“The Des Moines Occupiers packed their bags this week, ending a heartfelt, earnest, and even admirable civil action that leaves virtually no impact on governance in the state.”
So sayeth the Quad Cities Times (Feb. 5, 2012) through their editorial board and “award winning” editorial page editor, Mark Ridolfi.
The Times has simply found it impossible to hide its boundless affection for the “Occupy” movement. In this editorial, tearfully lamenting the movement’s failure to leave an “impact’ on governance in the state, it even goes so far as to offer some suggestions on how it might be an influence on the citizens of Iowa.
Incidentally, the movement, as the Times reports, measured its “influence” by the fact that 116 of the Occupy movement’s 6436 arrests nationwide occurred in Des Moines !!! (Wow! Now that’s effective! They need to get those arrest numbers up, though, if they’re going to have the Times’ desired “impact”!)
The Times in its enthusiasm could not help but wonder, in what seemed like a suggestion, what influence these “folks” might have had if “they’d occupied school budget hearings or area city council tax rate forums”.
No doubt with visions of another coveted “Excellence in Editorial Writing” award from the prestigious (?) Iowa Newspaper Association dancing in his head, Mr. Ridolfi enthused about how 20 Occupiers “civilly participating in a city budget hearing would immediately get the attention of aldermen eager to listen, ask questions, and remember the names the next time occupiers called”. (Oh Happy Day!!)
It is remarkable, but not surprising, that the QC Times and Mr. Ridolfi evinced no such enthusiasm or support for the Tea Party “folks’. No editorials on “ardent supporters eager for a platform”.
The QC Times has been a big supporter of the “Occupy” movement from the beginning. Mr. Ridolfi waxed eloquently about the movement in the first days of its occupation of Wall Street. The editorial at that time (Oct.11,2011) spoke of the “whimsical antics and naive ideals” of those picketers who gathered at a Citibank branch, exhaling on cue, “stretching arms before moving from high lunge to warrior pose”. (What a glorious spectacle to those Quad Cities Times ed board members.)
Tea Partiers, on the other hand, were treated to no such indulgence by the Times. A remarkable event at the Mall in Washington D.C. on Aug. 28, 2010 drew over 500,000 people, sympathetic to the Tea Party cause. They had come from every corner of America, at their own expense, to protest Washington’s profligate spending and heavy handed governance. Their presence was notable by their respectful and orderly conduct. This writer was there and can attest that there was no antipathy toward our nation’s institutions and great respect for the rule of law and proper conduct. Didn’t see any movement from high lunge to warrior pose, however. And no arrests…how ineffective is that?
The Times editorial page, no doubt exhausted from its other award winning pursuits to do any comment, chose a column by Leonard Pitts to provide commentary on this event.
Unlike the fawning adoration by the ed board toward “Occupiers”, Mr. Pitts used pure invective to describe Glenn Beck, who had organized the “restore Honor” rally. “Obscene, mendacious,, worse than shameless” are the terms used in the column the Times chose to reflect on the Tea Party gathering.
Oh well…if they’d only organized a drum circle…or maybe vandalized a park. Those tea pertiers.. if they’d just listen to the Quad Cities Times. DLH
