Occupy Wall Street might not just be for smelly hippies any more. Major unions and some high-priced Hollywood stars and starlets are throwing their support to the protest. But that’s not enough.
During the live video feed of the protest Thursday afternoon, a woman who identified herself as “Beth Bogart,” stopped by the media table and expressed concern they would get “overwhelmed.” She offered her aid as a former “journalist” and experienced media expert to deal with the media inquiries. Could it be the same Beth Bogart who worked for decades handling lefty PR at Fenton Communications?
“You don’t want to piss off a reporter for NBC,” this Beth Bogart warned a dreadlocked host of the live Occupy Wall Street video feed.
While the camera never panned to show her face, a Beth Bogart is quite well-known in the liberal media community. According to the website for Bogart & Bogart, she is very experienced. “Journalist, ghostwriter and producer of social-change media strategies since the mid-1970’s (first job: The Washington Post’s editorial pages). Accredited Capitol Hill reporter, published in The Washington Post, Ad Age, Legal Times, In These Times, Washingtonian Magazine.”
The bio goes on to describe her as a former owner of the lefty public relations shop Fenton Communications. “Fenton Communications co-owner for 20 years, waging media campaigns to expose the dangers of nuclear war, curtail U.S. military intervention in Central America, end apartheid in South Africa, reveal environmental hazards from pesticides to over-fishing, and energize MoveOn.org campaigns.”
The Washington Post describes David Fenton as “the ‘Where's Waldo?’ character of the political left.” And no wonder. Fenton is the communications company for every major loony left operation from climate change to Moveon.org.
If Beth Bogart is also aiding the so-called grassroots movement of Occupy Wall Street, then it’s just the latest example that the professional, hardcore left is taking over where the amateurs began.
But I’d bet Bogart didn’t expect the whole exchange to be broadcast on the Internet. The whole world isn’t watching, despite the Occupiers claims, but a few of us are.
Dan Gainor is the Boone Pickens Fellow and the Media Research Center’s Vice President for Business and Culture. His column appears each week on The Fox Forum. He can also be contacted on Facebook and Twitter as dangainor.
