Conveniently ignoring the truth

Into the third week of its campaign against the financial and corporate elite, the "Occupy Wall Street" campaign is now spreading its appeal across the United States.

The mainstream American media at first tried to pretend that Occupy Wall Street did not exist. They were forced to play up the story when New York police arrested 700 Occupy Wall Street protesters near the Brooklyn Bridge.

The editorial line of the mainstream American media on the Occupy Wall Street movement, which has now branched out to "Occupy the Fed", remains obscure. For the media are part of the establishment, or the elite, which Occupy Wall Street is going after.

This reminds me of the western media's coverage of the Thai political polarisation and the chaos of last year.

During the clashes between the red-shirt protesters and the authorities of the Abhisit government in April and May last year, practically all of the international media organisations, international democracy and human rights organisations and western governments threw their support, openly or covertly, behind the red-shirts movement. The dominant theme played out by the international media then was that the red shirts represented a bona-fide grassroots movement, which stood up against the Bangkok elite, the Democrat Party, the military and the monarchy.

What was missing from their coverage was the fact that the red shirts were financed by key members of the Pheu Thai Party, supported by foreign agencies and governments, and local factions of the business, political and military elite. However, the red-shirt movement was part of a sweeping power struggle rather than a social revolution, as the international media misled the world day in and day out, thriving on the local divide.

After the finally government stepped in and sent troops to eventually remove the red-shirt protesters from Bangkok's downtown Ratchaprasong intersection and Lumpini Park, the repeated sound bite was that the government troops had shot at "unarmed, innocent protesters". Many innocent protesters were indeed gathering peacefully at Ratchaprasong, where the TV cameras led our eyes to focus on them. But the violent clashes took place at Lumpini Park, where troops launched a pre-dawn raid against unknown, fully armed red-shirt supporters.

The casualties were unknown. History would have to be rewritten.

It will be interesting to see whether the international media go after the financial and political elites in their home countries. I doubt that they will, since the major news networks, national and international newspapers, are part of the establishment themselves.

The international media have consistently attacked the Thai elite, the elite in the Middle East and other emerging-market countries, which do not serve the interests of the western powers. But the international media barely criticises or dares to touch on the elite in their own countries, which are the main culprits behind the current global financial and banking crisis and depression.

The economic recession has dispelled the illusion of the American Dream. The poor are getting poorer. The middle class and hard-working Americans are losing their pay cheques. American home-owners are losing their houses via foreclosures. Most are finding the market value of their homes below the mortgage debt owed to the banks. They are now venting their anger against the financial elite of Wall Street and the prevailing culture of money politics of the US Congress and the White House.

When the economy collapsed in 2008, the Federal Reserve and the US government threw good money after bad to rescue Wall Street bankers and big corporations. The American public and those who lost their jobs got almost nothing.

Occupy Wall Street has yet to find a charismatic leader. It is still uncertain of its objectives or how to to create a more equitable society and a fair system. Its manifesto is an interesting read: "As one people, united, we acknowledge the reality: that the future of the human race requires the cooperation of its members; that our system must protect our rights, and upon corruption of that system, it is up to the individuals to protect their own rights, and those of their neighbours; that a democratic government derives its just power from the people, but corporations do not seek consent to extract wealth from the people and the Earth; and that no true democracy is attainable when the process is determined by economic power. We come to you at a time when corporations, which place profit over people, self-interest over justice, and oppression over equality, run our governments. We have peaceably assembled here, as is our right, to let these facts be known."