Image Credit: Timothy A. Clary/AFP/Getty Images
On Monday, Sept. 26, NPR.org wondered if the still-growing Occupy Wall Street movement was newsworthy. When readers questioned why there was so little coverage from the news organization at that point, NPR News Executive Editor Dick Meyer replied, “The recent protests on Wall Street did not involve large numbers of people, prominent people, a great disruption, or an especially clear objective.”
What a difference two weeks makes. Not only has the movement swelled in New York City — and expanded to Boston and Washington D.C. — but Hollywood has become involved in the social and political uprising. On Monday, Kanye West and Russell Simmons visited Manhattan’s Zuccotti Park, the unofficial headquarters of Occupy Wall Street, to show their support. And West and Simmons are just two of the latest stars to make an appearance at the site: Susan Sarandon, Michael Moore, and Roseanne Barr have taken part in the protests, while celebrities like Jon Stewart, Alec Baldwin, Jane Fonda, and Yoko Ono have voiced their support via Twitter or other outlets. (Other artists like Neutral Milk Hotel’s Jeff Mangum, Talib Kweli, and members of the punk band Anti-Flag have even played music for the masses as well.)
But for a group that seemingly turned on Geraldo Rivera Monday, how do the Occupy Wall Street protesters feel about the involvement of these “prominent people”? There’s no denying that celebrities’ attachment to the cause directly leads to more headlines, but have their voices lent credence to — or detracted from — the cause? (Interestingly enough, organizers behind New York’s Occupy Wall Street say they aren’t even courting the big-names — Hollywood, volunteer Anca Suiu tells EW, has simply “shown up” unannounced to the demonstrations.) During Occupy Wall Street’s Millionaire’s March Tuesday, 20-year-old Anthony Graffangnino, who has been involved in Occupy Wall Street over the past few days, told EW that the crowd is in favor of their A-list support, which has been able to amp up their message. “It’s really great to see influential people coming down to these protest because I think it gives a little bit more validity to it when you have people who have respected voices and respected opinions siding with a group of people who have been marginalized by the media,” Graffangnino said. “Everybody’s voice should be respected equally, but when you have a celebrity, their voice carries much further. So if they can spread the message in an articulate way, that’s great.”
Indeed, celebrities have been welcomed with open arms by the protesters. Graffangnino, for one, spoke about a positive encounter with hip-hop artist Immortal Technique (“It was great, he was there speaking with some people right where we had slept the night before,” he said), and 25-year-old substitute teacher Matt Lester told EW there was only one big-name who was openly rejected by demonstrators: Fox News correspondent Rivera, who was surrounded by chants of “Fox News lies!” while trying to file a report on Occupy Wall Street. “Even though it seemed like he was trying to speak on behalf of the protest, he wasn’t doing a good job at all,” said Lester, who witnessed protesters’ taunts firsthand. “Good for them. They were making a point and that’s what we need to do.”
Still, there is a undeniable disconnect between the protesters and their big-name backers. After all, celebrities represent exactly what Occupy Wall Street is fighting against: The wealthiest 1 percent in the U.S. As one Queens, N.Y., resident named Raphael, who didn’t give his last name, told EW, “They give it credibility, but they’re part of the problem, too.” And then there’s the definite possibility that Hollywood is using the cause to further promote themselves. Said Josh Lucy, who came all the way from Miami to join the demonstrators, “I think it’s awesome so long as they’re not trying to make a media appearance or co-opt what we’re doing,”
For the most part, though, Occupy Wall Street is happy to allow Hollywood to occupy their demonstrations, regardless of the size of their bank accounts. Said Lester, “They may have been the 99 percent at one point [in their lives], and hopefully they haven’t lost sight of that.” So take note, Hollywood: Your invitation to Occupy Wall Street remains open. “I love it,” 24-year-old Ben Levin told EW. “They can bring a larger and more diversified audience to the cause. I respect any celebrity that’s going to come out and stand up for a cause that’s justified and right. I hope they keep coming down and joining us.”
What are your thoughts on celebrities joining the Occupy Wall Street, or any political movement? Share in the comments section below.
Read more:
Kanye West visits Occupy Wall Street protests
Occupy Wall Street protest boasts visits from Michael Moore, Susan Sarandon
Neutral Milk Hotel’s Jeff Mangum performs for Occupy Wall Street
Does Kanye West ever help anything?
himself
seriously…his new tour is so expensive
I’m all for a celebrity lending help, but we need to be careful here. One of the things that really de-railed the Tea Party were things like ‘The Tea Party Express,’ that saw Republicans turn that movement into a political threat, (as in don’t incur the wrath of the mighty teabaggers) or used it for commercial and financial gain. Just look online at all the tacky “teaparty” buttons and memorbilia that fed right into the bank accounts of Lobbyist and Politicians who had no intrest in ‘the people.’ I realize the “Occupy” movement is a bit scattered in it’s message at this point, but honestly thats gonna be to our advantage. The politicians can’t turn it into a “look at me, I’m right and I have the people on my side,” gimmick. This needs to be about a message, and unfortunately the Tea Party message was long ago hijacked and distorted by politicians and corporations.
These people are frauds, all of them. These “protesters” have no problem mingling with the ultra rich, as long as they’re the right celebs. But, apparently not all celebs are welcome – just the PC ones. This is a PR opportunity for these millionaires, it’s that simple. Speaking of simple, notice how these protesters feel better calling the celebs “influential” instead of rich? Clever. And they add that they were once in the 99% and “hopefully they haven’t lost site of that”. Right. That’s why they’re there. It’s not for the PR at all. Hey, if that’s what you have to tell youself. By the way, ask any one of these millionaires, if they’re so committed to the cause, to what charity they are giving all their money? You know, to get back into the fold of the 99%. Not one of them would do it. Frauds.
Nicely put!
Agreed. If the whole point is that rich people suck and hoard their wealth (which seems to be their overall point…as much as they have one main point), Kanye and Russell Simmons are exactly who they should be against. In addition to their easy targets like Murdoch, bankers, etc.
And how about George Soros? A man who singlehandedly caused the collapse of a currency should be pretty much the epitome of evil if these people weren’t being hypocritical.
George Soros, he did not single handily cause the collapse. That is silly. He is guilty of hedge funds but so are many others. He has tried to reform…guess he made enough money…and has warned about risky behavior of other types of investments. Which the banks hate he told on them. Fox news & conservatives hate him because he is giving money to liberal causes now. If Soros would be giving money to them, they would love him. The tea party love the Koch brothers who fund them and they have caused just as much damage to this economy.
Susan, you didn’t read what I said. You need to read up on Soros and the 1992 “Black Wednesday” collapse of the pound in the UK. I never said he caused the recent one.
Thank GOD there are at least some rational people left. Very Well put FRAUDS
Thank God for the 99er’s, a whole lotta common sense!
Nothings gonna happen.. the protests are too peacefull..sooner or later there just gonna dry up and blow away.
Mark Ruffalo has been tweeting a lot about it too.
Celebrities bring attention. Simple as that. What I love are people who come to entertainment websites to hate on celebrities. Why bother?
As usual, the media spins an ugly tale. There is no need for the Occupiers across this nation to be all commercially packaged up and taken over like the Tea Party. The Tea Party is now run by Corporate America. In fact, the Tea Party once started with protests against Wall Street/Big Banks and look at them now….a commercially packaged, organized group of haters protesting against Americans.
I stand with Occupy Wall Street. Send a pizza or water! And yes, they have bathrooms. Check out PBS’s ongoing coverage and stay away from Faux News or even EW….cause they seem not to be able to run a story either. geez.
You’re nuts if you think big wigs aren’t controlling this either. This movement IS the product of the extreme left wing, like the Tea Party is for the extreme right.
I think it may have started out as a grassroots movement, but with big labor involved now, it’s undoubtedly left-wing and controlled.
No it is not controlled…that is why there are so many different messages. It is the use of social media which is giving this protest legs.
kate middleton you need to stop hating the police, teachers, truck drivers, firemen, city workers etc…. because that is who are the so called big labor. I am guessing your refering to Unions. You know Unions fight for fair wages and benefits. In fact Unions have even taken concessions of less pay & benefits when they know that a company is in finicial trouble. Without Unions all of our pay would be less. In fact that is why the Coporations and the Conservatives want you to hate them so they can hurt them. They want to get rid of Unions so they can pay you less with no benefits. That is their goals. So keep hating middle class working people in Unions but realize when they are no longer there, you and your family will be the one who is hurt. Coporations will reap in the benefits.
Im conservative,have a good job, and health insurance.
I stand with the 99%.
These people are not radical left wingers. That story has been produced by your media in order to downplay this. This is a movement from the middle. Always has been.
Tess IS 100,000,000,000% correct. She just left out the name of the true ringleader OBAMA
Susan, how’s your Kool Aid? I am against labor unions who force hard-working people to pay them part of their hard-earned wages. I am against mandatory membership in any organization – what is democratic about that? And I am against those unions using their members’ money to universally shill for Democrats. If you cared about the average worker, you would be against this too.
The truly sad part of this is that NPR, a news outlet I really respect, feels like a grassroots movement needs “prominent people” to warrant their attention. Isn’t that the whole point? That its regular people, fed up with the system?
Story lost credibility the moment they put Kanye West’s picture up front.
GOP fears The People.
The Occupy movement isn’t anti-rich, it’s anti-GREED. There’s a big difference. Many wealthy people are very generous with their money and very committed to helping the 99%. The mess this economy is in right now is traceable (at least in part) to Wall Street greed — these guys screwed up big time trying to score more and more obscene profits, and our government (BOTH parties) bailed them out! That’s greed, and that’s what the Occupy movement is fighting. And NPR should be ashamed that they haven’t been covering it!
I think you make a good point. I wish these protestors would direct some of their ire at the government (both parties), who is just as responsible. From what I’ve seen so far, everything is directed at rich people. I guess that’s part of the problem with them not having one clear message though – you end up with signs like “kill the rich” getting a lot of prominence online.
It’s important to remember that OWS DOES NOT ASK the celebrities to SPEAK for them. Rather, these celebrities just show up and that’s about all there is to it. The most important thing (because for christ sake it’s NOT the celebs) it’s that the 99% are getting their message through!!.
The celebrities are part of the 1%. But I guess that is ok with you lefties as long as you get news time. One thing I did notice is most of the so called celebrities named are know hard core leftists I am amazed that Sean Penn isn’t on site full time, or is he in Venezuela visiting your dream leader Chavez because socialism is doing great there isn’t it. This protest is a joke by the democrats and the people who are afraid to lose their government checks blaming people for making money. Why don’t you look at who most of the rich are they are democrats nor republicans.
@Kate: I agree, NPR should be ashamed of themselves. I hope they haven’t been BOUGHT OFF like everyone else in the mainstream media. If you want the truth seek out the INDY newssites…they will give readers an HONEST account, review or opinion that isn’t based on what their corporate overlords tell them to report.
I honestly don’t know what this is really about? The problem is what is the message? What is it?
I agree that that is the problem. And without a clear, articulated message or goal, this group is ripe for being co-opted or taken advantage of by the extreme loons, big labor or other groups who want to co-opt it for their means.
I can’t think of anyone better to stand with the people and rail against excess and greed than a member of the hip hop community.
Wait- Aren’t the celebs their enemy? LOL- I am pretty sure they are in the 1%
You know, NOTHING!!!!