An Open Letter from Occupy Wall Street to All Americans and Progressive Media

This is an open letter to all Americans, and particularly to progressive magazines, Web Sites, TV programs, etc.  Please spend most of your time focusing on the Occupy Wall Street protests.  This is real, this is serious, and this will become a mass movement.  I have been here every day for the past week.  Everyone is dedicated and determined.  People have come from all over the country, and they plan to stay for months.  Many have been sleeping outside, on the floors of Zuccotti Park, and others have been arrested, sacrificing their comfort for the most important of all causes.  It’s safe to assume the mainstream media either will not cover the demonstrations at all or will do so only to ridicule us.  But liberal media outlets must get on board.  If you do not, you are essentially useless.

As a journalist myself, I know the only reason any serious progressive does reporting is because he or she wants to motivate people to get off the couch and hit the streets.  We journalists write articles, participate in TV segments, appear in documentaries…  For what?  To inform people of how they’ve been enslaved by the corporate state.  And to make them understand that they have the power to restore their democracy if they choose to.

If we in the media don’t do our part we might as well not exist.  If we don’t cover these protests day and night to try to mobilize a revolution, then we are just complainers.

Some have done good work.  As always, Democracynow! has done excellent reporting.  I also commend Keith Olbermann, who in his special comment after the debt deal admonished that all we have left is civil disobedience.  He has reported on our movement and called attention to the shameful lack of coverage elsewhere.

But overall, I have found the left’s coverage extremely disappointing.  Important publications, such as the Nation, Salon, Huffington Post, Truthdig, etc., have done far too few stories on Occupy Wall Street.  The protests must be front page material, every day.  full article here