Murdoch organ the New York Post wrote an editorial yesterday calling for Mayor Bloomberg to mobilize the NYPD to forcibly remove the OWS protesters at Liberty Plaza Park.
I wrote them back to tell them what horrible people they are. I know it probably won't change their minds, or make it into print, but it sure helped me to relieve some anger. The letter in full is below the fold
Dear Sir or Madam,
I read your editorial, "Time to throw the bums out". It is obvious from this editorial that you have contempt and disdain for the protestors, the constitution, and the people of this country. But that's not why I am writing - as a Murdoch-owned publication, that's standard practice. I writing to you about this piece for a different reason:
It is full of lies.
You wrote, "No one has greater respect for the First Amendment than this paper." This is a blatant and sickening lie. People with respect for the first amendment do not complain when others exercise the rights enumerated under it. Instead, you desire people's constitutionally-protected right to assemble and speak to be curtailed because you find the protestors in Liberty Plaza Park a "nuisance." Let's be clear: the freedom to exercise constitutional rights is more important than any of the complaints you bring up about OWS.
You wrote, "What began as a credible protest against bank bailouts, crony capitalism and the like has, in large measure, been hijacked by crazies and criminals." When the OWS protests began you did not portray them as "a credible protest against bank bailouts, crony capitalism and the like" but rather as "crazies and criminals". That has been your agenda from the start. But OWS is no more full of "crazies and criminals" now than it was before - they exist, but are in a clear minority.
Both the above-quoted sentences are part of the tapestry of a larger lie, which is that you have covered this matter evenhandedly and responsibly. From the beginning your paper has been set on portraying the OWS movement as a radical fringe movement, marginalizing them as much as possible to prevent having to deal with their critique of our political economy. The fact is that, as a press organ that makes up a small part of a worldwide media conglomerate, your institutional biases are obviously in favor of the corporatocracy and its ugly hijacking of capitalism. As such, it is no surprise you rail against normal people with the temerity to call out corporate greed.
The way that you have perverted the legacy of Dorothy Schiff is so horrendous that if anyone of your employees had any integrity they would have quite long ago. I do not think it would be possible for me to hold you, collectively, in higher disdain.
Sincerely,
[Joey C]