Shame on the Sacramento Bee for attributing the violence late Thursday night to Occupy protesters when the chaos was clearly and identifiably the responsibility of an outside contingent of black bloc agitators sporting black shirts, bandannas and backpacks for their spray paint, sticks, clubs, fire retardant and other equipment.
What's strange is that The Bee makes the distinction itself with its headline, "Occupy protesters disavow Oakland violence." From there, though, they undo the difference by repeatedly referring to these hooligans in their photo captions as "Occupy protesters." (See most of the first ten photos of the slide show.) This is most evident in the photos of the black shirts that took over a building late that night. In the photo above, by the way, notice the phrasing of the caption (describing how they "occupied" -- rather than "took over" or "commandeered" -- the building) linguistically connecting the actions of this militant element to the name of the non-violent movement.
What's very dangerous, at this point, is the media neglecting to educate the public about the nature and source of the violence -- as CBS clearly does here. It's a development we warned about weeks ago. It doesn't take too many errors of omission to convince a large swath of the American people that Occupy, itself, is a powderkeg.
It wasn't just The Bee, though, which fed the misrepresentation. Consider this photo from a Getty package at Zimbio. In the photo, we see an Occupy security member (the same one who was overrun in this video we highlighted last week, and seen again here) being manhandled by the black shirts. Thing is, when you read the caption:
Demonstrators clash during an Occupy demonstration November 2, 2011 in Oakland, California. The group called for a general strike Wednesday, and planned to march on the city's port later in the day.
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This must be a community organizer thing.
Its difficult to imagine that the authorities do not have their own undercover agents on site. Hence, they must either be aware of this infiltration, and choosing not to flag it up. Or, they are complicit in those activities and aims. Similarly, honest media would have its own reporters mingle with that melee. In order to report on exactly the tactics being deployed, to covertly corrupt that community. Much as Wall Street itself has been subverted from the inside, and is in desperate need of independent investigation.
Instead of hammering those people who helped create the inequality under the guise of the "American Dream" and searching for solutions, they run about like wannabe combat reporters about to come in their pants at the first sign of violence or omniscient armchair critics who so obviously haven't the fog of an idea what it it's all about.
In reporting, a journalist attempts to describe an event to which there were witnesses. The general public depends on this account. But the witnesses will know if it was the truth. The more times they get the story right the more their believability (i.e. integrity) grows. That's the only thing a journalist possesses. Stone, Cronkite, Murrow, Moyers and Rooney all have had it as well as many others.But too many are lacking and without it they bring not only disrepute upon themselves but damage a foundament of our democracy as well.
So yes... Shame on you Sacramento Bee and all those who blindly went with the story.
WTF are you talking about.
I'd rather be rich and free then occupied any day.
such great care in distinguishing one group from another
but it seemed like the opposite was applied during the Tea Party events
.