Move On?

There's a video making the rounds on the web about the Occupy Wall Street protests via MoveOn.org. Billed as the "The Most Powerful Occupy Wall Street Clip You Will See This Month", despite siding with the protesters, I'm very conflicted about the video. 

On the one hand, it is indeed a powerful piece of film-making, skillfully edited to juxtapose the public statements of President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton about the political protests in Libya and Syria with footage of the NYPD altercations with the Occupy Wall Street protesters in a way that implies hypocrisy on their part. On the other, for all the skill that went into it, it's ultimately little more than a piece of simplistic and narrow-minded propaganda. Moreover, its assertion that Obama's and Clinton's remarks on the revolutions in the Middle East represent hypocrisy because they haven't voiced similar thoughts on the "Occupy" protests is ridiculous if you know anything about our system of government.

First off, Secretary Clinton's role as Secretary of State limits her remit to international affairs. Secondly, as an official of the federal government, President Obama obviously doesn't have jurisdiction over the NYPD or any other locality's police. And if he did try to exert such control, he'd be vilified for acting in a dictatorial manner. Beyond that, in terms of policy, I think the tax elements of the jobs bill suggest that he's at least on the same chapter, if perhaps not on the same page, as the protesters, which makes picking on him seem a bit small-minded.

As far as the arrests of those protesters, any honest assessment leads to the conclusion that we really have no idea what led up to those arrests. The filmmakers present the protesters' assertions (e.g. one saying she hadn't been read her rights) completely at face value, but between the shaky camera work and the highly selective editing, we have no idea if the police were being high-handed or acting appropriately. Another element not reflected in the film, as it seeks to compare the protests in the Middle East to those here in America, is the fact that the protesters on Wall Street will most likely be released on their own recognizance after a brief hearing, while any protesters arrested in Syria will probably be tortured and/or killed. 

Obviously a piece of propaganda has no obligation to fairly represent both sides of the issue, but the aggressiveness with which it ignores so many basic realities feels wrong - all the more so because I agree with their cause. It's just a shame that the only way people seem to be able to fight for their causes these days is to fight dirty.