Sunday, October 9, 2011

Occupy Wall Street: NHK's Big Failure

On Saturday Japan's public broadcaster aired a story on the Occupy Wall Street protests currently taking place in New York and across the country.  Because NHK and it's reporter in Washington have no understanding of American politics and the idea behind the Occupy Wall Street movement they are equating it with the Tea Party.

The Tea Party is not a grassroots movement as portrayed by the media but an invention of  Freedom Works a conservative political action committee operated by the former Republican House Majority Leader Dick Armey of Texas,  The Tea Party came into the American conciseness after Rick Santilli  a reporter for American business network CNBC  gave a live on-air rant about the

Homeowners Affordability and Stability Plan: Many believed  it was a completely spontaneous it wasn't.

  Santelli drew attention for his remarks made on February 19, 2009, about the Homeowners Affordability and Stability Plan. While broadcasting from the floor of the CME Group during pre-market hours, Santelli accused the government of "promoting bad behavior", and raised the possibility of a "Chicago Tea Party". He also suggested that individuals who knowingly purchased high-risk mortgages (and faced impending foreclosure as a consequence) were "losers".Scattered cheers, whistles, and applause could be heard from some of the personnel around the floor.[6] Some subsequent protests in American cities, dubbed Tea Parties, may have drawn inspiration from Santelli's outburst, but were not directly associated with him.[citation needed] During a White House press briefing, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs was asked about Santelli's comments and expressed skepticism over whether Santelli had actually read the government's plan.[6][7]Santelli later clarified his comments and addressed concerns that the event was staged.[8][9]CNN.com reported that some compared Santelli to fictional reporter Howard Beale, the protagonist of the 1976 satirical film Network.[10] Santelli has said, "I think that this tea party phenomenon is steeped in American culture and steeped in the American notion to get involved with what’s going on with our government. I haven’t organized. I’m going to have to work to pay my taxes, so I’m not going to be able to get away today. But, I have to tell you — I’m pretty proud of this."[11]On April 20, 2009, Santelli participated as a panel member in an Economic Leadership Forum hosted by the George Bush Presidential Library Foundation at Texas A&M University

Following Santilli's 'spontaneous rant' America's Fox News took up the mantle of promoting this supposed grassroots organizations frustrations with the administration of President Barrack Obama.  

 Despite its repeated insistence that its coverage is "fair and balanced" and its invitation to viewers to "say 'no' to biased media," in recent weeks, Fox News has frequently aired segments encouraging viewers to get involved with "tea party" protests across the country, which the channel has often described as primarily a response to President Obama's fiscal policies. Specifically, Fox News has in dozens of instances provided attendance and organizing information for future protests, such as protest dates, locations and website URLs. Fox News websites have also posted information and publicity material for protests. Fox News hosts have repeatedly encouraged viewers to join them at several April 15 protests that they are attending and covering; during the April 6 edition of Glenn Beck, on-screen text characterized these events as "FNC Tax Day Tea Parties." Tea-party organizers have used the planned attendance of the Fox News hosts to promote their protests. Fox News has also aired numerous interviews with protest organizers. Moreover, Fox News contributors are listed as "Tea Party Sponsor[s]" on TaxDayTeaParty.com. Media Matters for America has compiled the following analysis of Fox News' promotion of the tea-party protests. (Most transcripts are taken from the Nexis database.)

Occupy Wall Street protesters aren't calling President Obama a Socialist , a closet Muslim (many conservatives in America believe that all Muslim's are terrorists wishing only to destroy America), they haven't  used racial epithets as a means of  saying the Presidency of Barrack Obama is illegitimate nor have the politicians, labor unions and their leaders who support them. Unlike many Republican Congressional  members and their conservative supporters.  


Those participating in the Occupy Wall Street across may have a variety of issues they wish their government would address which is their  right.  What they want the most is to be heard and listened to.  After all they are the:


99%        

In Other Words They Are America





     


   

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