Keith and Greg Mitchell, who runs The Nation’s Occupy U.S.A. blog, examine various right-wing attempts to smear the Occupy movement. From charges of racism to anti-Semitism now to serving as a front for radical Islamists, Occupy has become a moving target.
KEITH OLBERMANN: Last week, Occupy Wall Street was a haven for anti-Semites and it was full of racists. In our fourth story tonight — when those didn’t stick, the right wing pulled out a far-more-familiar smear, this time by calling it a front group for radical Islamists. Starting in Occupy Orlando, where conservative activist Tom Trento is claiming that the peaceful movement is, in fact, backed by violent fundamentalists.
(Excerpt from video clip) TOM TRENTO: Be aware we have Islamic, Sharia-compliant involvement now in these Occupy Wall Street, Occupy Orlando, Occupy events. Serious, serious transition in a bad direction.
OLBERMANN: His evidence of things Sharia-compliant involvement is the presence of a Muslim-American lawyer named Shayan Elahi. Mr. Elahi is a legal observer for the movement, also the affirmative-action chair for the local Democratic Party. When he asked Trento to stop harassing protesters, Trento responded with characteristic venom.
(Excerpt from video clip) SHAYAN ELAHI: Go ahead, just don’t push things into people’s faces.
(Excerpt from video clip) TRENTO: We can do whatever we want.
(Excerpt from video clip) ELAHI: Well, don’t push into people’s faces. We’re going to tell the cops.
(Excerpt from video clip) TRENTO: Tell them what you want, you know? Get lost. Get lost. Get lost. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
OLBERMANN: The guy’s name is Tom Trento, and he’s a jackass. Elahi telling The Florida Independent that — after the incident — he was simply “volunteering [his] legal services as another just another proud American and a member of the movement.” The idea that a Muslim American could be a patriotic volunteer is apparently enough to send the right-wing blogosphere into convulsions, more so than usual.
The Tea Party Tribune — I think they took over for the World Herald Telegraph Tribune — ran this headline: “JIHAD ALERT: Is the Muslim Brotherhood directing Occupy Orlando?” Answer is no.
Town Hall, another major right-wing blog with no conscience has this one, “The latest edition to Occupy Wall Street? Radical Islamist group CAIR.” The answer to that is no.
And then there’s Glenn Beck’s The Blaze, which I’m beginning to believe is a parody website like The Onion. It offered this insightful analysis: “They say one can a lot about people by the company they keep. . . What does the Council for American Islamic Relations endorse of Occupy Wall Street . . . tell us about . . . the Occupy protesters?” That you should remember that things with the word Islamic in it are not necessarily bad. No, no, I’m sorry, I got it — that I should buy more gold.
One Muslim leader involved in the protest here in New York said Friday this kind of racism is one of the reasons his group became involved in the movement.
(Excerpt from video clip) MAN: We also are suffering, suffering racism and discrimination. Islam-bashing is on the increase.
OLBERMANN: Joining me now, Greg Mitchell, who maintains The Nation’s Occupy U.S.A. blog. Good to see you, Greg.
GREG MITCHELL: Happy to be here.
OLBERMANN: Did this Trento dream this up all by himself? It seems like it’s bigger than his ability to handle it. Or is there somebody behind it who pushed this thing out? How did it get started?
MITCHELL: Well, I’m not sure it was Breitbart, but there’s certainly plenty of candidates on the right to do that. This has been, as you pointed out, this has been an escalating campaign.
We had The New York Post today claiming that shootings were up all over New York ever since the Occupiers took root there, and the police have been diverted to other duties. So, we can expect this. I don’t think it’s particularly sticking so far. You mentioned the CNN poll. There is Pugh poll today, which also showed favorable view of Occupy and contrasting it to an unfavorable view of the tea party. So, I think a lot of these people are getting desperate for anything.
OLBERMANN: I was going to say, because we moved so quickly from — “Oh, it’s anti-Semitism and racism,” which was like last Thursday when that, sort of, came out — to now, this — this, it appears over the weekend. It was picked up, by the way — we just sort of surfed the top, kind of, responses, although all the right-wing nuts went on this on radio today. They’re good at smears. They’re good at propaganda. They’re good at managing and massaging a message. These are such wild claims, so thinly sourced, and they seem to come and go fairly quickly. Does that underscore the relative popularity of this movement, and how it must have just destroyed the right wing’s world view? There’s no chance this could succeed from the right wing’s point of view.
MITCHELL: Well, I think it’s too big. I think it’s different. It’s been hard to — to paint this as a minority kind of movement. There are too many people involved — too many people potentially — and that’s the problem. They’re — as big as the protests have been, they could escalate. You know, we’ve got the Marines now, joining with their official site, and a very active group. We’ve seen police groups. Obviously, the nurses — a very moving and very large group involved — all of the labor support.
So, they’ve really only touched the tip of the iceberg so far. And I think that’s really what the right wing is afraid of, is that there is something to this 99 percent. They’re not going to get 99 percent out there, but they might get 59 percent or 69 percent.
OLBERMANN: Is there anything else? We’ve run through anti-Semitism, racism, their secret Islamic brotherhood, sisterhood, fraternity — whatever it is. All of these things have already come and, to some degree, gone. Is there anything else in the pipeline that we’re aware of? Are there any other broad smears, or something like — they caused the Boston Red Sox collapse, or something else in here that we don’t know about?
MITCHELL: Maybe they are affecting the front-runners in the GOP race. They’re sabotaging each of these really strong candidates that have come along. So, I don’t know.
You know, I think you’re just going to see a lot more of this — or, each possible issue, each possible smear they can throw at them. And I think what people have to remember is that this is a real national movement — forget even the global components — a national movement. So yes, you’re always going to have some extremists around the fringe of any large group, any large march, any large guys — it’s going to be easy to get — to stick a microphone in someone’s face and get a whacky quote. Always been true, always will be true.
But, besides the big encampment in New York, there’s encampments all over the country. And it’s really not only unfair but morally wrong to paint the whole movement with a couple of whackos that you can find.
OLBERMANN: Do you think there is any kind of recall on the part of those people who would have been hearing these claims on right-wing radio, or somewhere else in the right-wing blogosphere, that this is — their response when accusations were made about racism and other flaws within the tea party –
MITCHELL: Right.
OLBERMANN: Was to say, “Well, even if that’s true it’s just a few of them.” Is anybody remembering that was their defense that they are now using as the reason to paint everybody with the same brush?
OLBERMANN: Well, the other thing I would point out is that — you know, in polls of actual tea party people, they were finding a lot of extremist views, including 50 percent birthers, you know, 50 — half of them saying that Obama was born — wasn’t really an American. That was not the fringe, that was mainstream tea party. So, there is a little difference there, in terms of, you know, the center and the extreme.
OLBERMANN: Agreed, but it’s still the same — their defense last year has become something to ignore this year.
MITCHELL: Right. Right. Yes, absolutely.
OLBERMANN: I am sure that didn’t register at all with any of them. It’s a complicated idea, like three plus five equals — I can’t remember.
Greg Mitchell, who runs the Occupy U.S.A. blog at The Nation, good to see you.
MITCHELL: Thanks, Keith.
