Deputy editor of China Daily USA Chen Weihua accused US media of failing to give adequate coverage to the Occupy Wall Street protests in an editorial on Friday:
As a journalist, I have wondered why the so-called mainstream US media, which is either headquartered in New York or maintains a strong presence in the city, has chosen to ignore the prolonged demonstration since it started. Why have those journalists, who made their names covering various protests around the world, suddenly become silent in reporting the mass rally? That clearly does not match their enthusiasm to cover demonstrations in recent months in places such as North Africa and the Middle East.
The people who come from many parts of the US and the dozens of people who have spent rainy nights in the outdoor plaza would, no doubt, have countless stories to tell. But few journalists from the mainstream media seem interested in listening this time.
To some protesters I have talked to, the answer is simple: It is natural that corporate-controlled media outlets are not going to cover a protest that is fighting excessive corporate influence in society.
See also Google News and Google Trends results for “Occupy Wall Street”, and Chinese media reactions to August riots in London and criticism of the “profit-seeking” Western media amid the phone-hacking scandal, via CDT.
Update: The Financial Times’ David Pilling points out an optimistic letter of support for the protestors posted to the ultra-left website Utopia, translated by China Study Group:
The eruption of the “Wall Street Revolution” is an historical indicator that the popular democratic revolution that will soon sweep the world is set to begin. It is an especially significant and important event for this movement. Before this most recent action, street protests had virtually been exclusively used as a tool by US elite groups to subvert other countries. Now, however, the “Wall Street Revolution” – with its goals of shared prosperity and popular democracy – has launched protests in the country that is the self-proclaimed defender of democracy. This will inevitably strike a hard blow against the US elite group, itself responsible for the plunder and oppression of people all over the world, and the group that pushed the world into crisis and instability. The protests ring the death knell of the rule of capital. Popular democracy will replace elite democracy in the 21st Century, and the curtain has lifted on the movement from elite politics to popular politics. Using the language of the “Wall Street Revolution,” this is a struggle of the popular 99% against the corrupt 1%, a struggle of the popular 99% against the elite 1%,and is the final struggle of the popular forces against elite capitalist rule.
For more on Utopia, see Boundlessly Loyal to the Great Monster and “Forces of Darkness” Bring Down Nationalist Chinese Website, via CDT.
