities.

Before getting to their report, I'll bring readers up-to-date on the starkly irreligious, anti-religious, and, yes, downright sinful elements of Occupy Wall Street which Lindsay and Matthews chose to totally ignore in their report. The video involved comes from MinnesotaMajority.org, and follows the jump (Direct YouTube; HT Powerline; Warning - some strong language and disturbing images):

While the New York Times was hypersensitive to any signs of racial prejudice among the massive, peaceful Tea Party protests, reporter Joseph Berger raised and dismissed the idea of anti-Semitism at Occupy Wall Street, in Saturday’s “Cries of Anti-Semitism, But Not at Zuccotti Park.”

Just two of many references: Reporter David Herszenhorn assumed racism was a force in the movement in an April  1, 2010 podcast: “One is clearly there’s a racial component. Some members of Congress you know, had epithets hurled at them as protesters marched around the Capitol on the day of the big House vote.” Those claims have never been substantiated. On July 18, 2010 Matt Bai reported about hypothetical “hateful 25-year-olds” at Tea Party rallies.

Will freelance reporter Natasha Lennard be reporting on Occupy Wall Street for the New York Times anytime soon? Lennard contributed some of the paper’s reporting earlier this month from OWS, most notably when writing about her arrest on the Brooklyn Bridge at nytimes.com. Her last filing appears to be October 8.

Lennard, who has also reported for Politico and the left-wing Salon magazine, addressed a discussion of Occupy Wall Street at the feminist Bluestockings book store on the Lower East Side of Manhattan on October 14, filmed and promoted by the radical magazine Jacobin (note the guillotine), reported Lee Stranahan at Big Government on Sunday. (The full video is also available at Times Watch).

As NewsBusters previously reported, a number of Obama-loving media members were enthralled with Vice President Joe Biden's claim that failure to enact the President's jobs bill would cause a rise in murder and rape throughout the nation.

Of potentially more immediate consequence, the New York Post reported Saturday that as a direct result of police forces being diverted to monitor Occupy Wall Street protests, shootings in the city have dramatically risen in the past month:

On October 2, NewsBusters reported the arrest of a New York Times freelancer at the Occupy Wall Street rally that shut down the Brooklyn Bridge.

Big Government's Lee Stranahan on Sunday uncovered a video of Natasha Lennard speaking at an OWS strategy meeting on October 14 (video follows with transcript and commentary, vulgarity warning, relevant section at 1:30):

During the roundtable segment on Sunday's Meet the Press, NBC's Andrea Mitchell typically acted as Barack Obama's press secretary defending the President from any and all criticism lodged by other panelists.

Apparently having witnessed enough shameless advocacy from a so-called journalist, when Mitchell used the Occupy Wall Street movement to defend Obama's economic policies, former Democratic Congressman Harold Ford Jr. replied, "He's the President. Democrats can't criticize Republicans for catering to the Tea Party and not be, and not say to our Democratic Party you got to look beyond Occupy and be willing to do what's in the best interest of the country" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

On October 13, Monika Scislowska of the Associated Press reported that a "legendary freedom leader ... says he supports the Occupy Wall Street movement in New York that protests corporate greed," and that "that he is planning either a visit or a letter to the protesters." That leader would be Poland's former President Lech Walesa.

On Friday, October 21, at 5:01 p.m., Adam Andrzejewski at BigGovernment.com (HT Smitty at The Other McCain) reported that "Based on our discussion and intervention, President Walesa is not going to get involved with the OWS." The AP's follow-up story is after the jump:

Academy Award-winning actress Kathy Bates wants President Obama "to stand up on his hind legs and fight these rat bastards."

When asked by the host of CNN's Piers Morgan Tonight to elaborate, Bates said Friday, "I think he has got to indict these guys from Wall Street. Somebody's got pay for that mess" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

During a panel discussion on Friday's NBC Today, co-host Matt Lauer asked of the Occupy Wall Street protests: "What's the civics lesson in this for our kids as they're watching this on TV?" News anchor Natalie Morales argued: "...there's a huge civics lesson....the idea of having that civil discourse is important to teach our kids and it's something in history we've seen."

In contrast, moments later while discussing the latest Republican presidential debate, Lauer lectured Mitt Romney and Rick Perry on a heated exchange between them: "My parents, in teaching me manners, taught me, one, don't interrupt, bad on Rick Perry's point, keep your hands to yourself, bad on Mitt Romney's point." Weatherman Al Roker chimed in: "...we're seeing our kids are getting, again, this anti-teachable moment. Give somebody a chance to talk. They're just talking all over each other."

On Washington Post's On Faith blog, Daily Beast contributor Lisa Miller teased a piece about Occupy Wall Street with a worthy question: "What would Jesus think about Occupy Wall Street?" Her answer was simple, and predictably liberal: "The Jesus of history would love them all."

In a piece titled "Jesus at Occupy Wall Street: 'I feel like I've been here before,'" Miller portrayed the protestors as wretched outcasts, whom God would embrace because of their misery: "Born with little means into a first century world, the historical Jesus might feel right at home with the very aspects of the occupation that so many 21st century observers consider gross: the tents, the damp sleeping bags, the communal kitchen. Jesus would have sympathy, I think, with the campers' efforts to keep a small space sanitary in the absence of modern plumbing."

New York Times columnist Paul Krugman may not be making a speech addressing the lefties at the anti-Wall Street camp-out in Zuccotti Park, but he visited on Thursday and blogged about it at nytimes.com Friday morning, “Trying to Unwarp the Debate,” concluding with a big wet kiss to the protesters: “Thank you, OWS." He also unleashed personal insults at the "clownish" and dishonest Rep. Paul Ryan, who dared submit a credible federal budget plan.

The Occupy Wall Street protests marked off a full month of occupation Oct. 17, and the network news media continue to gloss over protesters calls for "revolution" as well as the socialistic mentality espoused by many of the protesters.

One protest speaker was videotaped saying, "Long live the revolution! Long live socialism!" Others in Chicago and Philadelphia marched with Communist flags. And Oakland, Calif. occupiers articulated their desire for income equality, a new political system and disgust for the bourgeoisie (whether they be landlords or hot dog stand owners.)

Editor's Note: The following is a quote from a letter NewsBusters publisher and Media Research Center (MRC) founder Brent Bozell sent to Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) earlier today, spurred in part by the recent revelation that NPR host Lisa Simeone served as a spokesperson for the Occupy DC protest.

NPR is out of control, using taxpayer money to lend support to a sometimes violent and lawless mob set on crippling the financial backbone of our country.

An anti-Semitic Occupy LA protester reported by NewsBusters Sunday has been fired by the Los Angeles Unified School District due to her remarks.

KTLA-TV logged the following report Tuesday (extremely offensive video follows with commentary):

Nice to see Rachel Maddow isn't letting all those years wishing she worked at Pravda go to waste.

The earnest barbershop tenor in MSNBC's nightly quartet gave an eerily similar version of how the house organ of Soviet communists would have covered the arrests of two dozen Wall Street protesters at a Citibank branch in Manhattan. (video after page break)

Multimillionaire Occupy Wall Street supporter Russell Simmons made the media circuit in recent weeks bragging about how he wants the government to raise his taxes.

Yet on MSNBC's PoliticsNation Wednesday, the hip-hop mogul told Al Sharpton, "I don’t pay taxes...I won’t give my money to war machine and to other things" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

New York Times reporter J. David Goodman interviewed an Occupy Wall Street attendee with a shameful past for the Tuesday metro section -- “A Regular at the Protests With an Unspoken Past: Wall St. Made Him Rich.”

Robert Halper is a retired Wall Street trader and the top single donor to the Canadian “anticorporate” magazine Adbusters, credited with launching the leftist sit-in. But Goodman didn’t mention the magazine’s incendiary anti-Israel past, like the paper’s notorious 2004 attack on neo-conservatives, “Why Won’t Anyone Say They Are Jewish?”

Updated [12:28 ET]: More analysis and full transcript added. Lauer goes after Herman Cain's 9-9-9 plan.

In an interview with Donald Trump on Wednesday's NBC Today show, co-host Matt Lauer cautioned Republicans against rejecting the far-left Occupy Wall Street movement: "There are people in the streets here in New York. In other cities around the country and around the world. Does the Republican Party, if they ignore the Occupy Wall Street group, do they do so at their own peril?" [Audio available here]

Trump turned the question around and saw the protests as a bad sign for Democrats: "I think so. But I also think it's very bad for Obama and he's feeling it. I really believe ultimately it's more dangerous for President Obama." [View video after the jump]

A 19-year-old student with a learning disability was allegedly raped at this weekend's Occupy Cleveland rally, an extension of the protests happening on Wall Street.

WKYC, the local NBC affiliate, reported at its website Tuesday (video also follows with commentary):

On Tuesday's Early Show, CBS's Bigad Shaban, seemingly grasping for straws for any reason to report on "Occupy Wall Street," played up the music performances from protesters down in lower Manhattan. Shaban emphasized how "music has helped spur movements," and gushed that "some believe if history is any indication, they could provide harmony to a movement."

The correspondent highlighted that in the Zuccotti Park, where the protesters are camped out in New York City, "there are more musical performances than actual marches. They're almost constant, but impromptu." He added that "they [the protesters] call it the heartbeat of the revolution, from loud battle cries to soothing throwbacks to the civil rights era. They've become a soundtrack to the 'Occupy Wall Street' movement" [video clips from the segment below the jump; audio available here].

If you listen to Occupy Wall Street-loving media members, you'd think income inequality in America is worse than anywhere else in the world.

Quite the contrary, a chart from World Bank economist Branko Milanovic's book "The Haves and the Have-Nots” paints an entirely different picture: