Weigel

In Which Occupy Las Vegas Ruins/Improves a CNN Live Shot

LAS VEGAS – After I finished talking to protesters outside the CNN debate yesterday, I noticed the crowd surging over to Las Vegas Boulevard, away from the Republican candidates actually were. It seemed odd until a little bit before 8 p.m., when I saw the live feed of CNN in the debate filing center and realized what was happening.

Consider it a little revenge for Burnett’s snotty segment (on the second episode of her show!) about how stupid the protests were. You could also consider it a protest of how lousy media coverage of the movement was yesterday, after Doug Schoen released his poll of 200 Occupiers. Judd Legum does some good work here proving how Schoen’s predictable column about the “radical” movement was completely disproven by his own survey.

He writes that a “large majority” are bound together by support for a “radical redistribution of wealth.” But when he asked the protesters what they’d like the Occupy Wall Street movement to achieve, just 4 percent said “radical redistribution of wealth,” which tied for last on the list of answers given. There is no mention of “radical redistribution of wealth” anywhere else in the poll.

You can’t even be charitable and assume that the other policies listed in the question reveal “radicalism.” They reveal pretty bog standard liberalism, which protesters feel has been lost and obscured in the era of the Tea Party.