Occupy Delaware Coverage in the News Journal
If all publicity is good publicity, the Occupy Delaware people have plenty to be pleased about with yesterday’s News Journal coverage.
“100 Protesters” feels like a large number and for the first few paragraphs the coverage was relatively free of the sneering condescension that NJ editors typically spray all over stories like this.
WILMINGTON — About 100 Occupy Delaware protesters marched through downtown on Saturday, stopping in front of several banks to shout their frustrations over inequality, corporate greed and political corruption.
“Banks got bailed out, we got sold out!” they chanted in front of Bank of America.
“The people, united, will never be defeated!” they yelled at PNC Bank and Citizens Bank.
“We are the 99 percent!” they cheered. “And so are you!”
This fits a trend nationally, as the greatest success of the OWS movement has been to shift the narrative in the media. But the News Journal could not resist in finding the protestors with different agendas:
Other protesters brought different agendas to the march.
Some signs urged an end to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. One pushed for an audit of the “unconstitutional Federal Reserve,” another for an end to genetically modified organisms in the food supply and still another proclaimed “Robin Hood was right.”
Bernie August of Newark said he was most concerned about the threat of nuclear weapons and “the machines of war.” He wore a Soviet Union pin on his black beret and a Malcolm X pin on his fleece vest. He calls himself “a red” but doesn’t consider himself a Communist.
Bernie sounds like exactly the professional elder experienced protestor Liberal Geek spoke of several weeks ago: trying to jump on the bandwagon of the Occupy Movement so as to continue their decades long history of protesting that began in the 60’s. I am sorry Bernie, but you are the type of person who gives the Occupy movement a bad name. Nuclear Weapons? Machines of War? Malcolm X? I’m a Red? Sweet Jesus. Try to stay on topic there Bernie. Indeed, if I didn’t know better, I would have to assume Bernie was a plant from the Republican Party.
Bernie is completely legit, but you’re right in saying that he’s a pretty old-school protest veteran. That said, he’s wise and enthusiastic and willing to stay in Spencer Plaza for days at a time, which is a rare resource for the movement.
Judging him, or anyone else, on the way they are dressed is just a petty jab at the people involved and an attempt to show the “exception that proves the rule.” Of the 28 people who have set up camp at the site, there’s one “red” and one dredlock’d hippie (who is also amazingly dedicated, intelligent, and enthusiastic about the movement) and 26 very normal-looking people who know exactly why they are there and what they are fighting for.
If Bernie ends up being exposed as a plant, I’ll eat my hat.
No, Bernie is legit, which is why I said “if I didn’t know better…”
Actually, I don’t think anyone is judging Bernie on his clothing, but rather on the message discipline. Seriously, nuclear weapons? Is it the 1980’s again? Or the 60’s?
I know it is hard to say he is off message when there is no central set of demands from Occupy, but I think Bernie is off message here.
And that complaint in no way takes away from the extraordinary dedication of Bernie and the other 27 occupiers in Wilmington. He can brush off any criticism of ours by looking us dead in the face and saying “oh yeah, well why are you here?” And I and others would have no response.
99% of the people means there are allowed to be a lot of different views. the majority of this movement stay on message, but we do need to be reminded that once this battle is won, there are lots of other things in this world….. like the “machines of war” that allow a select few to control everyone else. Realize how rare it is in a left wing protest/movement to have THIS MUCH message discipline. this one is different.
There were 100 protesters and one of them wearing the Communist logo.
I guess that makes Bernie a member of the 1%.
Ben, you are right.
If Bernie meant what I think he meant, it wasn’t a cold war fear-mongering message but quite current and relevant and related to the billions involved in the industry today. If the 1% wasn’t in the business of buying and selling weapons of mass destruction maybe there’d be some federal allocations left over for transportation and other infrastructure in the States.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/oct/30/nuclear-powers-weapons-spending-report
Good point Nancy.
Not to say that it isnt important to make sure the movement in general sticks to the message. The idea that there is no direction or goals is a total lie. not a mischaracterization, not a misunderstanding…. a lie. The news decides to paint it as a disorganized band of wild shiftless hobos (2 dollars to whomever catches that reference) and yes, every “end the war” sign adds to that false narrative….
however
I couldn’t really care less about what the news journal (or any other “media” outlet) says about the people of Occupy. The media as a whole is a failed industry. the fact that the movement is growing and winning battles in spite of these sorry excuses for informers show how irrelevant TNJ (or whoever) is anymore.
Ending the war in Afghanistan should absolutely be part of the movement against the 1%, which includes military contractors.
Everyone who knows Bernie is laughing in their beer. Bernie is straight up cool and righteous.
No doubt. And clearly the print media is a failed industry. Still…A little message discipline would be nice.
Again, nothing is simple in real life. If you step back, look at what could possibly go wrong, the number one thing, is a nuclear war over ownership of Kashmir.
We’d be living, eating, breathing the fallout for a long, long time. Perhaps, even kill the planet.
For that reason, we need to be involved with Pakistan. Now remembering how they hate us, their needing us to tie up the Taliban, comes as a blessing in disguise.. One whose message surprisingly has not made it into mainstream.
Not saying it isn’t a mess. It is… Just questioning whether the investment is worth keeping Isotopes out of our food groups.
The second largest, cataclysmic thing that could possibly go wrong, is a dirty bomb going off in a major metropolitan area. The nuclear material would most likely be smuggled out of….again, Pakistan. a nation it could reasonably be argued, possessing the largest amount of fissionable material, controlled smallest amount of brains with knowledge over its effects.
Again, a valid reason for us being there. Afghanistan right now, is the only reason we have contact with them.
So I wish getting out of the war in Afghanistan was as simple as pulling out of Vietnam, but considering that extracting ourselves too quickly, could open the door for the worst, and second worst scenarios to ever affect our nation. If we do a pullout, I’m afraid we’d better do it in a way that keeps our influence respected in that arena.
In the meantime, I’d be happy if we’d just rewrite the tax laws for our nation’s “fair” assessments of debts, and the wealthy again, return to paying correctly their debt to the very society that allowed them to achieve, maintain, and grow that wealth… The “contract” we signed on too, was that as they got wealthy, we would too…
Breach of Contract: They reneged.
Getting back to the thread… I seriously challenge whether “staying on message” is that important anymore..
Staying on message implies lack of vibrancy, a lack of life, which breaks down eventually to lack of interest.
Staying on message is propaganda. That is in effect what we are all against…
Look at the Republicans… No one,… whether on press, on blogs, in media, around bars, across Church pews, at the dinner table, is discussing anything the Republicans are saying… In fact, I’m straining my neural capacity to figure if anything, the republican party stands for this year, other than anti’Obama… Seriously.
Instead, we have a series of gaffes. slights, peccadilloes, quid’s pro quo’s, and that has been the topic of conversation… And if you picked up any paper, listened to any radio cast, or watched any news show, you couldn’t be blamed for wondering, if we still had a president anymore.
None of which relate to what kind of a nation we’ll have in 2020….
None.
Just think,… that if our news media, and the rest of us, had taken apart the Bush Tax Cuts as they were campaigned upon in 2000, and broken those numbers down to show that over 8 years, our national debt would quadruple. but under the Democratic plan, we were paying off the debt in installments, year after year, something that was not impacting our economy in a negative way… and in fact, was the engine behind creating the best economy ever in the history of the United States of America….
But no… we spent 5 weeks discussing what: Which presidential candidate would you rather have a beer with? Then, what kind of beer would you drink with either president. Then, which would be the more likely to drink a Bud? or microbeer?
The huge problem with keeping a movement alive is not about staying on message. It is about keeping the people’s interest… Personally I can only hear a slogan repeated twice before I tune out and tune into something more interesting…
Better to let the zen of protesting work itself out, I’ll state here.. Staying on message, in America at least, is for losers. ..
At Anonymous; agreed. Look how much attention you all gave Bernie. His tent is “across the street” from mine. He can be counted on for some spit and fire when we need it most. He is a good neighbor. Much of his paraphernalia is gifts from folks he’s met along his journey. Some of whom he didn’t agree with, but whom respected just the same.