RT and the Occupy Movement

Liz Wahl, who resigned from RT-America rather than assist in a whitewash of the Russian invasion of Crimea, writes in Politico of her experiences at the network:

The first few days were … interesting. The top guys were all Russian, but most of my co-workers were American. Some colleagues warned me that I’d need to let go of any preconceived notions and journalistic principles. I wasn’t exactly sure what they meant.

It was during this first week that the Occupy Wall Street movement began with a group of protesters in New York’s Zuccotti Park. The day after the demonstration started, the Russian news director announced at our morning meeting that this was the top story and we would take it on with full force. It was Occupy all day, every day, from coast to coast.

I spent a lot of time interviewing Occupy protestors in D.C.’s McPherson Square. Some had legitimate grievances: the rising role of money in politics, frustration over taxpayers footing the bill for bailing out big banks and crippling student-loan debt. But others were just hippies who were camping out, barefoot and beating drums, and had jumped at the opportunity to come together in solidarity against The Man.

Of course the coverage made the United States look terrible. Video of outraged protesters, heavy-handed police and tents pitched in parks portrayed America as a country in the midst of a popular uprising—it was the beginning of the inevitable decline of a capitalistic world power.
Occupy was our lead story for weeks and then months, even as the number of protesters dwindled and tents cleared out. We sucked that story completely dry.

Eventually, it was accepted that a revolution was not upon us.

Meanwhile, in Moscow thousands of demonstrators took to the streets protesting alleged election fraud and corruption, with most of their outrage directed at Russian leader Vladimir Putin, who announced his intention to run for president for a third term. There was little, if any, talk in our newsroom or on our newscasts of the dissent in Russia.

Occupy, RIP

Previous posts have tracked the rise and fall of the "Occupy" movement. The Los Angeles Times offers an obituary of sorts:

On Monday, a year will have passed since activists took over the park near the symbolic heart of American capitalism, sparking a movement with offshoots in Los Angeles, Chicago and elsewhere around the world.

But the movement has yet to have a broad tangible effect, leaving some to wonder whether it will fizzle.

Polls have shown that the public generally supports Occupy's message but not its disruptive tactics. A majority of respondents in one poll this spring said the movement had run its course.
As the Occupy movement turns 1 year old, its primary target — Wall Street — keeps churning out scandals. Major banks have been caught rigging key interest rates, laundering money and taking risky bets that lose billions of dollars.

Yet the movement cannot claim any new policy, law or regulation as its own. Unlike the Tea Party on the political right, there is no cohesive Occupy group promoting candidates in November's national election.

"After the media effects wore off, a lot of politicians just figured out that these people weren't going to matter," said Theda Skocpol, a professor of government and sociology at Harvard who co-wrote a book about the Tea Party.

"Politicians pay attention to people who vote or who organize and spend money in elections," Skocpol said. "That's what Tea Party did and does, and that's what Occupy doesn't do. I don't think it matters very much anymore."

Capitalism, Socialism, and Public Opinion, 2011

Our chapter on public opinion looks at political ideologies.  Our chapter on civic culture notes that socialism has never taken deep root in the United States.  The Pew Research Center reports on both topics:

The recent Occupy Wall Street protests have focused public attention on what organizers see as the excesses of America's free market system, but perceptions of capitalism -- and even of socialism -- have changed little since early 2010 despite the recent tumult.

The American public's take on capitalism remains mixed, with just slightly more saying they have a positive (50%) than a negative (40%) reaction to the term. That's largely unchanged from a 52% to 37% balance of opinion in April 2010.Socialism is a negative for most Americans, but certainly not all. Six-in-ten (60%) say they have a negative reaction to the word; 31% have a positive reaction. Those numbers are little changed from when the question was last asked in April 2010.

Read the full report for more details on the survey as well as public perceptions about "Libertarian," "Liberal" and "Conservative."

From the full report:

The American public remains divided over the word libertarian, with 38% offering a positive reaction, 37% a negative reaction, and 24% offering that they don’t have a reaction either way.

The steepest divide in reactions to the term libertarian are not political but generational. By a 50% to 28% margin, people under age 30 have more positive than negative feelings toward the termlibertarian. Views are more split among those age 30-64, while those age 65 and older offer more negative (43%) than positive (25%) reactions.

Youth Opinion

A release from Harvard's Institute of Politics:

A new national poll of America’s 18 to 29 year olds by Harvard’s Institute of Politics (IOP), located at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, finds more Millennials predict President Barack Obama will lose his bid for re-election (36%) than win (30%). The new survey also shows former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney fairing best among potential Republican challengers in a general election match-up against President Obama, trailing the President by eleven percentage points (Obama: 37%, Romney: 26%).

Thirty-two percent of Millennials say they are following the "Occupy Wall Street" demonstrations either very (6%) or somewhat closely (26%), with 66% not following the demonstrations closely. Only twenty-one percent (21%) said they supported the movement. A detailed report on the poll’s findings is available on the Institute’s homepage at www.iop.harvard.edu.

“Our new polling data clearly shows Millennials are growing more concerned over the direction of the country and effectiveness of Washington, D.C. to solve problems,” said Trey Grayson, Director of Harvard’s Institute of Politics. “The opportunity exists for all political parties and campaigns to re-engage this generation – those who do can maximize results in 2012.”

Attitudes on Growth and Opportunity

Some new Gallup opinion data highlight enduring features of civic culture that present challenges to the Occupy movement.

On growth and opportunity v. equality:

More Americans say it is important that the federal government enact policies that grow the economy and increase equality of opportunity than say the same about reducing the income and wealth gap between the rich and the poor.

These data, from a Nov. 28-Dec.1 Gallup survey, show that while 46% of Americans believe it is extremely or very important that the federal government in Washington reduce the income and wealth gap between the rich and poor, 70% say it is important for the government to increase equality of opportunity, and 82% say it is important for the government to grow and expand the economy.

 On class divisions:

Americans are now less likely to see U.S. society as divided into the "haves" and "have nots" than they were in 2008, returning to their views prior to that point. A clear majority, 58%, say they do not think of America in this way, after Americans were divided 49% to 49% in the summer of 2008.

The shift, documented by a Gallup poll conducted Nov. 28-Dec. 1, is noteworthy in that it came after 3 ½ years of economic turmoil in which more Americans have become unemployed and more have become negative about their personal finances. The current poll was also conducted as the Occupy Wall Street movement continues to focus on the disparities between the wealthiest 1% of Americans and everyone else.

If they had to choose, 58% of Americans would say they are in the "haves," rather than the "have nots" group. This breakdown has held remarkably steady over the past two decades of economic boom and bust, with a record-high 67% of Americans putting themselves in the "haves" category during the strong economic times of the late 1990s.

The One Percent

The Occupy Wall Street movement has made an issue of the "one percent," those with incomes of at least $516,633. Gallup has just released a survey of the one percent:

When the party leanings of independents are taken into account, 57% of the nation's wealthiest adults associate themselves with the Republican Party, compared with 44% of the "99%." At the same time, Gallup polling finds little difference in the two groups' ideological views. Among the very wealthy, 39% say their political views are conservative, 41% call themselves moderate, and 20% liberal, similar to the percentages seen among all others.
...
Apart from their bank accounts, Gallup finds education to be the greatest difference between the wealthiest 1% of Americans and everyone else. The Gallup analysis reveals that 72% of the wealthiest Americans have a college degree, compared with 31% of those in the lower 99 percentiles. Furthermore, nearly half of those in the wealthiest group have postgraduate education, versus 16% of all others.

Social Media and Social Protest

Social media have played a key role in the spread of the Occupy and tea party movements.

At the San Francisco Examiner, Amy Crawford writes that the movement originally suffered from disorganization.

But in the past several days in San Francisco, a small group of occupiers, several of whom have experience in advertising, media or information technology, have tried to take charge of the movement’s message, producing videos and running an increasingly sophisticated public relations campaign.

“It went from really chaotic and disorganized to people saying, ‘OK, these are the people that talk to the media,’” said Miran Istina, 18, one of about a dozen members of Occupy San Francisco’s media and communications team. “I try to direct media to people they really should be talking to, rather than just doing random interviews.”

Some Occupy members were unhappy with initial coverage in newspapers and on TV, they said. So despite their progressive politics, they took a page from the playbooks of corporations and campaigns, assembling a small media-relations team that is in charge of trying to make sure Occupy stays on message.

“I think it’s unfair to say we’re really unhappy with the coverage and we’re going to entirely blame the media, even though we haven’t released a single press release,” said communications team member Morgan Marquis-Boire, 32, who has also worked on the group’s website.

Occupy SF initially relied on Facebook and Twitter to get its message out, said Marquis-Boire, who has a day job at a tech company, but they soon realized they had to work with newspapers, radio and TV as well. “Social media’s great,” he said, “but when it comes to traditional media, you need to have a team that’s focused on actually dealing with the media.”

The Sand Springs Leader reports:

Kyera Coghill, 19, of Sand Springs joined Occupy Tulsa after she saw police corral and pepper spray protestors in New York City, she said. More broadly, she was tired of seeing corporations use money to get their way in politics, she said.

"I'm really sick of what corporations are doing," Coghill said. "It troubles me that they can buy politicians."

Coghill watched the movement in New York City from afar, monitoring it using social media. What finally spurred her to action in Tulsa was the depiction of protestors being corralled and maced in New York.

"When I saw that, I got really mad, so I started researching it and began following it," she said. "I'm pretty sure I've liked almost every Occupy page on Facebook."

The Daytona Beach News-Journal reports on a gathering of tea party activists:

Probably the most popular session of the day was a panel discussion on "inside the left's tactics." Chad Biddinger, founder of a Texas-based grassroots group called LibertyLinked, warned of a Democratic political machine that might seem unrecognizable in Florida, where Republicans in the Legislature currently enjoy their first veto-proof majority since Reconstruction.

"They organize everywhere," Biddinger told the audience of nearly 50 people. "The biggest thing Democrats do is they court every vote. ... They're very committed.

"I'm not being critical of the left," he added. "The left outflanks us. ... They have a cohesive strategy."

Real estate blogger Alice Linahan, founder of the website voicesempower.com, spoke to the group about "driving the narrative" to make sure their message got out through the use of social media sites and strategies.

"We (voters) are the biggest threat to the political establishment," she said. "We don't have a lot of money. What we have is the truth and a lot of voters."

Linahan's message might have played just as well at a progressive event -- "Our goal is to make elected officials beholden not to the dollar but to voters," she said at one point -- but she made it clear her politics are rooted in conservative ideas.

Occupy Wall Street and Tea Party: A View from Texas

At Scripps-Howard, Trish Choate reports that West Texas lawmakers and tea party activists say that they have little in common with Occupy Wall Street. Choate quotes a political scientist on similarities and differences between the tea party and Occupy Wall Street.

"Occupy Wall Street is capturing more of the general dissatisfaction and malaise within society," University of North Texas political science professor Kimi King said.

The Tea Party movement argues we need to change by shifting more to the right, King said. Occupy Wall Street argues we need to shift more to the left.

...

King sees some glaring differences and some similarities between the two groups.

"The Tea Party wants to change the election outcome for 2012," she said. "Occupy Wall Street wants to change society for the next decade."

It's questionable whether Occupy Wall Street's goals are the same across all of the groups in the United States, King said.

The Tea Party, however, focuses on a narrow range of issues, King said. Tea Partiers also have more history and experience, as well as more organization and money.

"They have been successful in gathering support from political candidates for their views," King said.

Occupy Wall Street seems to be suffering from being a relatively new phenomenon, she said.

Both movements are using the right of assembly and free-speech rights to raise awareness about their causes, King said.

"But the method that Occupy Wall Street is using will sooner or later become problematic unless you have identifiable goals because while you have free speech rights, no free speech right is absolute," she said.

Concerns about public order, sanitation, criminal behavior and the general health and welfare of individuals allow the government to impose limits, King said.

"That's not a free-speech issue," she said. "That is an issue of maintaining health and welfare."

Economic Turmoil and Public Opinion

In our chapter on civic culture, we note that Americans have long been wary of concentrations of power either in the federal government or the corporate sector. USA Today reports:

Most Americans blame Wall Street for the nation's economic predicament — but they blame Washington more.

And in the democracy that fancies itself the capital of capitalism, more than four in 10 people describe the U.S. economic system as personally unfair to them. A USA TODAY/Gallup Poll taken last weekend, as the Occupy Wall Street protest movement completed its first month, found that:

•When asked whom they blame more for the poor economy, 64% of Americans name the federal government and 30% say big financial institutions.

•Only 54% say the economic system is personally fair to them; 44% say it is not.

•78% say Wall Street bears a great deal or a fair amount of blame for the economy; 87% say the same about Washington.

The poll shows that most Americans are paying attention to the protest movement. But most don't know enough to take a position. Even among those who have followed the protests closely, 43% don't know enough to say whether they support or oppose the movement's goals.

About a quarter of poll respondents describe themselves as supporters of the movement; 19% call themselves opponents.

National Journal, however, reports very different poll results:

A new survey shows that Americans overwhelmingly support the self-styled Occupy Wall Street protests that not only have disrupted life in Lower Manhattan but also in Washington and cities and towns across the U.S. and in other nations. Some 59 percent of adults either completely agree or mostly agree with the protesters, while 31 percent mostly disagree or completely disagree; 10 percent of those surveyed didn’t know or refused to answer.

What’s more, many people are paying attention to the rallies. Almost two-thirds of respondents—65 percent—said they’ve heard “a lot” or “some” about the rallies, while 35 percent have said they’ve heard or seen “not too much” or “nothing at all” about the demonstrations.

The results appear in the latest edition of the United Technologies/National Journal Congressional Connection Poll.

This article does not provide the wording of these questions. But as our chapter on public opinion explains, wording can have a big impact on survey results.

As for the protesters, Democratic pollster Douglas Schoen writes in The Wall Street Journal:

The protesters have a distinct ideology and are bound by a deep commitment to radical left-wing policies. On Oct. 10 and 11, Arielle Alter Confino, a senior researcher at my polling firm, interviewed nearly 200 protesters in New York's Zuccotti Park. Our findings probably represent the first systematic random sample of Occupy Wall Street opinion.

Our research shows clearly that the movement doesn't represent unemployed America and is not ideologically diverse. Rather, it comprises an unrepresentative segment of the electorate that believes in radical redistribution of wealth, civil disobedience and, in some instances, violence. Half (52%) have participated in a political movement before, virtually all (98%) say they would support civil disobedience to achieve their goals, and nearly one-third (31%) would support violence to advance their agenda.

The vast majority of demonstrators are actually employed, and the proportion of protesters unemployed (15%) is within single digits of the national unemployment rate (9.1%).

An overwhelming majority of demonstrators supported Barack Obama in 2008. Now 51% disapprove of the president while 44% approve, and only 48% say they will vote to re-elect him in 2012, while at least a quarter won't vote.

Fewer than one in three (32%) call themselves Democrats, while roughly the same proportion (33%) say they aren't represented by any political party.

What binds a large majority of the protesters together—regardless of age, socioeconomic status or education—is a deep commitment to left-wing policies: opposition to free-market capitalism and support for radical redistribution of wealth, intense regulation of the private sector, and protectionist policies to keep American jobs from going overseas.

Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street

At The Aberdeen News, Professor Kenneth Blanchard discusses the Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street movements:

Both the left and the right in American politics want to believe that their own army of protesters is spontaneous and righteous and that the folks across the street are artificial and pernicious.

In fact, the tea party movement and the occupy movement are entirely genuine, composed of red-blooded American sons and daughters of liberty. We're mad as hell, and we aren't going to take it anymore, or at least not without a good shaking of our fists.

After the tea party movement emerged, Democrats launched a campaign to show that the movement was violent and racist. Neither accusation was true. Whoever you are, you'd be safer at a tea party gathering than pretty much anywhere else. And now that the current favorite of the tea partyers is Herman Cain, the charge of racism is refuted.

It's true that of the hundreds of tea party gatherings, a handful of racist signs have been observed. It's also true that some occupiers have carried anti-Jewish posters. There are bad eggs and oddballs at any gathering.

The tea party movement had a big influence on the last election. The influence of the occupation remains to be seen. Let me just say that this is how Americans are supposed to behave.

Occupy Procedure

Like many interest groups, the "Occupy" groups must grapple with internal decision-making:

"Occupy Wall Street" Protests: Religion & Social Media

One theme of our book is that religious activists have long played an important role in American political and social movements. NY1 reports:

The "Occupy Wall Street protestors" are remaining in Lower Manhattan's Zuccotti Park, and members of the clergy are expected to join the effort later today.

Demonstrators organizing the day's events at a so-called "general assembly" today, and a large demonstration is scheduled for tomorrow.

...
Demonstrators told NY1 this morning that they remain part of the protest to keep sharing their message.

"For the most part, the only thing we all have in common is we want equality. We all come from very different backgrounds, very different economic strides, everything. It's not fair," said one protester. "There's so many people that don't have anything to eat and they're buying $200 lunches, and we're paying for it."

Twitter and other social media have provided organizing tools. Chenda Ngak writes at CBS:

Social media has been an important tool for protesters overseas. Now that the Occupy Wall Street protests have reached a tipping point, the abundance of online organizing is staggering.

On July 13, 2011, the magazine Adbusters posted a call to occupy Wall Street on their blog.

"On September 17, we want to see 20,000 people flood into lower Manhattan, set up tents, kitchens, peaceful barricades and occupy Wall Street for a few months. Once there, we shall incessantly repeat one simple demand in a plurality of voices," the post said.

When CNN reported that "hundreds" of people showed up, it seemed like a success for the cause. Everyone could return to business as usual, right?

Not so fast. The camps in downtown Manhattan have only gotten larger and the protests have spread to other cities across the U.S.

Once we took a closer look at the movement and how it was being organized, we were impressed. The protesters used all forms of social media keep the movement alive.

Facebook pages have popped up for major cities across the country. Twitter hashtags have been established for communication at general assemblies. Countless videos have been posted to YouTube, Vimeo and Livestream. We found some moving personal accounts of job loss and helplessness shared on the blog, "We are the 99 percent."

It's remarkable to see Middle East protest tactics being used in a free speech society. For a movement that claims no leader, it is highly organized, making off-shoots easy to start.

Occupy Wall Street even got an Internet meme.

The Occupy Sesame Street meme puts the central characters of the children's show in the shoes of regular Americans, with one Twitter user tweeting, "Truly outrageous that 99% of the cookies are consumed by 1% of the monsters on PBS. #occupysesamestreet."