The MSM vs. Occupy Wall Street

What is the mainstream media’s responsibility when it comes to covering the Occupy Wall Street protests in New York City? So far, with a few small exceptions, the major television networks have been largely silent on the subject.

Occupy Wall Street, as described on one of the many websites devoted to it says it “is a people powered movement for democracy that began in America on September 17 with an encampment in the financial district of New York City.” This protest and ones affiliated with it around the country are getting plenty of play on social media sites like Reddit and Twitter. The protesters also have celebrities like movie director Michael Moore, Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine, and The Yes Men in their midst, but the media has seemingly given this event a resounding pass.

“Let’s be clear on this.  Both conservative and ‘liberal’ media outlets are playing for the same team, said Marc Adler on Michael Moore's website. “They are all either big corporations themselves or they are owned and controlled by the six mega corporations which dominate the mass media.  As such, a populist revolution is against their interest.”

Recently, television media rightly devoted most of their airtime to cover the various Arab Spring protests that popped up around the Middle East. The networks even sent correspondents to the center of the sometimes-violent protests, but no such embedded coverage exists for the Occupy Wall Street protests by the mainstream media.

However, once again the power of the internet has come to fill the void left by the American media. 

Here, you can watch live streaming video and photos from the protests, as well as live text posts.

If the mainstream media outlets are curious as to why they do not appeal anymore to certain demographics in their old viewership, perhaps they should reconsider their hypocritical editorial stand when it comes to covering protests in America--or be made irrelevant in the process.