The liberal msm’s love affair with Occupy Wall Street continues.
Today the Washington Post went gaga that aging rocker Jackson Browne showed yesterday up at an OccupyDC site. And the Post devoted three quarters of a front page in the paper’s chic Style section to critique “Occupy art.”
It didn’t dampen the Post’s spirits that last weekend an unruly mini-riot occurred at OccupyDC, resulting in 31 arrests. One protester urinated on police while others battled them. One detained protester was discovered to have been arrested last week for shoplifting.
The Post’s coverage today added new seriousness to the aimless movement, penning with some gravitas a front page Style article titled, “Assessing Occupy Art.” This was not a critique of a MOMA installation, but a review of hand drawings by protesters.
The sudden appearance by Jackson Browne before Occupy DC protesters made it to the front page of the news section of the paper. He sang in front of a faux Christmas tree made out of 100% recycled plastic.
As for the protesters, they were, like, clueless. Who was this guy? In the ’70′s Browne headlined many No Nuke concerts and sang praises to Nicaragua’s Sandinistas.
This failure of recognition didn’t dampen Browne spirits. He happily sang on. Aging hippies came out to hear him in the balmy 65 degree weather at Freedom Plaza, one of the two OccupyDC sites.
His insight? “This movement doesn’t need a need song, it just needs people to show up and sing.”
It’s not just the Washington Post that continues in gaga mode over Occupy DC. One of last night’s TV News stations almost joyously reported the construction of the “Occupy the Capitol” campsite on the Mall to replace the one just dismantled. (Why aren’t the Capitol Police enforcing the law?)
As to Jackson Browne, I saw him in concert in 1977 with Karla Bonoff – great concert – and his “These Days” from his Everyman album remains one of my favorites from the era. But I never aligned my politics with his.
One more artist to block from my playlist. I’m sorry I ever supported such a tool.
Jackson Browne is an unimportant figure in rock history. A liked a couple of his songs here and there, but I knew he was a supporter of Communist dictatorships, so I never bought any of his albums.
And I’m not too surprised he is attempting to rekindle a dead career by attaching himself to OWS. If he keeps it up, maybe he’ll get a gig playing halftime at the Super Bowl next year.
Jackson Browne isn’t all bad, Lawyers in Love was a classic, and he beat up Daryll Hanah.
The WaPo’s morals, ethics and dignity…are Running on Empty.
The media are now watching a freak show, not a political movement. To news reporters, the ODC crew is now both as important and as trivial as a bunch of Star Trek geeks or a family of redneck catfish noodlers. OK, the ODCers are mostly young and they use computers and they spout pseudo-Marxist sociology jargon – that makes them a bit more hip than redneck catfish noodlers. Nevertheless, they are now a mere curiosity. The media don’t care what they want, only what they’re going to do next.
Do any of these stories address the actual issues ODC is trying to keep us interested in? No. The news media are no longer reporting the issues. They’re analyzing the movement as a cultural phenomenon. Not surprising. Most of the writers have been educated to believe that anything from building the Great Pyramids to collecting Pez dispensers is “culture” and needs to be studied seriously and written about seriously.
The trouble for ODC is, it’s all about them and not about their cause(s?). They never sent a clear message to normal people – the only people who can bring about the kinds of changes they desire. They’ve always been putting on a little show for themselves. Their rule seems to be “Act out first, then decide what it means.” They’re great at attracting attention. They suck at communicating.
Actually, I would say Trekkers are hipper than OWS slobs. At least Trekkers have money (because they have jobs) and bathe on a regular basis. Plus, they are usually more intelligent than your typical OWS drone (heh – worked in a Borg reference, there), repeating the Marxist slogans their professors taught them by rote.