To Media: Stop being lazy

NYPD deploy a sonic weapon to attack protestors.

Okay, so I live in Australia. Every day online, I read amazing accounts of Occupy in the United States. As a newsworthy item, it is incredible, it is a major catalyst of change in the current status quo of western democracy.

Except if you watch the TV news.

I was watching SBS News last night. For people outside of Australia, SBS is a government funded TV station that explicitly caters to a multicultural audience. They have long had the reputation of having quality international journalism, and of presenting a very mature and well-read picture of international current affairs.

Last night: Occupy camps broken up by police because of violence, including four shootings. (The violence was from the police. Of the shootings that have occurred at Occupy sites, none to my knowledge have had anything to do with the protests, so thanks for your leading story filled with misinformation and half-truths)

Really? Is that all you had to say? Well, here let me do your job for you, and gather some tidbits and links. Then you can create a story from them;

List of reporters grounded or arrested trying to cover the eviction
Did you, let's see, decide to mention the number of journalists arrested for trying to cover the story? Arrested. JOUR-NA-LISTS ARR-ES-TED in the 'land of the free'.

NPR Reporter - Julie Walker - arrested
NYT Writer - Jared Malsin - arrested
AFP Photographer - Elizabeth --- arrested
DNAinfo.com Editor - Patrick Hedlund - arrested
DNAinfo.com Photographer - Paul Lomax - arrested
NYDN Reporter - Matthew Lysiak - arrested
AP Reporter - Karen Matthews - arrested
AP Photographer - Seth Wenig - arrested
NBC Helicopter - grounded
CBS Helicopter - grounded

All had NYPD press accreditation with them, Malsin also had UN accreditation

Coverage in other media and coverage by journalists on scene
Or check out what other outlets are saying, especially those who were on the scene?

The Guardian
Jared Malsin (@jmalsin) on Twitter
The Gothamist
The Observer
Mother Jones
Alternet
Alternet again
Alternet again
Huffington Post

CBS
CBS said they were asked to clear the air space and weren't allowed to film once they were stopped.
CBS just showed they cut down trees because some of the Protesters tied themselves to the trees.

6am EST
JoshHarkinson, Mother Jones
"The occupiers I am with tell me that the people chained in the park were attached to a pole in the middle of the kitchen tent.
They were teenagers, Like 16 years old or so."

NYC Councilman Jumaane Williams 
Did you mention NYC council members who opposed the crackdown, and in once case was injured by police? This shows, shit I don't know, that it is NOT NYC government vs rabble.

Excellent review of events by NYC Councilman Jumaane Williams - it looks like the NYPD restraining order was signed at 8am but as he said:

"A judge has signed an temporary restraining order against NYC to allow OccupyWallStreet protesters back to ZuccottiPark.
A small win."

"This order regarding OccupyWallStreet also directs the NYPD to return personal property to the protesters.
What about destroyed property?"

Jumaane D. Williams (@JumaaneWilliams) on Twitter

At 2:55 a.m. EST this Tweet:

"NYC council-member Ydanis Rodríguez arrested and bleeding from head."

was tweeted by this other councilman:

"City Councilmember Calls Raid A 'Brazen Violation"

New York City Councilmember Jumaane Williams, an outspoken opponent of the NYPD's stop and frisk tactics and an early supporter of the encampment in Zuccotti Park, just released a statement where he angrily denounces the city's actions:

"I am at the scene, despite the massive transportation shutdown, to sort through the chaos and assist Occupy Wall Street however I can.

Given the NYPD's sneaky tactics early on, I am not surprised by the NYPD's efforts to use the cloak of night as a shield for their brazen violation of the First Amendment.

I expected this would happen; I just did not know when.

This violent raid of Zuccotti Park was clearly a coordinated effort to subvert a peaceful protest at Occupy Wall Street.

What is worse is how the media is being shut out of the Park; clearly our leaders need to be reminded that freedom of the press is a right, not an option.

Instead of negotiating openly and discussing the real issues of economic and social inequality, Mayor Bloomberg and Commissioner Kelly are leading a covert operation to stifle the 99%."

Online commentary: 
Or maybe you checked out the buzz online via Twitter, Facebook or other social networking sites?

"What would we have all done this morning without Twitter and the internet? We never would have known or communicated what was happening. The Press were blocked from reporting, the air space was cleared. And that, Ladies and Gentleman, is what a Fascist Police State looks like."

6:45 Am EST
Rachel Tyson:
"@DCDebbie Only Aljazeera covered #ows eviction. I never thought I'd see the day when Americans had to rely on Arabs for a free press."

6:40 Am EST
Rachel Tyson:
"George Zornick (@gzornick) NYC authorities clearly feel #OWS eviction is just and reasonable. That's why they are doing it at 2am and barring all press."

As seen at ground level:
Or maybe you went hunting for accounts - photos, video, whatever, of what happened?

11/15/11 4:02 AM
NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly Outside Zuccotti Park
Bucky Turco of Animal New York tweets a picture from Lower Manhattan that shows just how intimately the NYPD's top cop was involved in tonight's raid.
Kelly has occasionally been rumored as a 2013 mayoral candidate.

Rachel Tyson:

" I just want to reiterate:
'The cops put him in a stretcher, on O2. 'If that's not brutality...."

This is the image to which she is referring: http://twitpic.com/7efa2v 


http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=FC26yks0uNQ

"50 seconds of phone video of kitchen tent being gassed" http://yfrog.com/163yiz
http://www.twitvid.com/SGWD9

3:15 a.m.
NYPD destroying personal items.
Occupiers prevented from leaving with their possessions.

Technology:
Or maybe you bought up the cruel and unusual technology that was being used to disperse the protest?

3:13 a.m
. NYPD deploying sound cannon 

Police using sound cannon, sound is terrifying and bizarre. Chasing and butalizing people.

3:30am

Reports in say NYPD using sound cannons on #OccupyWallStreet, sending protesters scrounging 4 earplugs

This is the device they are talking about: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonic_weapon


To be fair, most of this may have started happening after the evening news. Still, the brief, misleading way this is reported on here is baffling. Our biggest ally is having such a massive internal uprising it makes Tahrir Square look like a barn dance. This is major news. Would locals be so dismissive of the the Australian Occupy protests if they could see what it was in support of? Police are violating human and civil rights constantly. This is like watching the crumbling and hopeful rebirth of western democracy.


So, please lazy Australian media, treat the story with the sheer weight it deserves.