Bottom of the Barrel

Occupy Burlington members march on Main Street

The Occupation is being smeared.

From it's beginning just a few months ago; to the tragic suicide in Burlington's City Hall Park; to the tearing down and destruction of the community of Liberty Plaza; there have been continual and coordinated efforts on the part of the powers that be to smear the occupiers as everything from dirty hippies, to criminals, and (now that NDAA is safely through the Senate) as would-be terrorists. The powers that be are both relentless in their struggle to defeat the Occupy Movement, and infinite in the depths of moral deficiency to which they're willing to slither.

It was no surprise a few months ago, when all of this started, that Occupiers were hearing shouts of "get a job", "take a shower", and the wide variety of other smelly slurs that have been repeatedly slung their way in numerous attempts to de-legitimize and undermine the ever-increasing population that proudly refer to themselves as "The 99 Percent". We were, after all, living outside in tents. Neither the occupiers, the slur-hurlers, nor the passive public were impressed or caught unawares at the mass media equivalent of one 3rd grader point at another and shouting "Oh yeah? Well you smell funny!"

It was no surprise when the mass media; the pundits; and the talking heads immediately pointed to the Occupy movement's lack of demands. Admit it, we all thought (and many of you out there continue to think) that the movement was a tad bit rudderless. But time and some careful research has shown that a lack of hyper-specific demands is actually effective. General demands can't be co-opted, watered down, or made to dance on the puppet string for the pretty politicians as they stoop over the macabre stage of national burlesque that they've always longed to dominate. General demands like "END CORPORATE GREED" are the contemporary descendants of "I AM MAN" that were seen across the country as civil rights protesters and activists struggled for equality and dignity. "END CORPORATE GREED", like all of the other demands that have surfaced and subsequently been criticized for being to vague and unrealistic is monumental in it's demand as well as it's force. One can't partially end corporate greed. To quote Robin Williams, this is like partially circumcising somebody. You either go all the way or you forget it.

The 99 Percent is unlikely to forget. Understanding this, the mass media, in a genuine reflection of those that write their checks and pay for their suits, continue to ham-handedly beat away on the dead horse of granite... desperately hoping, to no avail, the damn thing moves at least a little.

The Occupy movement has not been surprised by these things that have transpired. They even expected, and mischievously welcomed a few of them. There are some things however that have been a bit of a surprise. Not in recent memory have we seen the vast machine of corporate journalism so lowly conduct their business. Not in recent memory have we seen so a blatant dereliction of duty on the part of those whose very job description is to inform us about what is happening in the world around us. Not in recent memory have we seen such a flagrant disregard, amongst professionals, of the facts they were once dedicated to reporting.

In Burlington, several media outlets reported that Joshua Pfenning committed suicide after heavy alcohol consumption. This is an error. According to both eyewitness accounts as well as toxicology reports, which the well meaning journalists took it upon themselves to comment on before the tests were even run, Pfenning was NOT under the influence of alcohol at the time of his suicide.

A occupier at the vigil for Joshua Pfenning

In another story of journalistic "fairness", one media outlet reported on the "tremendous waste" of tax payer dollars that the Occupation of City Hall Park has inflicted upon the city of Burlington. During the story which aired only this week, the reported approached people on the streets of Burlington and asked "How do you feel about the outrageous waste of $9,000 that the City spent on cleaning up after the Occupiers?"

Oh, well now... so much for context. Records show that the majority of this was spent in police overtime. Police, fellow members of the 99 Percent, should never have overtime after all, that would be too expensive.

This story is looking at the tiniest possible piece of the great systemic pie. If the corporate news outlets would like to talk about tax payer waste maybe they should start talking, at long last, about the $14.5 million that mayoral candidate Miro Weinberger, loyal democrat, spent without any plans of repayment on the BTV parking garage. But hold on, that's just one candidate who made a bad decision... there's always that other guy right? Not really.

Tim Ashe, also hoping to be Burlington's next top dog, served on Burlington's Board of Finance just a few years back, during the period when that body approved of the $17 million loan to Burlington Telecom. And, as we all know, that totally worked out (FBI investigations aside). That's over $31 million wasted by just two guys who've now positioned themselves to charge headlong into the mayor's office. Go team.

A homeless protester makes an appearance at the Burlington Democratic Caucus

At the national level, Occupy Boston has been accused by the Boston Police Department of "significantly increasing drug traffic in the downtown area". Their evidence to back this up? A single arrest report in which one individual was arrested for selling medication for high blood pressure. There does appear to be some blood flow problems... but it seems to me like the BPD could use that medication more than those pesky tent-monsters.

All this goes well beyond the pot calling the kettle black. All this is frantic digging on the part of the corporate media to smear, undermine, and de-legitimize a movement that is beginning to genuinely threaten the status quo. To the 1 Percent'ers: if you continue to scrape the bottom of the barrel so vigorously you're going to get splinters under your fingernails.