If you read this story in The News & Observer and thought you were reading a news release by one of the Occupy movement’s public relations operative, you are not alone:
CHAPEL HILL — Members of Occupy Chapel Hill/Carrboro will take down their tents outside the Franklin Street post office next Tuesday, Jan. 10, the group announced this morning.
In a statement released by organizer Katya Roytburd, the group said the move will make the local demonstration “one of the very few, longstanding Occupy encampments in the country to peacefully and voluntarily transition to a new phase in its evolution.”
Note that the movement’s Marxist-tinged language gets full exposure in the second paragraph. A good editor would have struck this gobbledygook from the story entirely.
Not content with channeling the revolutionary prose of the Occupy movement, the story goes on to announce the entire agenda of radical causes and activities of the group:
Immediate plans include continued public meetings on the plaza, roving encampments; participation in an “Occupy the Courts” event Jan. 20, and continuing support for The Chapel Hill and Carrboro Human Rights Center.The center, which serves Latinos, ethnic Karen refugees from Myanmar (formerly Burma) and others, is moving to a new location in Carrboro after being kicked out of its Abbey Court condominium units for violating homeowners association rules against serving non-residents, according to management there.
Where is the counterbalance? Where is the other side of this story? Where are the critics of Occupy? Reading this, you’d think there are none.
This story continues The News & Observer‘s absurd assertions that the people who were involved in the breaking and entering of Yates Motor Company on Franklin Street are not connected to the Occupy radicals.
Here’s the way the N&O describes the event in every story, using the exact same wording (the emphasis is mine):
An attempt by a different group of self-described “anti-capitalist occupiers” to take over a former downtown car dealership in November was broken up by police, who arrested seven people on breaking and entering charges and an eightth [sic] on a charge of obstruct and delay.
Those protesters, some of whom were also Occupy members, wanted to turn the old Yates Motor Co./University Chrysler building into a community center that could have provided a base for Occupy during the cold weather. The building now houses an art display in its front windows.
So, it was a completely different group but some of them were Occupy members. What a coincidence. It’s also interesting that the paper never points out that its reporter on the scene for the breaking and entering that day was trespassing on private property as much as the “different group” that occupied Yates Motor Company.