A Proud Moment Destroyed By The Media

[ChoppinBroccoli]

Yesterday I was driving home past the Statehouse here in Columbus, Ohio, and when I glanced over, I noticed that a small group of people had formed an "Occupy Columbus" area directly in front. I was very excited and proud that this movement had picked up steam right here in my town. Last night, I happened to catch the local news, and they led with a story about the "Occupy Columbus" folks. The station was a joint Fox/ABC station (they show news at 10:00 on the Fox channel and then again at 11:00 on the ABC channel). Guess what the main thrust of the story was.

Some jerk-off with a hand-held camera and a microphone walking around talking to people. And do you think they talked to any of the "Occupy Columbus" MEMBERS? Oh, Good Lord, no. They were going up to passers-by on the street and asking them, "So what do you think these people WANT?" So naturally, the story was a hodgepodge of soundbites from rubes on the street, all of whom basically said, "I don't know WHAT they want."

The funny thing was, they ended the story with a shot of the "campsite," in which they showed that a large portion of the sidewalk railing was lined with signs. Signs which, if anyone had bothered to READ them, said EXACTLY what the "Occupy Columbus" people wanted. It reminded me of that cartoon someone posted a few days ago, with the news reporter standing in front of a crowd of people all holding signs saying what they wanted, and the news reporter saying, "Nobody really knows WHAT they want."

I even said to my wife when the story began, "You watch, they'll manage to work in some reference to the idea that the protestors don't really know what they want." Little did I know that the ENTIRE STORY would be, "they don't know what they want."

[Frustratedlady]

1. Ahhhh, but you forget...they can't spell or read. EOM

[gratuitous]

2. Drop the local stations a line by e-mail

Copy the other local stations on your e-mail. Let your Fox/ABC affiliate know, respectfully and assertively, that had their reporters bothered to talk to the demonstrators instead of the passers-by, or had the camera folks gotten some shots of the signs, they might have had more luck discerning what the demonstrators wanted.

It won't do much good, but it will serve notice on the station that some folks are watching their coverage with a critical eye for their bullshit.

[coalition_unwilling]

6. When I worked as a print journalist many eon ago, it was

customary to print 'corrections' from time to time. Not sure if the equivalent has ever existed in broadcast media, but you should include a threat to contact each of their advertisers in the absence of any correction being broadcast.

And then you have to, simply must, contact the advertisers.

Trust me, stations don't make money from broadcasting programming. They make money from selling ad space\time.

[dixiegrrrrl]

7. Find out who the local advertisers are and go occupy them!

[Fire Walk With Me]

3. That means it's working, it means that they're afraid that if they actually discuss it, people will

go out and join in.

That means we're winning.

[Fire Walk With Me]

4. This is the "...then they laugh at you, then they fight you..." part.

Don't expect the very people who will lose out when #OWS wins, to give it fair anything...

[KurtNYC]

5. Thank god the goal of Occupy does not rely on balanced coverage

from the 1%-owned MSM.