When they took it seriously, the press began to do the same, and then American TV got into the act once it was realized that this was a national, even a global story
Occupy Wall Street soon had a press desk trying to help reporters who often showed up with preconceived story lines demanded by their editors. Soon the stories about sex, drugs and drumming--no rock and roll yet--were everywhere as they turned over rocks and looked for the homeless and the harassers.
When one station did a story on the Park as a "Walmart for Rats," City Hall saw an opening and harping on cleanliness (Which has always been next to godliness.)
Most activists were happy to be interview but few every watched how the stories were edited: what was covered and what was not.
That's also because many of the occupiers hate television and what it has become. They don't read ponderous editorials or inflammatory headlines.
They do read and create social media--Twitter, Facebook, and You Tube etc.
The advantage is that they are then exposed to their truths and the news they believe they need to makes a difference.
Its news, though, for the community, not the country! The disadvantage is they often are not reaching out to millions of Americans who won't join the movement because it's cool. The 99% needs to be educated and inspired--but, alas, they rely on the papers and cable news that is least sympathetic to the movement,
You have to use media if you want to occupy the mainstream--and build a larger movement as opposed to being depicted as a tribal subculture of misfits and the angry,
I would suspect that the media has not met with or tried to persuade editorial boards or newsroom execs, They tend to react more to what they are saying than to act more proactively with their own media campaigns to shape a message that gets disseminated widely.
As the movement moves on, messages have to change and target specific communities. That may be coming, but not quickly enough.
Already some big media outlets like The Washington Post, the paper still living off its Watergate reputation even as it finds few wars it won't support, is saying Occupy Wall Street is "Over."
You can bet they want it to be over because their focus on politics starts with the top--The White House and specializes in inside the beltway stories. For years, black people in Washington --the majority--have complained that they are largely ignored by their own home town newspaper.
Post editors are self-satisfied and cloistered 1 percenters who love to cover social movements of the past, not the present.
I once looked at how the Post covered the March on Washington back in l963. The story line was how violence was averted. MLK's "I Have A Dream" speech was barely news. The march's focus they on the need for jobs were downplayed then just as Occupy Wall Streets economic critique is downplayed today.
The Movement is being challenged by Mayors--armed with the latest "non-lethal" toys--and coordinated by the Feds (a story few media outlets have investigated) who want to shut down the encampments.
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