Deja news
More and more, I've noticed that coverage of the Occupy movement is a step into the WABAC machine. Destination is, say 1968. So is the coverage...status quo prejudices and all.
I make almost no exceptions to the observation.* I follow Tom Wolfe in thinking that nearly all media exist to defend the established order. There is a spectrum of sorts. Media that wear their conservatism on their sleeve (q.v. Fox and the Boston Herald) are obvious in their contempt for Occupy's challenge and its people. (The Tea Party, of course, has been exempt from such negativity.) Centrist and left-leaning enterprises have been more guilty of benign neglect of the story, and to some extent of retailing stereotypes of protest.
We'll see what happens. It is a world where McLuhan's observation has been eclipsed. The medium now is all. On the other hand, it's a world where the rage of the people has, in the past year, shown a promising capacity for outrunning and embarrassing the media's cultural strictures. That is the newer phenomenon and my money's on the new.
* I followed a Facebook link to a Mother Jones story and got severely stuck in a loop demanding I subscribe. Capitalism has its tentacles eveerywhere.
I make almost no exceptions to the observation.* I follow Tom Wolfe in thinking that nearly all media exist to defend the established order. There is a spectrum of sorts. Media that wear their conservatism on their sleeve (q.v. Fox and the Boston Herald) are obvious in their contempt for Occupy's challenge and its people. (The Tea Party, of course, has been exempt from such negativity.) Centrist and left-leaning enterprises have been more guilty of benign neglect of the story, and to some extent of retailing stereotypes of protest.
We'll see what happens. It is a world where McLuhan's observation has been eclipsed. The medium now is all. On the other hand, it's a world where the rage of the people has, in the past year, shown a promising capacity for outrunning and embarrassing the media's cultural strictures. That is the newer phenomenon and my money's on the new.
* I followed a Facebook link to a Mother Jones story and got severely stuck in a loop demanding I subscribe. Capitalism has its tentacles eveerywhere.
Labels: media criticism, Occupy movement
posted by Uncle | 23:25
3 Comments:
True enough all around, but I'm still mildly surprised at the neutral and leftish media. It started when the echoed the chant that OWS had no leaders and no Martin Luther-style list of demands from the beginning. Pathetic.
I have a question for you who lived during the 60's and wewre witness to or participants in the protests then. Was the media as biased? Was the movement seen as disorganized/ borderline anarchy? Was there an actual purpose- clearly defined purpose to the protests? Was there stealing on the part of the protesters? Or was it the utopian "we are all together lets help each other out, whats mine is yours" stuff thats been romanticized in my head.
I have been around some of the Occupy Atlanta people...they have been headquartered at the building where the homeless vets yoga class I help with is held. It has gone from being just a place for people to get food and connect and maybe get some clothes and books and a shower to a disorganized mess with lots of things that belong to the people in the building before them coming up missing.
And then there are the signs all around their room...one sign in particular had the word MONEY written in red and black with red drops of blood dripping from it...others seemed to be more violent than the non-violence the group says it is for. The building has a different vibe too.
And in reading some of the Facebook posts of the group...they seem very confrontational. Just my thoughts...
Welcome to revolution in all its messiness. Yes, the media was as biased...especially before My Lai and Kent State. We had the advantage of two clearly-defined purposes: civil rights and ending the war. There was an idealistic core that tried to live up to the principles you mention. The trouble is that disruption brings opportunistic hangers-on who are only there for what they can get. I'm also afraid that violence is never that far from the surface. Only when the leadership gets some traction do these things improve. True now...true 40 years ago...true in 1776 and in every revolutionary movement in between. Messy as it is, it's time to pay attention. As Lemony Snicket says, "Historically, a story about people inside impressive buildings ignoring or even taunting people standing outside shouting at them turns out to be a story with an unhappy ending."
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