Look out Huffington Post. The Occupy movement has a new website to aggregate content for left-wing activists. While Occupy is known for their claim to represent the 99 percent, suave parties and Hollywood money are what made this venture possible.
Known for taking over New York’s Zuccotti Park and other locations nationwide, supporters now look to occupy the Internet. The liberal magazine Mother Jones reported that the new site launched on April 2 “with financial backing from Hollywood” with the goal of mimicking Huffington Post.
Although the Occupy movement quickly became a violent, law-breaking mess riddled with problems, the three broadcast networks ignored it, even while the number of arrests jumped to 6,877, according to the arrest tracker OccupyArrests. Protesters went as far as to attack police with the help of hackers and threw paint, eggs, and even feces at officers.
Mother Jones blogger Josh Harkinson described the beginnings of Occupy.com, which seems to conflict with the ideals of the very movement it aims to promote. Filmmaker David Sauvage co-founded Occupy.com with film producer Larry Taubman after they purchased the domain “for a large confidential sum” to give voice to Occupy activists.
Harkinson learned of the launch at what occupiers could only describe as a typical 1 percent party attended by “supermodels, socialites, and celebrities” and occupiers brought together by an elite public-relations firm that also represents Dolce & Gabbana and Bergdorf Goodman. This explains the concern he described with some in Occupy at the concentration of power that does not go through their rule-making body, the General Assembly.
Occupy.com initially posted a “General Strike!” notice for May 1, deemed as “The Day Without the 99%.” Supporters of the movement are urged to stay away from work, school, and to simply avoid “participating in capitalism” for the day. A video called “Occupy Earth,” along with music videos and pictures from “under the blue tarp” at Zuccotti Park were also posted on the site.
Their “About” section described the site as “a new media channel that will amplify the voices of Occupy” and has an “open invitation to creators of every stripe” to join the cause and contribute to the site. They do note that the General Assembly does not oversee them, but say they are “morally accountable to the movement as a whole.”
