Faux News Can't Twist Occupy Message

What is the message of the Occupy Wall Street protesters?

"When we hear the protesters on Wall Street in New York chanting their messages and see the signs they carry, we should realize that they are very concise, mostly short and to the point, and very clear, but that is not what you get when you read most of the major newspapers and blogs and view US TV networks.

The New York Times, which is one of the world's most influential newspapers, published an article by Eli Saslow entitled “Occupy Wall Street: Newcomers bring their worries and hopes to New York protest” that discusses every detail about how these three “newcomers” come and join the Occupy Wall Street protesters except their cause and message.

The general purpose of the article is to mock the people who are nobody (in the eyes of the author) and to try to shed some light on them and their lives. “The unemployed television producer, just evicted from his apartment, put his belongings into a storage locker in Harlem and hitched a ride with a friend,” wrote Mr. Saslow.

The explanation and profile of this unemployed television producer, and two other people from other cities who are heading to downtown New York, continues in paragraph after paragraph, along with unnecessary details about their lives and how they get to New York, such as how many hot dogs they had on the way and which pit stops they used. “What began three weeks ago as a small college protest and then grew into a circus of hippies, misfits and anarchists is now trying to grow into something else,” Saslow added.

The Fox News Network tried to “infiltrate” the Occupy Wall Street encampment to discredit the movement's message on the air, but the protesters didn't fall for the trick, began chanting “FOX News Lies!” and embarrassed one of their infamous reporters so much he had to leave Zuccotti Park, which is located near Wall Street.

Eric Cantor, the Republican minority leader in the House of Representatives, told CBS News in a recent interview that he was concerned about the “growing mobs” occupying Wall Street and U.S. cities.

Congressman Peter King from New York was visibly irate during a TV interview last week and called the Wall Street demonstrators a “ragtag band of malcontents” and “anarchists.”

Occupy Wall Street crowds must be doing something right, since all these media people and congressmen are trying to belittle them by labeling them as anti-American and anti-capitalist mobs.

But quite the contrary, the Occupy Wall Street protesters have actually put their finger on something very important. The movement started in New York with less than 50 people, but in five weeks has grown into a nationwide phenomenon reaching 1400 cities and drawing in more and more people every day.

And their message is very simple. They want the current economic injustice system to be abolished and to be replaced by a more fair economic system with better distribution of wealth"

Turn the Shame Around

"For the longest time I didn’t get Occupy Wall Street, but then Herman Cain helped me out: He said something so monumentally wrong that my reaction against it pointed me in the right direction.

Here’s Herman:

Don’t blame Wall Street, don’t blame the big banks, if you don’t have a job and you’re not rich, blame yourself! … It is not someone’s fault if they succeeded, it is someone’s fault if they failed.

That’s when I got it. An unjust system’s first line of defense is shame. As long as we’re ashamed to admit that we’re victims, as long as we’re ashamed to identify with the other losers, we’re helpless.

It would be great to have a 10-point plan that solves everything. It would be great to have a party that endorses that plan and a get-out-the-vote movement to put that party into office. But none of that is going to happen until large numbers of us cast off our shame, until we turn the shame around: We need to stop being ashamed that we couldn’t crack the top 1%, and instead cast shame on an economic system that only works for 1%. The people who defend that immoral system and profit from it — they should be ashamed, not us.

That’s what Occupy Wall Street is about. OWS isn’t about plans and parties and votes. That all comes later. OWS is about casting off shame and learning to identify with the other losers."