Forum Post: What about the Samantha Bee piece on the Daily Show?
Posted 12 years ago on Nov. 27, 2011, 12:18 a.m. EST by TomJoad
(30)
from Highland Heights, KY
This content is user submitted and not an official statement
I found it a bit disheartening, seeing a select group in a wall st. bank, and others complaining that they lived in the 'ghetto' of Liberty Plaza. Did the movement already develop a class structure, or did it begin with one, as some are claiming? I think it is important for OWS to explain about this. You looked really bad in that piece, and not very democratic or egalitarian at all. Really, this is important for those of us who would like to believe.
It's the comedy channel, you have to go to FOX for news.
I said it was a comedy show on Truthdig, when someone pointed it out, trying to defend the movement. But it still bothered me. Those were not actors she was talking to on the screen. And oddly, the Daily Show is where you often find the news no one else is covering.
The truth of the matter is that if there are no demands, then the web and media committees are the ones who get to define and shape the movement. It's a subtle throne, a conflict of interest, and an invisible hierarchy ... and it will kill the movement if it's not addressed properly. I attempted to address it in this article on Occupy and drug policy here: http://www.cannabisculture.com/v2/node/29138
The society that spawned OWS isn't egalitarian. It's pretty hard to expect OWS to be able to just instantly abolish all the deeply ingrained assumptions and habits that go along with the society it comes from overnight.
btw I have not watched the samantha bee report these are things im piecing together find the truth for yourself, openness is always the answer to any tyranny.
Jon Stewart's older brother, Larry Leibowitz, is currently Chief Operating Officer of the NYSE.
The part of Bee's report that covered meeting in the Deutsche Bank lobby was grossly overstated. The atrium at 60 Wall St is another privately owned public space like Zucotti Park is.
The working groups were meeting there, not the entire GA, and this fact was not hidden from anyone. The GA was still held in the park. The dates and times of working group meetings at the 60 Wall St Atrium can be found online at the NYCGA website. It is not a secret.
The fact that there was social stratification in the park, well, not surprising but I guess a little ironic since the protests are about equality. It is the irony that happens when idealism meets reality.
As for the distinction between private property and personal property that Bee made fun of and that some people think is really funny, read this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_property#Personal_versus_private_property
I'm on record in my house as never have found the Bee-girl's Reports funny (it's been going on over 7 years now, her perpetual lameness.) Sometimes I'm convinced Jon Stewart is a tool of the rulers, or simply has lost all his sense.
The truth is, probably, more like Stewart (and writers/performers) gets lazy, and follows the Leno-ish comedy path of least resistance (going for the easy, "Jay-Walking"-style gags about silly/dumb people.)
All I know is (taking these fake-news "reports" out of context, as usual) the right wing media and Tea Party types are eating it up, treating it like real news and damning information on the OWS crowd.
Ergo, lame satire turns into authoritarian propaganda piece unwittingly in the wink of a pyramid's eye.
The elite holding their meetings in the belly of the beast seems like more than cliques and differences. What I would like to hear is that the uptown in the park is just where the first people camped, and that the other end is where latecomers set up, that the people in this meeting were there because they were elected to do stuff like handle the web site and finances. That is right, isn't it? Reassure me. The Daily show is not exactly right-wing propaganda.
I think it is more humor than scathing indictment. They are poking fun at the fact that there are some little cliques and differences. You have to be able to laugh at yourself. ;)
Are we expecting mainstream media to put a good face on OWS? Expect them to grab the worst of the worst and leave out the best as a general rule.