Occupy Underground
In reply to the discussion: Occupy Cleveland canceled May Day protest plans to march in the city because of this: [View all]limpyhobbler
(8,244 posts)Saw it when it came out, just watched it again.
To your point that MSM will never give us a fair shake and are the mouthpiece for the 1%...
Yeah I get your point and to a certain extent agree. But the MSM is not monolithic and we have the ability to partially influence what they do.
There are progressive and liberal media that have a positive attitude toward Occupy. They want to cover us but can't support "violence" like breaking things.
Media is kind of a food chain. First get positive coverage on small friendly outlets like Democracy Now, Majority Report, Citizen Radio, Thom Hartmann, etc. If it's a compeling story it might get to the next level. That would be like the shows on Current TV like Young Turks, etc. From there MSNBC will pick it up. Lawrence O'Donnell, Al Sharpton, RachelMaddow, Ed Schultz. Those shows are sympathetic to the movement and will give positive coverage if we give them an opportunity. They have in the past. And on up the chain to CNN, etc.
It is also good when stories go viral natually, saturating all interwebs, bypassing the MSM entirely. But really even in that context, a little positive media coverage goes a long way.
You're 100% right that Occupy is not going to get a fair shake. Any little thing, like one lone person breaking a window, gets blown way out of proportion. And any amount of violence by police seems to be overlooked.
There is a way to get positive coverage by working up the media food chain, but it would take a certain level of organization and discipline. And/or luck. Or not? I don't really know, I'm just saying ideas and reading threads. Not trying to suggest I know exactly what's best.
In the 1990s and 2000s when we protested trade deals and banks, we made a mistake of having not enough serious media strategy. It's a challenge when you're working with loosely organized groups.