Writing this not as a guide, but hoping to start a conversation with sisters and brothers here as well as learn better how to navigate maintaining a cordial relationship with corporate media organizations and maintaining access while making clear that our interests are not necessarily in their owners' interests. By "Our" interests, I can speak only for Occupy Rockford (Ill.), but in the spirit of the Occupy Wall Street movement and of, what, in my time lurking while pretending to take notes in class, and since, I feel to be the spirit of many involved in one way or other in this forum. I also know well there are many among us Orange Satans who can probably answer my questions and share their expertise, experience, and knowledge.
Here's the thing (as I see it, and I'm a 26-year old nobody who had the fortune of studying history and philosophy, loving books, discovering Emma Goldman, Utah Phillips, Martin Luther King and so many more): this movement, which has galvanized the world, and given this 26-year old nobody more pride and inspiration than I've ever had, cannot exist or grow without mainstream media coverage. Ideally fair mainstream media, but I'm not so naïve to expect that.
As Occupy Rockford has exploded from a group of three two weeks to the day ago to a movement of at least 200, nearly 700 engaged through our Facebook page, and gaining in strength daily. The local media has noticed; I've done interviews for all three local news stations, as have others. We're being written about, interviewed on TV and radio, blogged about, posted about, etc. Corporate media is noticing that the whole world, quite literally, is watching.
I've never done anything like this. I've been engaged, come out, struggled with drug and alcohol abuse, helped run John Kerry's New Hampshire primary and general campaigns at Dartmouth College, run two different newspapers and helped found another, lost my faith; even with the privilege of an Ivy League education, being young, male, and white with a family supporting me, I lost a job and have yet to find another (and not for lack of trying); what I found is a movement. With all the above, I've never felt so heavily this responsibility. "What do I do today to ensure that Occupy Rockford succeeds?" is my first thought on waking, my last on falling asleep, and as of this morning, invading my dreams. Those of you who are my elders know the feeling; many of my generation and younger know the feeling: "what I do today, in whatever small way, can change the world. Not can, but will; not will but must."
I might have strayed a bit off topic, but I've been watching often lately videos of Martin Luther King, Bayard Rustin, John Lewis, and others, reading as much as I have time for, and listening to as much Citizen Radio, Utah Phillips and Democracy Now I can; all the above are instrumental in making me who I am, as a leftist and as a person. I've wondered many, many times in my short life: when will my turn come? Friends, it's here. Standing with sisters and brothers from all walks of life, old and young, well-off and poor, from all racial and sexual identities, believers and devout atheists -- it's been two weeks, but having had that opportunity has already changed me. This is our moment, and we have to continue seizing it.
That was the uplifting part. Here comes the other part.
The corporate media culture we live in operates -- dissected and denounced by so many here more eloquently than I -- on narrative over truth, perception over reality. Admittedly, there are many independent media organizations who bravely and on pennies, coffee, and fumes steer in a different direction, and several mainstream media figures who speak for the common person and truth to power. The media most of us consume most of the time do not. Where this movement -- speaking this time for myself, Occupy Rockford, and the global movement those in New York have spawned -- goes depends on managing the relationship with the media, taking care of the optics.
The perception among many (though certainly not all) skeptical of the Occupy movement is that we're a ragtag band of revolutionaries who (per the always quotable Mr. Herman Cain) lack personal hygiene, have no interest in work, are unemployed or struggling because we're lazy, and spend our days in a cloud of marijuana smoke while playing video games (that last bit might not be attributable to Mr. Cain). That what we want is revolution, man; and some of us do. I think that narrative is slowly changing. That perspective is what has to be countered tirelessly, and even when it makes you want to drop your phone in the sink or throw your computer from a very high place, by those spokespeople in the Occupy Movement and on the left generally. I know the DFH meme has been around before I was born, and I'm aware and appreciate those here and on other sites have done so much (even when futilely) to combat it. It's not going away any time soon, I get it. But it's one thing to be perceived as a DFH when the country as a whole is salivating over a new war, more guns, more religion in situations that clearly violate the First Amendment. It's another when a movement that is sweeping the globe has a chance to accomplish something.
What the Occupy Movements must do in General Assembly is determine how advantageously to deal with the media.
How, on the one hand, to form communications and media committees staffed by individuals who are eloquent, inspiring, able to think on their feet (I've been O'Keefed already by a Tea Party provocateur), and best at representing what the group as a whole has decided and voted on. How to do whatever those committees can to avoid so-called "gotcha" moments. How to avoid creating any impression among those in opposition that Occupy Anytown is a resentful mob, violent, or itching for confrontation or desecration of public policy. What steps to ensure compliance with local and state ordinances regarding peaceful assembly and demonstrations -- ignoring those steps if need be, but stressing first in every statement of principles and endlessly, a commitment to nonviolence. Whom to contact regarding legal rights. Whatever contributes to making the greatest number in your area and nationally who are not marching with you or against you to convince them to.
And, on the other hand, to maintain a "frenemy" relationship with representatives and organizations of your local corporate media. For those not familiar with the term, one of frequent contact, but with the understanding that you maintain the relationship for its mutual benefits, that your interests diverge but the benefit is greater; and if that balance changes...
What I would love in response is any advice from anyone who has dealt with the corporate media and tried to walk that line. Two weeks in, I'm already finding in a way I never had before (even when representing the media) that it's a quite tricky line to walk.