The Media Is Still Missing The Story

The mainstream media has been very disappointing in their coverage of the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations. First they wrote off the demonstrations as unimportant and not worth covering. Then they acted like the main story was the interaction between the police and the demonstrators -- it wasn't. They are finally beginning to realize that something important may be taking place and that the demonstrators have struck a chord with people across the nation, but now they are writing off the demonstrators because they say those people don't have "any answers".

This is a stupid attitude. The demonstrators are trying to point out our problems and get people unified in demanding those problems be solved. It is NOT their job, at least at this point, to offer solutions. Those solutions must be arrived at by a consensus of the people after they are organized, and enacted by the politicians after they finally realize that the people won;t be duped any longer. Right now, it is enough that people be awakened to the problems.

One of my fellow bloggers, Wisco at his blog Griper Blade: Grumblings From The Heartland, has created a good analogy that illustrates this. Here is part of what he has to say (and I urge you to go to his site and read the whole post):

Imagine you're driving along and you hear a sound somewhere under your car. "Ka-chung, ka-chung, ka-chung..." You're going to take that to a mechanic, right?


Now imagine that the mechanic asks you what you want to do about the sound. "I want you to fix it," you tell him.


"Sorry," he's says. "That's not specific enough. I need you to tell me exactly what needs to be done. What component I need to replace. What tools I need to do it. I need step-by-step instructions onexactly what repairs you want done."


"I'm not the mechanic," you answer, "you are! I just want you to fix the noise. I don't know how to do it."


"Come back when you have real solutions," the mechanic says.


That's the problem facing the American people and, specifically, the protesters in the streets of New York and other cities right now. The problem is obvious -- unemployment, a tax structure that's wayto lopsided toward those at the top, corporate crime and runaway greed, out-of-control higher education costs, etc. Our entire economic system is going "Ka-chung, ka-chung, ka-chung." Yet, when the protesters point out there's obviously something wrong here, they're dismissed by politicians and the media for having no solutions.


But here's the thing; it's not their job to have solutions. That's what we hire politicians for. In our metaphor, they're the customer, not the mechanic. Yet the media is constantly asking what the customer plans to do about the noise, then snicker behind their hands when the customer shrugs. . .


The Washington crowd should not be looking at average Americans for solutions. That's not what we pay them to do. The American people need to tell them what they'd tell that mechanic; we've told you what the problem is, now quit being a dick about it and fix the damned thing.


Or we'll find someone else who will.