Media 'crazy' for slanted news:
“L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa announced in December that he'd have to make additional budget cuts to offset all the resources sucked up by Occupy L.A. Unless he retracts that statement and admits the city just really wants an awesome new backyard, this lawn makeover will be made to look like another burden Occupy left on the taxpayers. (And you know how the media goes crazy for those.)”
http://blogs.laweekly.com/informer/2012/01/la_city_hall_lawn_price_occupy.php
OK, this lawn story is becoming tiresome. Let's look at the facts. While the lawn was crumpling under the weight of the occupation, a casualty of free speech, assembly and the right to petition the government for redress, there were costs associated with it. The vast majority of those costs were absorbed by the occupants.
During the occupation it should be noted that a lot of worthy events took place. The Teach-In (November 5-6) featured speakers including Robert Reich, Robert Scheer and many others who spoke for two days to crowds in the thousands. Other speakers that arrived regularly at City Hall included Danny Glover, Rosanna Arquette, Cornell West, Russell Simmons, Tom Morello and Jesse Jackson.
The favorable publicity from events like this helped the city more than the occupiers. In fact, the city was the beneficiary of a lot of positive press. It was the city leaders that approached us initially mostly for political reasons. The Occupation Movement continues to enjoy popular support.
Union leaders and any number of other political organizations separate from OLA used the opportunity to stage multiple events to bring awareness to the audiences of many local news broadcasts and enjoyed national coverage as well. These included the California Nurses Association, Los Angeles Teachers, Good Jobs LA, and a number of other groups who educated the public on important issues.
Medical and referral services were offered to all, and while we couldn't help but notice that representatives of social services agencies were absent, services continued at the site to the extent they were possible.
Many film-makers, journalists, artists, writers, and so on, used the opportunity as a platform to showcase their work. I would expect it would be favorable to the city of Los Angeles. This category would include radio hosts like John and Ken at KFI that found something to talk about, and other media representatives that enjoyed advertising profits from their coverage, something our live-streamers and citizen journalists did not.
Many groups of students toured the encampment, a lesson in democracy as the LA Times put it, and college students working on class projects were regular visitors.
And lest the Mayor and his bean counters forget, a rough calculation shows that more than 160,000 meals were served to anyone that showed up, including bus riders, undercover cops, provocateurs, and the homeless population of Los Angeles that found the encampment safer than the Skid Row area. Who can blame them?
Keep in mind that it was County Health officials that shut down the food tent, the showers and made no effort to assist those that were attracted to the encampment for reasons other than political activism. Instead, they made every effort to impede the efforts of the occupiers, their hygiene needs and their food supply.
Despite the fact that the movement was not structured to address any of these endeavors, the constructive efforts of those involved dealt with them anyway, something the city and the county have obviously failed to do despite the funding to do so. None of these costs were absorbed by city and county officials, only the lawn and the alleged cost of police overtime which hasn't been verified by an independent auditor.
Here's a suggestion for the esteemed mayor. Tell “Nuch” Trutanich to drop the charges against the remaining protesters that have already endured physical abuse, detention without cause and harassment, and the city will save a lot of money that could be used to replant the lawn. Otherwise, I would suggest to the other occupiers that we prepare a bill for services rendered on behalf of the city and county, including feeding the twelve LAPD undercover cops that were hanging around trying to look like activists.
Occupy history: How to win
The following link provides an interesting take on commonalities shared by activists regardless of the cause. The case study in this instance is about the overthrow of Serbian dictator Slobodan Milosevic. An interesting take from the viewpoint of those that have a long history of oppression:
“Time matters. Activists from other countries have been heard to laugh at U.S. activists because we notoriously lack a sense of history. This strategy framework supports us to overcome our cultural limitation and learn to think like the historical beings that we actually are."
http://www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/lakeylivrev.html
Results incoming: the Honorable Judge Patterson speaks
“In handing down the sentence, Judge Robert B. Patterson of Federal District Court in Manhattan called insider trading a serious offense. He added that the Occupy Wall Street movement was a reaction to this type of crime and widespread greed.
“They’re complaining about the money, what they consider greed,' the judge said of the protestors. 'And I think that most people agree with that.'”
http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2012/01/11/ex-fund-manager-gets-prison-term-...
If the mainstream media isn't paying attention to the OWS message, at least some others are. Who would you rather have on your side, Judge Patterson or Bill O'Reilly?
7,000 or perhaps more?
Remember this aerial footage from the Oakland shut-down-the-port action on November 2, 2011? In the post-event articles we saw reports that included estimates of between 4000-7000 being used by MSM outlets. The next morning we saw this video which caused quite a bit of laughter at our luxurious swamp on the north side of City Hall. Can anyone really call themselves a journalist when they can't estimate a head count with at least bit more accuracy? This one is for the ages:
Here's an interesting video that does a good job of conveying the message:
The Occupy Congress groups will be converging on the bastion of democracy soon, and we'll be interested in find out from the MSM how many people will be in attendance. It is becoming rather apparent that lots of people are going, but it would be impossible to make an estimate in advance. The prediction here is that the number will exceed the “4000-7000” that showed up in Oakland.
What say you?
This just in:
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