Media ignores huge Wall Street protest
Protesters join the March on Wall Street Rally in New York City on April 29, 2010. Image by pamhule via Flickr
(Updated)
This past week, over 10,000 protesters gathered on Wall Street to demand financial reform.
More than 5,000 union members and others delivered a crisp message with their march from City Hall to the Bowling Green Bull. In contrast to recent protests on the right, the event was noticeably lacking in loaded and ahistorical symbols like Gadsen flags, and refrained from vilifying individuals in favor of calling out institutions. Of hundreds of signs hoisted, only one was branded with the Obama logo. The signs were non-partisan and dealt with real problems — namely, this country’s rogue, unregulated finance sector. There was only one puppet, a fanged vampire squid meant to symbolize Goldman Sachs. The banners declared “Wall Street: Never Again” and “Less Audis, More Audits.” Almost to a one, they echoed the clear policy demands of the day: regulatory reform, new taxes on banks and speculators, and a jobs bill.
The media almost universally ignored this massive protest, though to his credit, I hear MSNBC’s Dylan Ratigan covered it. Other than that mention, the “Showdown On Wall Street” received little attention despite the fact that teabagger protests, which almost always attract considerably less supporters, enjoy a near monopoly of coverage.
So this does not bode well for the May Day immigration reform protests. Hundreds of thousands of people are expected to rally across the country today, partially as a response to the insane new anti-immigrant law in Arizona, but also to ask their leaders to pass comprehensive immigration reform. (Interested parties can find the nearest march here.)
I would normally suggest protesters dress in stupid costumes, shout racist shit, and misspell their signs, or otherwise, the media will ignore them. But then again, the whole “human dignity” thing is — for whatever reason — still important to some people. Maybe May Day protesters should just stick with moral legislation and good ideas.
We’ll see if the media covers the May Day protests. Hopefully, if enough people turn out, and physically stop traffic, they’ll have to.
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5k in dc, 10k in denver, 20k in ny, hundreds of thousands in LA, 65k in milwaukee, chicago starting early because of crowd…
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so here we have it: the mainstream media gives these moronic tea baggers a shitload of coverage which they clearly DON’T deserve (and mind you they are fewer than 3,000 at any given time), while a massive protest of over 10,000 on WALL STREET is largely ignored.
5000 union members….don’t they have a job?
Maybe. Maybe not. But they do have solidarity — and sizable pension funds — both of which should get the worried attention of the financial sector.
In response to another comment. See in context »RE:I would normally suggest protesters dress in stupid costumes, shout racist shit, and misspell their signs, or otherwise, the media will ignore them.
How about if they chase the media, grab their equipment and break it to pieces…..?
[...] Media ignores һυɡе Wall Street protest – Allison Kilkenny – Unreported… [...]
[...] Media ignores һυɡе Wall Street protest – Allison Kilkenny – Unreported… [...]
Well, now you know what it was like in tax protests from 2 years ago and what I hear for some of the first tea-party protests. All easily over 10K in many cities and no media exposure. Irritating isn’t it?
Keep it up on a regular basis, and media cannot ignore it. It’s what the tea-parties have done.
But numbers are pointless if we understand the message. The key problem with the protest is not a single sign addresses the source of the problem… the government. If the government induced housing bubble and GSEs bundling the mortgages never happened, wall street may have never been enticed into risky MBSs (and imitating the GSE’s schemes). Until I see both involved parties being questioned, I don’t really care what a bunch of one-sided union thugs think.
And “taxes on banks”? That will just go to the consumers. Yet another burden to the people from this mess. And “jobs bill”. Um, that was passed in March.
Just need to fix their message and perhaps people will listen.