Disappeared News

by Larry Geller

You can get more news on the Occupy Wall Street movement from Pakistan Today than from our local daily newspaper.

No surprise, today’s Star-(1%)-Advertiser had nothing to say (good or bad) about Occupy Thanksgiving events last night. As I mentioned in yesterday’s Occupying our minds--with hope (11/24/2011), violence, which is rare outside of felonious assaults by the police, finds ink in the paper. Achievements do not.

No surprise, an AP report on Occupy failed to mention 3,000 dinners served by Occupy Wall Street, including 2,500 at the park, 500 sent to local communities, some to another Occupy encampment in Far Rockaway, and that they donated meals to a church and canned goods to food pantries. AP did report, of course, that the cops were called to quell the drumming. There were other AP reports for newspapers to choose from--they accommodate a wide variety of biases.

No surprise that Occupy coverage is omitted or curtailed, because our newspapers are owned by the 1%, and they see a threat to their way of life for the first time.

So I snip for you from the Pakistan paper:

Occupy Wall Street protesters celebrated Thanksgiving by gathering in the disputed New York square where their movement sprang up two months ago and feasting on turkey with all the trimmings. Meeting Thursday in Zuccotti Park, where on November 15 police forcibly evicted hundreds of protesters camped there, several hundred activists of all ages shared donated platters of turkey, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie, and other staples of the national holiday meal. The atmosphere was a far cry from the tension during the night of the camp clear-out by riot police or the violent scuffles that marred subsequent demonstrations around the nearby stock exchange. One group sat around a guitarist, singing Bob Dylan songs. Another clustered listened to a cellist play Bach, while a third group took in the upbeat sounds of a traditional fiddle and banjo duo.

More than 3,000 meals were supplied to hungry activists and passers-by sharing in the unusual version of the US ritual, which always takes place on the fourth Thursday of November.

[Pakistan Today (AFP), Occupy Wall Street celebrates Thanksgiving, 11/26/2011]

The meals were arranged by Occupy Wall Street's Kitchen Working Group. Who says they’re not organized?

This blog can’t substitute for the reporting of commercial media, with their paid reporters. It would be great if the papers were responsible to us, but that’s not the case. Google will find many websites you can depend upon from the independent media. Try Democracy Now, of course, on the web, on TV or podcast.

Particularly if you have a connection to New York, you may appreciate WBAI News. They are running a half-hour of Occupy news each weekday after their main news program, which is often excellent reporting with extensive interviews.

Click the image to go to their archives. For some reason that I don’t understand, WBAI has discontinued podcasting. You can download the programs, however.

Permalink posted by Larry @ 11/25/2011 02:37:00 PM