Wall Street protests

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:

The reliably liberal Martin Bashir on Tuesday questioned anti-Semitism at the Occupy Wall Street protests, pushing artist/activist Russell Simmons to respond to bigoted signs and messages seen in New York.

Simmons bristled at having to deal with the subject, replying to Bashir's question by dismissing, "Where'd you get that from? Bill O'Reilly or somebody?" Bashir played a commercial by the Emergency Committee for Israel, featuring a protester screaming, "You're a bum, Jew!" Another can be seen announcing, "Jews control Wall Street." [See video below. MP3 audio here.]

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.

After all, who knows what these loose-cannon layabouts might do next.

Easily irritated radio host and aspiring MSNBC flamethrower Ed Schultz has become a huge fan of Occupy Wall Street, even while keeping his distance from the protesters after many of them jeered him as a "corporatist" during a broadcast of "The Ed Show" from lower Manhattan. (audio after page break)

Editor's Note: A new USA Today/Gallup poll that finds Americans blame Washington for the country's economic woes much more than Wall Street and financial institutions. NewsBusters publisher Brent Bozell is not surprised and issued the following statement.

The American people see right through the liberal media’s favorable spin on Occupy Wall Street. While they shamelessly coddle these clueless protesters, the public isn’t buying it. Americans overwhelmingly blame Washington for the nation’s economic mess and failure to address it.

Four days after romanticizing how the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement "star[ed] down the NYPD," Time magazine's Ishaan Tharoor set out on the magazine's Global Spin blog to explain "Why You Shouldn't Compare Occupy Wall Street to the Tea Party."

Tharoor essentially argued that the "occupiers" were a global youth movement, that it was populated by the "have nots," and that, unlike the Tea Party, "Occupy Wall Street still believes in politics and government."

While media gush and fawn over the Occupy Wall Street protests wondering how President Obama can take advantage of the sentiments being expressed, they're conveniently ignoring a crucial detail.

As MSNBC's Joe Scarborough said on Tuesday's Morning Joe, "He got more money from Wall Street than any candidate in the history of U.S. politics" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

It comes as no surprise that Occupy Wall Street protesters continue to be arrested due to their disruptive and violent behavior, but according to a new video released by EAGtv, it seems as though being paid to protest is not the only Occupy Wall Street scam. The video captures protestors pre-arranging who in the crowd is going to be arrested so cameras can catch the most dramatic footage of the scene.

Check out the video after the break, and let us know your thoughts in the comments.

Uh, is this intended to help or hurt?

Liberal radio talker and MSNBC rodeo clown Ed Schultz, ever prepared to join a left-wing lollapalooza regardless of merit, is promising he'll provide plenty of unpaid ads for Occupy Wall Street. (audio clips after page break)

By criticizing the leftist Wall Street sit-in, bankers risk showing they don’t “get it,” New York Times reporters Nelson Schwartz and Eric Dash condescendingly suggested in a story at the top of the front page of Saturday’s Business Day, “In Private, Wall St. Bankers Dismiss Protesters as Unsophisticated.”

NewsBusters senior editor Tim Graham appeared on the October 14 "O'Reilly Factor" to discuss the Media Research Center's (MRC) latest study entitled "A Tale of Two Protests: Media Cheer Wall Street Occupiers But Jeered Tea Partiers."

The MRC's director of media analysis noted that there were only "13 stories in the entire year of 2009" about the Tea Party movement while the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement has received "a dramatic amount of early coverage" with 33 network stories in the first 11 days of the protests. [MP3 audio available here; video follows page break]

Appearing on Sunday's NBC Today, Meet the Press host David Gregory proclaimed that the Occupy Wall Street protests would "...dovetail nicely into a big message that the President's selling, which is that the wealthy should pay more....that banner of going after Wall Street and the banks, talking about unfairness that a lot of protesters that are complaining about." [Audio available here]

Gregory's observation was prompted by co-host Lester Holt wondering: "...the protesters are calling for the wealthy to pay for more taxes. Should we look for the Obama campaign to embrace that message as it – as it takes the stretch to November?" Gregory went on to declare: "I think the President's in a mode right now where he'd like to get out in front of this parade and really harness some of this energy."

MSNBC's Joe Scarborough marvelously mocked the Occupy Wall Street movement Monday by joking about how the destruction of private property during this weekend's riots in Rome will actually create jobs.

"That will help with the construction industry in Italy," kidded Scarborough as pictures of the riots played on the screen. "You have to rebuild Rome because people burned it down" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

MSNBC's Al Sharpton lead a jobs rally in Washington, D.C., Saturday, and not surprisingly, he used the event to once again divide the nation along racial lines.

As he has disgracefully done on his PoliticsNation program on numerous occasions in recent weeks, Sharpton accused those favoring proper identification at the polls as wanting to "revoke the Voting Rights Act" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Remember all that media talk about the Tea Party being a bunch of racists because a handful of tasteless signs appeared at rallies around the country?

Given that excessive, disproportionate outrage, the press should be truly disgusted by videos that have been taken of overt racism and anti-Semitism occurring at various Occupy Wall Street protests and associated jobs rallies from coast to coast (multi-clip video follows with commentary, extreme vulgarity warning):

"I'm ready for my closeup, Mr. DeMille."

New York Times writer, Corey Kilgannon, chose Occupy Wall Street protester, Edward T. Hall III, as a representative of the OWS protests in an article about an arranged discussion between Hall and Wall Street worker Jimmy Vivona. Although the very thin patina of rationality presented by Hall might have fooled some liberals such as Brian Williams who want to desperately believe in the validity of the OWS protests, almost any normal observer wouldn't have been the least bit fooled by Hall's act. However, should any doubt remain about Hall's mental state, check out this video (below the fold) of Hall revealing his true self at the OWS protests. A word of warning: Not only is the language quite strong but Hall's off the chart Drama Queen antics are so burst out laughing funny from the get-go that you risk covering your monitor with coffee so please put your mug down while watching. A fringe benefit is a brief followup act by a female protester who attempts to match Mr. Hall in the Drama Queen department:

Earlier today, Matthew Balan at NewsBusters noted how the "Big Three Nets Trumpet Wall Street Protesters 'Proclaiming Victory.'" HIs report concentrated on the morning shows, but a Media Research Center Reality Check showed the that the fawning has also been present in evening news coverage.

Evening show network executives, however, may be less than thrilled about the "Occupy Wall Street" crowd coverage, and secretly hoping for the whole thing to wind down. That's because their shows, which have generally seen their ratings rise during the past twelve months, saw their combined audience fall below 21 million during the week of October 3, with CBS suffering a particularly sharp drop (comparisons are to previous week):

The broadcast networks continued their enthusiastic coverage Friday night on behalf of the far-left Wall Street protesters, with NBC’s Brian Williams, again, the most excited while CBS anchor Scott Pelley, who has until now refrained from the hype delivered by ABC and NBC, jumped in by promising “a series of reports on the growing protests around the country.”

Williams led by touting how the protesters “are claiming victory tonight” by not getting removed from the Manhattan park. He then hailed their impact which he has helped fuel: “This protest movement is showing strength. It’s still growing, changing and spreading...”

New York Times columnist Paul Krugman appeared on Charlie Rose’s talk show on PBS Wednesday night to discuss the leftist-anarchist Occupy Wall Street movement against inequality. Krugman’s encomium to the movement (he recently turned down urgings by his lefty fans to speak at Zuccotti Park in Lower Manhattan) begins around the 6 minute 45 second mark of the segment:

The Big Three networks' seeming desperation to report on "Occupy Wall Street" reached a new level on Friday, after they led their morning shows with New York City's decision to not clear the park where the protesters are camped. NBC touted how the demonstrators were "proclaiming victory" in response to the move. ABC highlighted the "celebratory" atmosphere, while CBS played up the "mood of jubilation" there.

Today show anchor Ann Curry noted that a "showdown [was] averted at the site of the 'Occupy Wall Street' movement here in New York." She then turned to correspondent Maria Schiavocampo, who reported live from Zuccotti Park,  the home base of the left-leaning protesters for about a month. The correspondent immediately zeroed-in on how one could "hear the celebrations taking place behind me here as protesters are proclaiming victory in their showdown with the park's owners."

Time magazine’s Ishaan Tharoor and Nate Rawlings romanticized the Occupy Wall Street crowd in an October 14 news story wrought with melodrama about the left-wing crowd’s tensions with New York City police.

Tharoor and Rawlings opened their article by painting the OWS folks as anxious and the NYPD as practically itching for a confrontation. The trespassing squatters in the privately-owned park were painted as conscientious “activists” and “protesters” whose efforts at cleaning the park were unappreciated by corporate goons who were attempting an "eviction" (emphasis mine):

New York Times media reporter Brian Stelter was in St. Petersburg, Fla., but that didn’t stop him from marking his media colleague’s burgeoning coverage of the Occupy Wall Street movement for Thursday’s “A News Story Is Growing With ‘Occupy’ Protests.” Stelter hyped the increasing media coverage that the lefty aggregation “Occupy Wall Street” has been granted as it spreads to other cities, including in Florida.

But Stelter wasn’t nearly so accomodating to the conservative Tea Party when it first broke through in early 2009.

There was a rather surprising moment on MSNBC's Morning Joe Friday.

When mega-rich guest Donny Deutsch said there's "more hate involved" in the Tea Party than the Occupy Wall Street movement, he was immediately jumped on by hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski for the absurdity (video follows with transcript and commentary):