The corporate media is doing a good job of mischaracterizing the Occupy protesters, as can be seen even in the most balanced of Big Apple newspapers, the New York Times. They seize on and magnify every misdeed of individuals, while reporting whatever the police say as Gospel. Pretty much all the news outlets are reporting that protesters clashed with police yesterday, when the opposite would be closer to the truth. But the important stuff doesn’t take place in elite-serving newspapers; it takes place in Midtown boardrooms.
At a Midtown gathering of business leaders on Thursday, Mr. Bloomberg said that the protests were a dire sign of the public’s economic fears.
“The public is getting scared,” he said. “They don’t know what to do, and they’re going to strike out.” He added, “They just know the system isn’t working, and they don’t want to wait around.”
The last time Mayor Bloomberg made a dire warning, the Occupy protests began the next day. If Bloomberg is rattled, it’s because his system of media control and police brutality isn’t working. Of course, it is at work, but it’s not having the desired impact. He should check with Silvio Berlusconi to see how his model turned out.
The disconnect between what people are reading on Twitter, Facebook, and blogs, and seeing on livestreams, and what they are reading in the newspapers and seeing on the teevee is opening a lot of eyes. The sham is getting exposed like never before.
Meanwhile, the aristocracy is holed up in Midtown wondering why all this is happening and why talking points about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac aren’t fooling anyone.
The banks got bailed out but Congress wants the bill to be payed by the neediest and most vulnerable. The Republicans absolutely insist upon this.
If our elites want to save their necks, they ought to crack a history book, read about the French Revolution, and take some preemptive measures. And I don’t mean that they should increase the repression.
