Occupational Therapy

The protest movement in New York is called Occupy Wall Street. It has spawned dozens of similar groups around the country called Occupy Here or There. Right in Connecticut there are going to be events called Occupy Hartford or Occupy New Haven. Most of these other events have been drawing a few dozen supporters at most. Basically, these events have only brought out the hard core of old style socialists in the country. Nevertheless, the press that these protests have generated should remind us all once again of the total slant in the media in covering events like these.

Here are a few facts:
1) The Occupy events in total have drawn less than 5000 people to numerous events around the country. When the Tea party held its first rallies in April of 2009, many of the individual events drew over 5000 people by themselves.
2) The coverage of the Occupy events has been benign and even favorable. When the protesters blocked the Brooklyn Bridge the other day, there was no condemnation in the media. It was just another protest on just another day. When the Tea Party began, it was either "astroturf", racist or an angry mob.
3) The Occupy groups are expressing their anger at evil capitalists. The Tea Party was an insecure group of folks angry over losing control of the country to progress.

Newspapers and TV networks have every right to say what they want about either movement. Commentary is fine and the pundits are never at a loss for words. News, however, is something else. It is at least supposed to be even handed. Instead, we have people either reliving the 1960's as they think it unfolded or else reporters pushing their own left wing agendas. I guess the final straw for me came this morning when the business reporter on CBS reported on the Occupy Wall Street protest as a new tourist attraction in Manhattan.

Here is a news flash: the Occupy Wall Street and other offshoot movements are not therapy for the country. They are not an expression of the views of most people. They are a tiny group of professional socialists who are using a gullible and/or left wing media to glorify their movement.