Slideshow: Occupy Wall Street protests spread to LA; are media absent?

This past weekend, the Occupy Wall Street protests that began in New York City over two weeks ago sprung up in Los Angeles, California, as well as numerous other U.S. cities. As the slideshow at left indicates, Pershing Square in downtown L.A. was filled with a couple of thousand protesters, many of whom carried hand-made signs. A number of demonstrators spoke out, some through mobile p.a. systems, against corporate greed and corruption, the massive accumulation of wealth and power by the top 1% as opposed to “the other 99%”, large-scale unemployment, and war spending that has reached trillions of dollars. Some of the protesters had backpacks and sleeping bags, and appeared to be ready to continue their protest for days. On Saturday, many of the protesters marched from Pershing Square to Los Angeles City Hall, where they have set up camp.

Ignored by the Mainstream Media?

A number of progressives have complained that the mainstream media (including major newspapers and television news networks) have been extremely slow to cover the Occupy Wall Street protests. As one protester, blogger Jesse LaGreca, pointed out to a Fox News reporter at the New York City protest,

I’m glad to see you coming around and kind of paying attention to what the other 99 percent of Americans are paying attention to, as opposed to the far-right fringe, who would just love to destroy the middle class entirely.

Fox reportedly has not yet aired this interview.

Some observers also note that the amount and timeliness of mainstream media coverage of the Occupy Wall Street protests seem to pale in comparison to the massive coverage given to the right-wing, corporate-backed Tea Party protests against President Obama’s administration in 2009 and 2010, even when some such Tea Party events only garnered a few dozen protesters. Likewise, Media Matters For America indicates that Fox is criticizing the Occupy Wall Street protesters, in sharp contrast to what Media Matters says was Fox’s “relentless promotion and support of the tea party protests of 2009 and 2010.”

According to some critics, this minimal and/or negative coverage of the protests by the major media is no accident. They say that big corporations, which are among the targets of the protesters, run the major media outlets. Some of these media corporations have large institutional ownership by the Wall Street firms that are also among the protesters’ targets. Indeed, progressive radio talk show host Thom Hartmann points listeners to the website theyrule.net, which allows readers to map out who Hartmann says are the numerous common directors serving on the boards of both the major media organizations and the big banks.

Using Alternative Media

Instead of relying on the mainstream media, the Occupy Wall Street protesters and their supporters are largely communicating via social networks such as Facebook and Twitter, and progressive blogs and websites such as Daily Kos, The Huffington Post, Crooks and Liars, as well as their own websites. If the protests continue to gain strength, this may well mark the point where the U.S. legacy mainstream media showed themselves, at best, to be behind the curve on a major story of our time.

© 2011 Matthew Emmer -- All Rights Reserved

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