Today is the sixth day of protest. So far, I am aware of the following MSNBC coverage of the Wall Street occupation.
September 19, 2011: Michael Moore appeared on Rachel Maddow and said
A thousand people were arrested a couple weeks ago on the Tar Sands environmental issue. Hardly any coverage of this. Can you imagine if a thousand tea partiers had been arrested in front of the White House? It would be the top of every news story. People are down on Wall Street right now holding a sit in and a camp in down there, virtually no news about this protest. This goes on with liberals and the left all the time, and it gets ignored. Fortunately, there are shows like yours and others who aren’t ignoring it, but it doesn’t mean that it isn’t happening and it will continue to happen.
One sentence issued by a guest on the show. Note that Rachel Maddow has not said one word about the protest. She was in New York City on Sunday with Chris Hayes for the second day of his new show Up. They had enough time to do a photo montage of their friendship together, but they were unable to discuss the Wall Street protests.
Dylan Ratigan, on September 20, seemed to be ready to break the silence. It went well for 53 seconds before Mr. Ratigan declared "Forget the crowd" and segued to former CEO and president of Verizon Wireless Denny Strigl He threw him a book plug for good measure.
I have heard that Lawrence O'Donnell made a brief mention, although I am unable to locate the clip. I would appreciate anyone who is able to locate it. My understanding, however, is that it was nothing in depth. No contact with the protesters. No real coverage. And this from the same pundits who regularly excoriate the "mainstream media" for not giving fair coverage to liberal protests. The right of MSNBC hosts to claim their position is somehow outside of the "mainstream media" is in jeopardy at best.
The facebook pages of the MSNBC hosts are ablaze with people asking for coverage of the occupation. In turn, the administrator of The Ed Schultz Show has taken to denouncing, debating, deleting and blocking some of the feedback he's getting, demanding coverage. Here's the exchange between the admin and one questioning viewer from the page:
Viewer1:Why no coverage of the Wall St. protests? How about covering the fact that Yahoo has admitted to spaming political e-mails?
The Ed Schultz Show:This is not the media or Yahoo complaint page.
Viewer1:Just asking why Ed and the media are not covering it?
The Ed Schultz Show:Why would Ed know why the media is not covering this?
Viewer1:Why isn't Ed covering it?
The Ed Schultz Show:Because he's busy covering other things. Is that OK, or is he required to cover your issue?
...
Viewer1:My apologies, I thought Ed could handle more than his own rants. Guess I'll watch Current TV.
...
Viewer1:I guess insulting Ed's fan base is the way to go. He obviously has too many viewers and would like to shed a few. No problem.
The Ed Schultz Show:No one is insulting you. The fact is, Ed will cover it when he is ready to. It was convered on several shows on MSNBC (which has been stated here numerous times.) Bombing the page with "why aren't you covering this?" and insinuations that he is not being allowed to is insulting to a man that has faught for many causes that you find near and dear to your hearts.
Viewer1:Bye Ed. Good luck
The Ed Schultz Show:This week it's the lack of protests on MSNBC, next week it will be the lack of coverage of something else on MSNBC that is your problem.
Viewer1:Seems like some of my posts as well as others have disappeared. Interesting.
This outcry isn't just on Ed Schultz's page. It's all over Rachel Maddow's and Lawrence O'Donnell's as well, although they fortunately have not descended to the point of stifling the voices of unhappy viewers.
Many facebook defenders of MSNBC during this blackout have inquired why those complaining about MSNBC don't cover the protest themselves. What they ignore is that MSNBC's lack of action, and in particular the MSNBC hosts who claim to be voices of the left, has become a story in and of itself. The fact that MSNBC has hosted advertisements for Goldman Sachs for the entire week that it made scant mention of the protests against Wall Street is breaking news.
