I ran across this on the internet but find no media source reporting it.
Link at the bottom of your page. Same story.
cnet is a media source.
Well excuse me… But when this first came to my attention I surfed the television for the story and found nothing. It seems that what the networks choose to push aside and what they choose to run with is somewhat outrageous. I recall the balloon boy story being run in 15 minute cycles for days but much of the civil uprisings in the Mediterranean were on the back burner. Has someone seen this story reported on “television?”
It always pays to remember that “news” outlets are first and foremost parts of really large corporations (and there aren’t actually all that many). They don’t really have much interest in reporting “news” as every corporation’s primary legal obligation is to produce value for shareholders. What’s actually out there is always a very tiny sliver of a carefully selected version of reality. Some of that is for ratings to sell ads. Some of it is to sort of brush certain things under the rug while keeping others in the public mind.
BEIJING - Chinese authorities continued to tighten controls on Internet use Friday in the face of murky calls for “jasmine rallies” to emulate the anti-government protests convulsing the Middle East and North Africa.
hmm http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/25/AR2011022502151.html
In a move that calls to mind the start of the most serious unrest in nations across the Middle East over the last year, David Cameron, Britain’s prime minister, told Parliament Thursday that authorities may shut down social media websites like Facebook and Twitter, in hopes that it would return calm to their streets.
http://www.disinfo.com/2011/08/uk-prime-minister-suggests-blocking-facebook-and-twitter-to-quell-riots/
Egypt blocks social media websites in attempted clampdown on unrest
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jan/26/egypt-blocks-social-media-websites
etc., and you are surprised because…
All of those reports are about states suppressing media sources.
Some people tend to think that giant governments are somehow the only kinds of organizations that are giant problems. Thus people might not be surprised to hear of governments doing it, but would be surprised about companies doing it.
I am not one of those people, however. I have an equal opportunity type of fear & skepticism of really large organizations - public or private or otherwise.
I have surfed the www today and my take on the situation is the protesters don’t have a specific objective, and so they are ignored as just a menagerie of marginalized complainers. And possibly that is all they are. But a great many people have made a great deal of effort to ignore them and that raises my curiosity.
The story is being soft pedaled by all the networks it seems. The bulk of the coverage is dismissive of the entire protest and that always throws a red flag up for me.
MSNBC had a special report on it today with interviews and so on. Didn’t catch it all but the movement seems to be growing. I hear they will be hitting Minneapolis soon too. They never covered the war protests back in the 60’s either at first. Not that this will be anything like that but its kind of fun watching someone take on the large organizations a little.
The right wing radio DeeJays seem determined to throw everything in the book at the protests. Limbaugh, O’Reilly, Hannity, Levin, and Larson each throw disparaging comments toward the protesters and their cause. It would seem that those radio ‘divas’ are really quite worried about the protesters.
Its true that if you have a “cause” of whatever kind its better to be criticized than ignored.
It makes you wonder how the media chooses what stories to run and what not to. There has been a lot of press on the trial in LA, but nothing about the changes in government in Myanmar (Burma) until Obama announced that Hillary will be visiting there.
To understand what is going on in Myanmar and why its important, watch the movie “Beyond Rangoon” a really great film, should have gotten an Oscar, it certainly was as good as “Forest Gump”. You can watch it on YouTube if you have the bandwidth.
The right wing radio DeeJays seem determined to throw everything in the book at the protests. Limbaugh, O’Reilly, Hannity, Levin, and Larson each throw disparaging comments toward the protesters and their cause
Actually they stopped throwing disparaging comments toward the Movement because they CAN’T argue against the movement…so all they can do is throw disparaging comments towards the protesters themselves. That’s the way the right-wing operates. Can’t argue the FACTS so in order to WIN…discredit the other side any way you can. This has included slander and just plain unmoral tactics…(Oh Wait…the Right-Wing is the Moral Majority…NOT).
This “Occupy …” is doomed. Like a lot of movements like this, they are not focused on one thing only. If they would focus on the original stated purpose of the Occupy Wall Street, they would be very successful, but they are allowing other highly liberal causes in the door.
The anti-war protests were much more successful because they focused on that only. The civil rights movement was also highly focused and thus successful. There were a lot of other movements at the time that did not succeed because they got tied to other issues. For example, the Moral Majority. It got off to a great start, but when the definition of being in the majority meant born again Christian, anti-abortion, etc., a lot of people didn’t feel they were a part of that majority. The woman’s rights amendment failed because it was wedded to the pro abortion cause.
IMHO the “occupy” movement is in the wrong place. They should be on the steps of the members of congress and the white house. Perhaps Ben Bernanke’s stoop would also be a good place to camp.
Sorry MB - de Toqueville called it a long time ago. It is not the state that has squashed this country - or the world.
"the manufacturing aristocracy which is growing up under our eyes is one of the harshest that ever existed in the world; but at the same time it is one of the most confined and least dangerous. Nevertheless, the friends of democracy should keep their eyes anxiously fixed in this direction; for if ever a permanent inequality of conditions and aristocracy again penetrates into the world, it may be predicted that this is the gate by which they will enter. " ~ Alexis de Toqueville, 1838
Or to the extent that the state has played a role it has been as the handmaiden to a particular business form - one that aims primarily for control rather than “free” markets of “free” -doms. You have been duped by a change in rhetoric that occurred through the last half of the 19th & early part of the 20th century. The change in rhetoric was meant to dupe. It was meant to convince people that the “visible” hand of corporate management was the representation of “free enterprise.”
At this time Shawn Hannity is interviewing some lady in a somewhat scripted conversation attempting to paint the protesters as street hoodlums who are intimidating children, preventing them from getting to school. And I can only imagine that he has an audience that believes him.
And I can only imagine that he has an audience that believes him.
I know a couple of people who believe every word he says…both high-school dropouts…yet they make sure they vote every election…
…I have finally reached a point where I believe it doesn’t matter what people whom we support say. If we have the same or similar thought process we relate to them. Liberals like liberals, conservatives like conservatives in conversation, even if each completely disagree on the issues. Some of my very conservative friends agree with me in principle to every issue my liberal little mind can come up with, yet proudly announce they never voted for a candidate from that other liberal party. Some listen regularly to Rush and Shawn. I don’t think they are alone. That’s also how we remain friends…we accept that in each.