OLBERMANN: Occupy Wall Street may be gaining strength, but it's not without its critics on the left. Many have applauded the movement support for "the 99% on the on the lower rungs of the economic ladder who will no longer tolerate the greed and corruption of the 1% on top."
But the group has indeed yet to articulate any specific demands. And while it may be performing a crucial role in helping to educate the uniformed about how they have been victimized by Wall Street and the "too big to fail" banks, the deliberate -- almost -- lack of organization, the self-styled "leaderless resistance movement" and its refusal to articulate demands could both hamper its growth and slow its being taken as seriously as it would like to be. Matt Taibbi, of the "Rolling Stone," contributing editor and "Countdown" contributor joins me now, here at control. Good to see you, sir.
MATT TAIBBI: Good evening, Keith.
OLBERMANN: All right, so you're -- you decided you were writing about this and hadn't seen it, didn't know what it was, and you literally just hopped on a train from Boston to go see it?
TAIBBI: Well, yeah. I mean, I decided to check it out this afternoon.
OLBERMANN: What did you see?
TAIBBI: Well, I think the -- you know, there is about a thousand people that I counted down there today. And the -- the sign that I thought most accurately represented the whole thing, I can't really say the actual words on air, but --
OLBERMANN: Right.
TAIBBI: There was a sign that said, "'Bleep is bleeped up" and I think that kind of generally sums up what it is. It's a generalized protest. People are angry about something and they -- they kind of generally understand that Wall Street is somehow behind the problems, but they don't know exactly why.
OLBERMANN: And many of those who are saying and -- and pushing to keep this nonspecific have said, "Look, Tahrir Square, Cairo, we brought down the Mubarak government." By the time that really had its impact, they were very specific about what they wanted.
TAIBBI: Right.
OLBERMANN: They wanted freedom for a nation that was obviously being wildly suppressed and the -- and the -- and violence against those -- those protestors. What is seldom known, and to the credit of this network was to begun to be reported on here on Vanguard in 2006, was that those Tahrir Square demonstrations started with 50, 60 people just saying, "We want things to be better."
TAIBBI: Right.
OLBERMANN: So, is there -- is there, in fact, some reason for them to believe that this is the root of something? Has the last week and a half suggested that they actually grew something there, in that time?
TAIBBI: You know what, I think so. I mean, I thought about this a lot.
OLBERMANN: Sure.
TAIBBI: Obviously, you know, it's not 100,000 extremely desperate people chewing through brick walls with their teeth, you know? It's a thousand college students having a sleep-in right now. But the reality is that there's a lot of real anger out there and it's -- the movement is growing organically, I think, just because people know that there's something to protest now and they're -- they're coming out. And all these people are distressed, and there is enough real distress and desperation out there that this could transform into a real movement where there's enough really angry people to scare people in power.
OLBERMANN: And of all people, you would know that they're -- they didn't just pick something in random, like saying, "We don't like cobblestone streets downtown."
TAIBBI: Right.
OLBERMANN: "That's the cause of every American problem." There is so much wrong with Wall Street. And as you wrote, any movement against Wall Street corruption will have to involve some very elaborate organization.
TAIBBI: Right.
OLBERMANN: Is this something that could conceivably grow into that, or merely an inspiration for something else that might grow into that?
TAIBBI: Well, I think this -- what this could do is that it could provide the political support for those -- those activists who are trying to change very specific things about how Wall Street operates. Obviously this is a crowd that doesn't know a whole lot about how, for instance, the derivatives market works. But there's enough anger out these that people who are trying to reform the derivatives market can point and say, "Look, there are protests out there. We need to do something because the public won't take it anymore."
OLBERMANN: What about the -- the move towards other -- we cited the one in Los Angeles today, 70 was the low end of one estimate, couple hundred was another. All the ones on slate for tomorrow, the rest of this week, big towns, small towns -- are they interconnected, or are they being inspired by each other?
TAIBBI: Well, I think, clearly, this one seems a little different to me because it's supposedly specifically directed towards Wall Street and it's at Wall Street and so, thematically, it should be different. But I think, you know, it has a lot in common with the tea party movement that popped up a couple of years ago, which is, you know -- somebody gave people an excuse to come out in the streets and organize and show their anger and, all of a sudden, there were millions of people. I think that could really happen here because there is enough discomfort out there that, you know, those numbers will be there.
OLBERMANN: Right. Where are they relative to media coverage? I don't want to pat everybody on the back here too much, but we were essentially the first people to do this on national television, at any length.
TAIBBI: Sure.
OLBERMANN: In the context of a news program and there seems to have been some pick-up. What are people covering, and is the message being delivered by the media? Is it being thwarted by the media? Do you have any perception of that?
TAIBBI: You know, I've -- obviously, I covered a lot of tea party events in the early going and I -- you know, it seems like every time there was a decent-sized event, there were always live trucks everywhere and --
OLBERMANN: A loud cough.
TAIBBI: Exactly, exactly. And this one, you know, there's -- there are a few reporters, there's a set up there for the media but it's -- it's not anywhere near the numbers, you know, you saw on the other side.
OLBERMANN: You made the reference. I've done it before. You're the expert on it. Not me. If those were tea party protestors in Wall Street for the last week and half complaining about welfare, complaining about stimulus packages, demanding the ouster of Ben Bernanke, what kind of coverage would that get, do you think?
TAIBBI: I think it would get a lot of coverage. But interestingly, there are some tea partiers there. I mean, there are -- there are Ron Paul supporters there, in some numbers and, you know -- and they're being ignored, too. So, I think that's worth pointing out.
OLBERMANN: Maybe there just aren't enough funny hats.
TAIBBI: Right, right.
OLBERMANN: So we're going to be having a telethon here on Current to raise money for funny hats for Occupy Wall Street to try to just sell the media presence a little bit. The "Rolling Stone" contributing editor and "Countdown" contributor, Matt Taibbi, with the perspective on Occupy Wall Street. Great.Thanks for it, Matt.
TAIBBI: Thank you.
OLBERMANN: Good to see you, as always.
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