USA Today Puffs 'Occupy' Membership with 47-Graf Front-Page Profile

November 28th, 2011 12:22 PM

While USA Today editors shunted to page 5A a 15-paragraph article on how the Occupy movement has worn out its welcome in many major cities, today's front page featured a 47-paragraph puffy profile on how "'Occupiers' [are] not cut from the same cloth."

"Occupy's membership is a coat of many colors" that "includes the foreclosed, the uninsured and the homeless" as well as "college students with poor job prospects and college graduates with no way to pay off their student loans," noted USA Today's Rick Hampson.


Despite Hampson insisting that "the Occupiers are.. 'normal people,'" he profiled among others one Hannah Faye, who "Joined Occupy Chicago after interviewing protesters." Hampson noted that Faye conducted "interviews for a book on the movement that she eventually published online."

Hampson left out that Faye's also e-published titles such as "Wominion," -- "A 21st century guide on how women may move collectively toward dominating the world beginning with gaining control over their own personal lives." -- and "Planet Lesbiya":

Planet Lesbiya is about a woman who struggles to define her sexuality. What else is new right? Well, this story is a bit different as Rose, the story's main character sees herself living in what she views as a man's world but spending most of her time dwelling in the subconscious part of her mind on a planet where she claims women rule.

"Polls show Americans aren't sure what the Occupy movement wants. But Occupiers are often quite specific," Hampson argued towards the close of his puff piece.

For example, Hampson noted that 70-year-old protester Ann Breen-Greco, who "joins the Occupy protesters for a few hours every time she's in downtown Chicago," confessed that she "wants to overhaul 'the whole idea of the monetary system.'" Of course that is an incredibly vague concept not to mention arguably utopian and impractical.

"For all their frustration and anger, it's clear what Occupiers don't want, says Asheville's [Jen] Foster: 'We don't want to burn the place down.'"

Well, that's comforting coming from a protester who "was charged with contempt Nov. 5 after allegedly cussing at a judge."