It is just beginning to get dark as I hurry across Foley Square, in lower Manhattan. As I wait for the light to change, my eyes stray to the giant black obelisk-like sculpture in the center. It has been just over three months since I was last in Foley Square. The last time I found myself standing on top of the platform at the base of that very statue surrounded by a crowd of tens of thousands: union members, students, teachers, medical professionals, elderly churchgoers, and various other disaffected New Yorkers—a virtual army of Occupy Wall Street protestors. Now, I see the walk signal and hurry inside a nearby Starbucks to meet my latest interviewee: a comedian, radio personality and “gonzo journalist” by the name of John Knefel.
For those of you unfamiliar with John, he recently attained a measure of fame due to a certain photograph, which came along with the headline “Busted For Tweeting” and a hell of a story. Despite John’s self-applied description as a Milhouse lookalike, in person he is a man who exudes a quiet confidence and a certain level “Brooklynite cool” that is neither overt nor affected. He’s tempered with a casual sort of brilliance—like a Milhouse who grew up, got over Lisa and left Springfield for Capital City.
“I came to New York to pursue comedy and writing in general,” John tells me. “I always looked at comedy more as a tool, and less as a final, end-career goal. I never wanted to be a road dog, going from one-nighter to one-nighter—that’s actually my idea of hell.” As John became more interested in politics, he found more success than he’d had with traditional stand-up. Soon he’d landed a gig with his sister Molly Knefel at Breakthrough Radio, as the co-hosts of the show Radio Dispatch.
“When Occupy happened,” John says between sips of coffee, “it was clear that this was a very important moment in US history, and I realized that I was in a unique position to dedicate myself to observing, chronicling, and sometimes being an advocate for the movement.” John gained prominence as an Occupy Journalist during Mayor Bloomberg’s first threatened raid on Liberty Square. “When the eviction was threatened, that was what ended up solidifying my role in the movement,” says John. “I wasn’t sure at the beginning if I wanted to join a working group or if I wanted to stay sort of independent, but after I heard that Bloomberg was trying to evict us, I headed down to the park and began live-tweeting the events as they were happening.” Since then, John has been at nearly every single major Occupy event in and around NYC, tweeting the movement in real time.
When I ask him about his most intense Occupy Wall Street experience, his response surprises me. “The most intense moment emotionally, with the exception of finally being released [after 37 hours in jail], would be the night of the threatened eviction, or rather the morning of, when it was about 6 a.m. and the unions started showing up. We had around 3,000 people in Zuccotti Park, and when word came that Bloomberg had backed down from clearing the park, there was this huge cheer. I was standing next to [another journalist] and she said, ‘Wow, I have been covering activists for years and I’ve never seen them win!’ That was the night I tweeted that Zuccotti Park had again become Liberty Square. It felt like this kind of turning point. I realized that there are victories that Occupy can achieve, and it’s really just a matter of getting enough people together so that they can happen. That morning was incredibly intense, and is unlike anything I felt before.”
When questioned about why he got involved in the movement, John’s brow furrows slightly, and he says, “What struck me about the movement was that it had something that nothing else had. It’s hard to say exactly what it was or why it was. Certainly when you look back on it, it feels inevitable, in a certain way. When it started, I wasn’t particularly concerned about demands or structure. Occupy Wall Street felt more like this small, delicate fire that I wanted to preserve and help it to grow. There is no mechanism in American political life to halt the upward mobilization of capital; there’s no meaningful way to stop it from centralizing among the richest of the rich. It remains to be seen if Occupy Wall Street is that mechanism, but I think it’s the closest thing we’ve had yet, and because of that I feel that it has to be supported—not blindly, but certainly full-throatedly, because however you feel about OWS, it is the best option we have to put the brakes on the insanity that is the status quo.”
John’s support is most definitely full-throated, as is his sharp criticism of many mainstream journalists who have covered the movement, including Ginia Bellafante of the New York Times, whose coverage John describes as “awful.” He credits her with launching many of the bad narratives that Occupy is trying to dispel. Jane Mayer, on the other hand, is “a very, very good journalist,” according to John, but is still “very confused about the current political environment.”
John is very concerned about the apparent disconnect between the mainstream media and their coverage of Occupy events. “If you want to understand Occupy, you have to be down here,” John says. “You need to be talking to people all the time, you need to be marching with them, and you need to be critical; but you also need to see the whole picture. I guarantee you that all of the liberal pundits who issue concerns about Occupy have never organized in their lives. They have never been at the head of a movement which is capable of changing the system, and so their coverage and criticism needs to be taken with a whole lot of salt. Even if they’re good journalists, even if they want to do a good job, you simply can’t expect the establishment to be able to understand something that is by its very nature anti-all establishment. People who rise to the top of media empires don’t understand that; they don’t rise to the top because they’re adept at critical thinking—they’re managers, they’re drones, and they’re water-carriers for the powerful, by-and-large. They don’t think like radicals, they don’t employ radicals, and they don’t understand radicals.”
I must say that I find John Knefel’s candor more than refreshing. In an age where a mayor can call a newpaper’s editors to make sure they’ll take his side before taking action, and media empires go to court to protect their right to lie to the public and win their case, it’s good to get some truth, and truth is what John Knefel provides.
“Good comedy is all about taking on authority figures,” says John, “as is the best kind of journalism. It’s about taking aim at those in power, especially if you see their power as illegitimate, and doing your best to bring them down, or at the very least hold them accountable. In comedy you use scorn, and in journalism you use information, so there’s a major overlap in the skill set.” And taking on authority figures is exactly what John does best. Recently, he made headlines again, this time by insinuating himself into a meeting between representative Chris Gibson (R-NY) and some Occupiers from New York’s 20th district during Occupy Congress on January 17th. John then proceeded to write a scathing piece for Salon.com about the creeping authoritarianism on Capitol Hill, as well as the vapid naiveté of this Gibson statement: “We are a free country, and no bill or act or presidential decree can take that away.”
John’s words resonate with me tonight. These last five months of Occupy have been something of an emotional rollercoaster for me, my generation, and anyone else who is truly concerned about justice, liberty, and the preservation of the American dream. We have witnessed some of the worst excesses of our culture, the brutality and condescension which is directed at dissent in modern day America, and one of the most horrifying subversions of the press in recent history. Yet at the same time we have also seen the American people rise up in a way that most of my generation believed was impossible.
After we finish the interview, I exit the Café. Again my eye drifts to the sculpture in Foley Square. Gathered nearby are swarms of protestors—not tens of thousands this time, but easily a couple hundred. The crowds have gathered together around a small stage and are listening to speeches by local politicians, activists, and community organizers. The air is cold and the light is dim, but there’s Occupy Wall Street burning like a small fire; as long as we have people like John Knefel to stoke it, I find that I am hopeful for the future.
If you are interested in seeing more from John Knefel, follow him on twitter @JohnKnefel, tune into his radio show, or check him out (along with his hilarious and talented sister) during their recurring show John and Molly Get Along, at Le Poisson Rouge.
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