BBC Censorship: Occupier Ugliness Edition

Has anyone else noticed that the BBC has gone totally silent about the Occupy Wall St. movement in the US? With the exception of a couple stories about the violence innocent exercising of rights in Oakland, where they shut down a shipping port and attacked police were victims of unprovoked brutality from The Man, there has been scarcely a peep from BBC News for days.

After a flurry of encomia impartial reports on how nice and earnest and well-meaning the Occupiers are, the more violent and unhinged they became, the quieter the Beeboids got. Just two days after the original Occupiers hit Zuccotti Park, Daniel Nasaw tried to tie them directly to the Democrat/Union protests in Wisconsin (which the BBC also reported dishonestly), claiming that this was the “birth of a movement”.  It all seemed so wonderfully clear then, didn’t it?

The Occupier activity around the country is one of the most important stories going lately, especially since the Oakland City Council is about to cave in to the violence and now support the Occupiers. But the BBC seems to be censoring nearly all news of it. They’ve gone silent because they don’t want you to know about things like this:

Zuccotti protesters put up women-only tent to prevent sexual assaults

Zuccotti Park has become so overrun by sexual predators attacking women in the night that organizers felt compelled to set up a female-only sleeping tent yesterday to keep the sickos away.*

 Or this:

Occupy protest turns violent outside Washington Convention Center

UPDATE 11/7: Occupy DC becoming increasingly violent, police say

Citing injuries to five people outside the Washington Convention Center on Friday night, the mayor urged the demonstators to show restraint so that their protests are not discredited by violence.

“We will not tolerate behavior that jeopardizes public safety,” Gray said.

Lanier said in a statement that the protesters have become “increasingly confrontational and violent toward uninvolved bystanders and motorists.”
Related Examiner Occupy DC coverage
Jesse Jackson downtown Monday, compares Occupy to civil rights movement
D.C. police chief says Occupy protesters getting more violent

Four of the injured people appear to be protesters themselves. A fifth injured person was a 78-year-old woman who was knocked down while attempting to get around the Occupy DC’s blockade of a dinner for a conservative group Friday.

“That is no longer a peaceful protest,” Lanier said.

And this is coming from the DC police who generally support the Occupiers’ cause so much that the 911 operators hung up on a couple people inside the AFP event who called to complain about Occupiers blocking all exits and preventing people from leaving.

Or this:

Occupy Chicago protesters interrupt Wisconsin governor’s speech here

The Republican governor, who appeared before about 300 people at a public policy breakfast at Chicago’s Union League Club, saw his speech interrupted by union-backed Occupy Chicago protesters for about six minutes before they left the event.

Or this:

Occupy Boston Occupies Israeli Consulate

According to the Twitter feed of @kade_ellis, chants included, “hey hey, Ho ho! Israeli apartheid’s got to go!,” “long live the intifada! Intifada intifada!,” “not another nickel! Not another dime! No more money for Israel’s crimes!,” and “Viva viva Palestina!”

Or this:


A Chill Descends On Occupy Wall Street; “The Leaders of the allegedly Leaderless Movement”

On Sunday, October 23, a meeting was held at 60 Wall Street. Six leaders discussed what to do with the half-million dollars that had been donated to their organization, since, in their estimation, the organization was incapable of making sound financial decisions. The proposed solution was not to spend the money educating their co-workers or stimulating more active participation by improving the organization’s structures and tactics. Instead, those present discussed how they could commandeer the $500,000 for their new, more exclusive organization. No, this was not the meeting of any traditional influence on Wall Street. These were six of the leaders of Occupy Wall Street (OWS).

What on earth? The BBC told me that this was a leaderless movement, which is why the poor lambs had so much difficulty getting a clear message out to the media.

Occupy Wall Street’s Structure Working Group (WG) has created a new organization called the Spokes Council. “Teach-ins” were held to workshop and promote the Spokes Council throughout the week of October 22-28. I attended the teach-in on Sunday the 23rd.

According to Marisa Holmes, one of the most outspoken and influential leaders of OWS, the NYC-GA started receiving donations from around the world when OWS began on September 17. Because the NYC-GA was not an official organization, and therefore could not legally receive thousands of dollars in donations, the nonprofit Alliance for Global Justice helped OWS create Friends of Liberty Plaza, which receives tax-free donations for OWS. Since then, Friends of Liberty Plaza has received over $500,000. Until October 28, anybody who wanted to receive more than $100 from Friends of Liberty Plaza had to go through the often arduous modified consensus process (90% majority) of the NYC-GA—which, despite its well-documented inefficiencies, granted $25,740 to the Media WG for live-stream equipment on October 12, and $1,400 to the Food and Medical WGs for herbal tonics on October 18.

At the teach-in, Ms. Holmes maintained that while the NYC-GA is the “de facto” mechanism for distributing funds, it has no right to do so, even though she acknowledged that most donors were likely under the impression that the NYC-GA was the only organization with access to these funds. Two other leaders of the teach-in, Daniel and Adash, concurred with Holmes.

Ms. Holmes also stated at the teach-in that five people in the Finance WG have access to the $500,000 raised by Friends of Liberty Plaza. When Suresh Fernando, the man taking notes, asked who these people are, the leaders of the Structure WG nervously laughed and said that it was hard to keep track of the “constantly fluctuating” heads of the Finance WG. Mr. Fernando made at least four increasingly explicit requests for the names. Each request was turned down by the giggling, equivocating leaders.

And this is from an Occupier comrade.  Oh, dear, how the anarchists hate it when they get what they didn’t understand they actually wanted.  And only a couple weeks ago they all seemed so warm and fuzzy about their cute little group democracy.  I got the impression from my visit to Zuccotti Park that this is how it was going to be, and it turns out that I was right.

So how about it, BBC?  Where are you?  You were so sure this was an important movement only a couple weeks ago, yet now it’s as if you’re bored and have moved on. Reality not fitting the Narrative?  The double standard between the BBC’s coverage of the Occupiers and their reporting on the Tea Party movement couldn’t be more obvious.  Hey, maybe the BBC’s silence about all this now is a belated attempt to make up for the fact that they censored all news about the Tea Party movement for the first two months of its existence.

What disgraceful behavior for a news organization which claims to be superior to the rest of them.

* I blame Bloomberg and the NYPD for this and not the Occupy movement, to be honest, as they’ve let drugged out homeless men hang out in the park. Although their childish refusal to allow police to do their jobs inside their precious encampment is also a factor. There are rumors that the police actually direct the homeless there with promises of free food.  But that should be a scandalous story in and of itself: evil billionaire politician and oppressive authorities using a sick tactic to secretly undermine the sainted protest with no regard for safety or decency.  How about it, BBC?  Any of you dozen or so intrepid young digital media geniuses looking for a big scoop?  I won’t hold my breath.

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27 Responses to BBC Censorship: Occupier Ugliness Edition

  1. cjhartnett says:

    True that the BBC are saying nothing about Head Office events over in NYC…guessing that the Oakland bit has made them a bit wary, but (of course) gullible and acquiescent.
    As long as it smells of dope and wears dreadlocks…or has a megaphone through which to bellow extracts from Maos Little Red Book…the BBC will continue to purr sympathetically like the `68 weekend rebels that they are.
    Tariq Ali, Baader-Meinhoff and all the others…Clare Solomon and Laura Penney are just the recent manifestation of the toxic tripe that has ennervated this country to what exactly is going on.
    Doesn`t sound like you`ve got a Reagan or Buchanan anymore for us either!

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  2. Techno says:

    Disabled woman prevented from leaving DC Convention Center:

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  3. Beeboidal says:

    Mr. Fernando made at least four increasingly explicit requests for the names. Each request was turned down by the giggling, equivocating leaders.

    Oh my. So the leadership of those critical of Wall Street refuse to give the names of those controlling their funds – even to their own comrades. Yep, that’s the way forward.

    Beeboid: Who’s your CEO?

    Goldman Sachs : We’re not saying.

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  4. D B says:

    A good summary, DP.  
     
    As it does with scandals involving Democrats, the BBC has stuck its fingers in its hears and said, “Blah blah not listening.” Ideologically sympathetic BBC journalists
    are at pains to avoid reporting about the rapes, the Occupier on Occupier violence, the factionalism within Occupy’s ranks, and the general nastiness surrounding the movement.

    Here are some tweets I’ve sent to various BBC journos over the past month. Put simply – they don’t want to know.  
     
    9 Oct:  
    4d2b DB  
    .@NickyAACampbell #OccupyWallStreet – seen pic of guy shitting on cop car or vids of antisemites? A gleeful BBC wld slam T.Party 4 similar  
     
     
    13 Oct:  
    @4d2b DB  
    .@KattyKayBBC #ows “endearing” and “so nice”. Apart from anti-Semitism, anti-white racism and crapping on cop cars.  
     
    14 Oct:  
    @4d2b DB  
    .@danielnasaw Footage + pics of some #occupy events suggest no less white than Tea Party but unlike TP that angle not dwelt upon by BBC  
     
     
    21 Oct:  
    @4d2b DB  
    .@paulmasonnews “akin to scene from Lord of the Flies”: insidebayarea.com/twitter/ci_191… . “Some more equal than others”: nymag.com/daily/intel/20… #occupy  
     
    26 Oct:  
    @4d2b DB  
    .@LauraTrevelyan report fails to mention tensions within #ows re drum circle. Lots of splits in #Occupy mvmnt, all ignored by BBC.  
     
    26 Oct:  
    @4d2b DB  
    .@LauraTrevelyan You forgot to mention the trumpets, bugles, street urination, drug dealing and a murder threat cbsloc.al/vtd7hP  
     
    2 Nov:  
    @4d2b DB  
    .@LauraTrevelyan Even Huffpo is finally reporting the rapes, assaults and drug problem. huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/01/occ… Why are you ignoring it?

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  5. Grant says:

    DB,
    Good stuff !
    If I were a journalist and someone repeatedly pointed out that I was failing to report important and relevant aspects of a news story, I would feel ashamed.
    But Beeboids have no shame. 

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  6. George R says:

    So as well as being a cheerleader for Obama, BBC-Democrat’s
    KATTY KAY is an expert on Greece political one-liners:  
     
     
    @KattyKayBBC via Twitter  
     
    “The lesson from Greece tonight if you’re going to cut spending you need to keep your people with you.”

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    • George R says:

      A response to BBC-Democrat Ms KAY’s profound political one-liner on Greece: ‘Never on a Sunday’.



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    • David Preiser (USA) says:

      Alternative lesson from Greece: Don’t promise an entire generation a rose garden that you can’t afford.

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    • George R says:

       
           
         
      Some one-liners for BBC-Democrat’s Ms KAY,      
           
      from:-      
           
      ‘The Collected Wisdom of BANACEK’      
           
      (3 min video clips)      
           
           


          

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  7. lazy says:

    thank God for the internet or we’d know nothing

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  8. John Anderson says:

    Is the intention to vector some sort of double-demonstration on the day at the end of November when the public sector unions stage their strike – with all the anarchists joining in while police resources are under strain ?

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  9. Teddy Bear says:

    I must admit I haven’t followed reporting by the BBC on the OCCUPY protests around the world, but from the little I know about the supposed objectives, and the way they are going about achieving it, and reading comments here from those who have followed it, I have no doubt about which way the BBC adds their weight. The agenda for the BBC is simple, it costs them nothing, and it makes them appear as if they share similar values.

    Statements like ‘no greed’ and ‘no corruption’ are easy to make, but I would like the BBC to add their weight to that by first reducing the salaries and expenses they award themselves and asking that the licence fee be reduced commensurate with the real value of their output. But we know that is not going to happen, so the BBC jumps on this bandwagon to try and maintain the façade to its still brainwashed audience that it really is a moral organisation.

    Reading this article in the Daily Mail today about how staff at St. Paul’s are having to clean up human waste left by those protesters who have been using the cathedral as a latrine. I knew even before I searched that the BBC would not be mentioning this ‘detail’, which frankly shows a more realistic view of the mindset of these protesters.

    Seeing the articles that did appear in the search however showed very clearly that nearly all of them were pro-protesters. In fact, the only one that voiced a view against them was in regard to Theresa May on Question Time, where she stated that she thinks they should leave St. Paul’s. The article however is meant more to be negative to her, as the Conservative Home-Secretary, than the protesters.

    So where is the balance that the BBC is supposed to provide. I wonder how many of these protesters who ruin truly great landmarks of this country, on pretext that they are saving the world, are on benefits of one kind or the other. I’ve no doubt it would be most, if not nearly all.

    How then do they define GREED? In my book, something for nothing is GREED. They have no right to protest so long as they are content to milk the system. If they don’t really contribute to society, then they have no voice worth listening to. I’ve no doubt that there are many like myself who feel the same – where is the views expressed by them on the BBC website?

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  10. cjhartnett says:

    At a tangent I know but…
    1. Humphrys manages to go through the Greek crisis without once mentioning that the EU and the Euro just might have  had the teensiest part to play in the unfolding tragedy he tells us about with some relish.
    It`s like a one-sided see-saw, but the BBC only dwell on the poor sod unable to go up…and blaming him for his inertia.
    2. Some programme on about vandals ruining some blokes park and livelihood enough to provoke him firing a shotgun in the air. Nearly went to jail apparently.
    And my point…like the rioters…the Beeb only get the gripes and depression of the victims and those driven to near suicide! Those who cause all the trouble never seem to send their spokesmen along…and the BBC sure as hell won`t be asking them anything provocative anytime soon.
    Ditto with the protesters…no wait…these are also vulnerable victims and worthy of emoting platforms…which is what the BBC are “all about”!
    Those that cause the trouble if virtuous get the platforms, those that aren`t biddable or might threaten them in some way…well, here`s a tumbleweed testcard for you to look at.
    We`ll let you know if we get a snap or two at the crematorium later on!

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  11. David Preiser (USA) says:

    Now even the DC police realize these Occupiers are dangerously violent.  Please see the update.

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  12. David Preiser (USA) says:

    Occupier Ugliness Update:


    Occupiers terrorize us: eatery

    A business owner near the Occupy Wall Street encampment claims she has been repeatedly harassed and threatened with bodily harm by protesters after she and her employees refused to give in to their outlandish demands.

    “I’ve been told, ‘Watch your back!’ 10 times,” Stacey Tzortzatos, owner of Panini & Co. Breads, located across from Zuccotti Park, told The Post yesterday.

    She and her employees are terrified by the constant threats, which she said began after she demanded the protesters stop using her shop’s restroom as a place to bathe every day.

    The final straw came about two weeks ago, when the demonstrators broke a bathroom sink, flooding the shop, and clogged the toilet — setting her back $3,000 in damages.

    This is what happens when a slavish mainstream media carries their water, and celebrities stoke their egos.  BBC: Zzzzzzzzzzzzz

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  13. D B says:

    Katty Kay has suddenly discovered – via Joe Scarbrough – that Obama is a huge hypocrite when it comes to Wall St. Better very late than never, I suppose.  
     
    @KattyKayBBC Katty Kay  
    Today’s must read. RT “@JoeNBC: My new Politico column on the President’s hypocritical friendship with Wall Street http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1111/67770.html

    Here’s my reply:  
     
    @4d2b DB  
    .@KattyKayBBC @JoeNBC But is BBC ever going to report any of this? And what of Corzine’s role as WH/Wall St facilitator?

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    • David Preiser (USA) says:

      She’s only how many weeks late on this?  I was telling this to her darling Occupiers three weeks ago.  And Katty only just now noticed because she read it in Politico from her friend Scarborough, and decided it was worthy of your attention.  I guess Jay Carney will be on the phone to her pronto.

      Daughter of the elite, now part of the untouchable nomenklatura.  Perfect for the BBC.

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      • D B says:

        Indeed. She only seems comfortable retweeting these “controversial” items when her Pal Joey, MSNBC’s resident RINO, writes about it. She did the same thing a couple of weeks ago – retweeted a Scarborough link to an article he’d written about the lack of diversity in the Wall St movement. I had already pointed this out to her colleague Daniel Nasaw two weeks prior to that. It’s now a month on and as you well know there has still been no mention about it  on the BBC. I don’t expect any different with regard to Obama and Wall St.

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  14. David Preiser (USA) says:

    You know your movement’s over when:

    Homeless Clash With Occupy Sacramento Protesters At Park


    As the Occupy Sacramento movement settles in for another night inside Cesar Chavez Park, another group sits, watches and wonders if they’ll ever get what they call “their park” back.

    “These homeless people have been out here alot longer than you have,” one homeless person tells CBS13.

    For years this plaza in the heart of Sacramento has been a homeless hide-away. But some just want the Occupy group to go away:

    “I just wish they’d give us our park back,” one homeless woman says.

    She’s one of dozens of homeless who’ve signed a petition:

    Part of the problem, some homeless argue, they feel they’ve lost their freedom.

    “They got their own security, they act like the police,” one man tells Lopez. “Anytime you do anything they say you can’t do this and that … and we’re saying ‘you’re not the police.’”

    Shame.  How about it, BBC?

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  15. David Preiser (USA) says:

    You know your movement’s over when:

    Man found dead in Occupy New Orleans encampment

    A 53-year-old man was found dead Tuesday inside a tent pitched at the Occupy New Orleans encampment at Duncan Plaza across from City Hall. He appears to have been living in the tent inside the occupation zone, said John Gagliano, chief investigator for the Orleans Parish Coroner’s Office.

    The man appears to have been dead for at least two days, Gagliano said.

    It doesn’t say how they discovered him, but I hear it’s because they noticed this smell coming out of the tent that was less offensive than the rest of the encampment….

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