Occupy Wall Street Media Round-Up for November 2

OWS MOVING THE GOP, ECONOMIC LANDSCAPE
A Salon story notes the different reactions to OWS this week by Tea Partiers, who have been generally dismissive and patronizing, and leaders of the GOP (Boehner, Cantor), who have tried to come off as empathetic. The story included the ad run by Tea Party-affiliated group called the Campaign to Defeat Barack Obama, which spliced unflattering footage from Occupy protests with statements of support from Democratic politicians. New York Mayor Bloomberg said on Tuesday that Occupy Wall Street should not be directing their anger at banks, but at Congress, Politico reported.  

Senator Majority Leader Harry Reid invoked Occupy Wall Street on the Senate floor on Monday, taking Republicans to task for opposing Democrats’ latest jobs bill, according to a Politico story. Reid said that while Democrats fight for jobs for the middle class, Republicans fight for tax breaks for the 1 percent of Americans who don’t need the help.    

Media stories about the extent of Occupy Wall Street’s influence on Bank of America’s decision to cancel its proposed $5/month fee for debit card use continue to circulate, including ones in The Week and a Washington Post piece by Greg Sargent arguing that OWS has changed the overall discussion about economic inequality. More OWS bank actions are being planned across the country (e.g. Seattle).  

In an op-ed for the The Wall Street Journal, Ralph Nader supports a financial speculation tax and argues that Congress should pass one to show that they’ve “heard the message” of the OWS movement. Politico also picked up the story. A Huffington Post story focused on National Nurses United’s role in pushing for passage of a financial transaction tax.  

LOCAL OCCUPY PROTESTS 

Continuing Impact of Mass Arrests
Stories continue to note that recent mass arrests in places like Oakland, Nashville, Denver, and other cities have bolstered support for the movement (CBS news), including more financial donations. A Forbes story looked at donations raised on the “We Pay” site and found that donors were mostly male (68%), middle class (58%) and college educated (58%) with funds being used for food, shelter, water, medical supplies and legal fees. 

Other stories have looked at how the mass arrests have prompted responses from elected officials on how they will treat their respective Occupy protests (Providence station). 

Occupy Oakland

Media is heavily covering Oakland’s city-wide strike to occur today, including a Los Angeles Times story and an Associated Press story about Occupy Oakland gaining support for the strike from labor unions representing police officers, public school teachers, and government workers. 

The Oakland Police Officers' Association sent an open letter to city Mayor Jean Quan, criticizing the mayor's response to Occupy Oakland protests (Huffington Post). Officers also expressed some degree of solidarity with the protesters, declaring, "We, too, are the 99 percent fighting for better working conditions, fair treatment and the ability to provide a living for our children and families." The story has also been picked up by the Washington Post. 

What’s Next for OWS?

Media continues to wonder what’s next for the OWS movement and what its goals are in stories from CBS and IndyMedia. In his piece for Huffington Post, Van Jones writes about Rebuild the American Dream’s 10 policy points.  

Local Actions

Today, Harvard students plan to walk out of an economics class taught by Gregory Mankiw, chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers under President George W. Bush, to show solidarity with the Occupy movement, according to Business Insider.  

Police arrested 10 Occupy Tulsa protesters for violating curfew on early Wednesday morning and, according to protesters, 9 were pepper-sprayed.[1] A New Mexico (Un)occupy Alburqurque protester ended his week-long hunger strike Tuesday after meeting with University of New Mexico Provost.  UNM had evicted protesters last week from the makeshift campsite and arrested around two dozen who refused to leave.[2]  Several stories focused on issues related to homeless people integrating into Occupy protests (NY Times, Wall Street Journal). 

Labor lends support to Occupy Little Rock (Arkansas Times). 

RIGHT-WING MEMES 

The volume of stories about OWS on right-wing sites has decreased, although they continue to push the same memes. Several media sources have called out Fox for not airing a clip from an OWS protester who speaks sharply about OWS, Fox, and corporate media.