The following episodes will NOT be televised...
Last night I watched NBC nightly news, as I have begun to do every night since the police tear-gassed the "Occupy" encampment in downtown Oakland. On THAT night, I was watching the news and simultaneously watching several live feeds up from different sources associated with the local "Occupy" movement and the official livestream that was up on the Occupy Oakland site itself. I noticed then that - as the old Sesame Street song goes - "One of these things is NOT like the other.."
The story that the mainstream news was reporting and the story with video evidence I was seeing on the live feeds were very, VERY different. I began to notice things like the fact that right before the police would move in towards the protesters, the live chopper cam on the news would suddenly veer off from the crowd and focus on something weird and counter-intuitive like a completely empty side street or two cops talking next to their car blocks away from where events were unfolding.
I noticed that right before the tear gas attacks, the news copters all simultaneously went "Ooops, we're sorry, we have to go refuel." And the feeds would go black.
Then on the livestream all hell would break loose.
I short, I began to realize that our media had been abrogated to an extent I had previously wildly underestimated.
I have watched ever since and compared what the media stories were that evening (both local and national) and what was actually going on with the OWS movement. I've noticed that there's a vast blackout going on.
Last night, on NBC nightly news here's what they reported was going on:
Natalie Wood's death is now being investigated for potential foul play. (4 minutes and some seconds) (Not news. She died in 1981. At best should've gotten a 30 second mention at the end of the broadcast.)
A breast cancer drug recall (around two and a half minutes) (Relevant, should be on public news shows)
The Penn State coach guy has a highly treatable form of lung cancer (around 30 seconds) (Not news.)
The weather is really weird out there and hey, I guess we all have to admit global warming might be sorta true, maybe. (Not news or at best, filler story taking up less than a minute)
There's a museum exhibit out there about the first ladies of the past, complete with their dresses in cases! (WAY not news)
Meanwhile, here's what was actually going on, just in MY backyard:
Click to viewAccording to reports I'm reading, when the college students who were protesting peacefully and nonviolently shielded or closed their eyes and mouths against the pepper spray, police forced some of them to the ground and PRIED OPEN their mouths and noses to spray the pepper spray directly in. This resulted in serious injuries requiring hospitalization for a couple of them.
Also, this happened:
http://upwithchrishayes.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/11/19/8896362-exclusive-lobbying-firms-memo-spells-out-plan-to-undermine-occupy-wall-street-video
In case you don't want to click on that link, let me synopsize for you: A well known Washington lobbyist firm has had a memo leaked where it talks about setting aside $850,000 to find ways to destabilize, delegitimize and destroy the Occupy movement and silence it's message.
My personal favorite part of the memo? This nugget of "skairt": “Well-known Wall Street companies stand at the nexus of where OWS protestors and the Tea Party overlap on angered populism,” the memo says. “…This combination has the potential to be explosive later in the year when media reports cover the next round of bonuses and contrast it with stories of millions of Americans making do with less this holiday season.”
Ah yes, there's always the potential that the "little people" who are having a really tight and awful hard candy Christmas will blow a frickin' gasket when they find out how much the CEO's gave themselves by way of Christmas bonuses. Can't have that! That might make OUR lives....uncomfortable.
Needless to say, this wasn't on the mainstream news either. But Natalie Wood? That's NEWS! Big news! Worth a whole chunk of long minutes at the top of the news hour.
Breaking news! I hear the California governor...some guy named Ronald Reagan might be considering a run for the presidency!
Really it's getting to the point where they're all but doing that thing I used to do when I wanted to make my little sister lose her temper: "Lalalala! Can't SEE you! Plugging my ears now! Can't HEAR you! You don't exist to me!"
I'm having to find out what's really going on in my own country by getting up in the morning and checking Facebook and G+ and handfuls of links and people's YouTube streams, then going off and doing research on it to find out what happened.
This is why - after a spate of enraged and incoherent screaming at the tv - I am stating that I'm going to have a new "News" tag on here, because I now have to consider myself a booster station for the actual news that the News heads are refusing to talk about.
Any post I tag with the News tag, you're welcome - nay even encouraged and entreated - to research and repost to your heart's desires. Apparently WE have to get things out and circulating and kind of peer review our own stories as best we can because the corporate owned News shows have had their leashes jerked tight. The news can decide that OWS will just NOT be televised, but that doesn't mean it won't be reported. And video recorded. And listened to.