During this past afternoon KCBS, KGO, KQED, KALW, and KPFA all had some sort of coverage of the Occupy Oakland "general strike". KCBS and KQED disappointed. KCBS had a number of reporters on the ground but they weren't reporting much but crowd movement. KQED didn't offer much. KGO was pretty good, but again they seemed more intent on talking about crowd movement than anything of substance.
KALW had some call-ins, including a couple from listeners who were apparently there, but again, not a whole lot of substance.
KPFA shined, though. They had people in the crowd. They had good reporting. They had recordings of the various speeches that had been given during the earlier rally. You'd have thought that no speech-making was done if you base your knowledge on the other stations.
What's more, these were some important things KPFA covered that I heard nowhere else:
(1) Protestors kept yelling "PEACEFUL protest; PEACEFUL protest" to try to disuade people from trashing businesses;
(2) When the Wells Fargo was graffiti'd by some folks, other protestors began REMOVING the graffiti as much as they could.
(3) At one point, some protestors put THEMSELVES between other protestors and the businesses they were intent on trashing.
(4) Numerous interviews with shop owners indicated that the protest today was welcome for business (mostly restaurants) because the past couple weeks business has been down due to outsiders staying away.
(5) One business offered a 25% discount on food if people would come back on Thursday.
(6) Shop owners generally said that they were "in the 99%", in other words, they tended to side with the protestors.
(7) Among the speeches played by on KPFA was one by activist Angela Davis, who did a sort of call and response speech, which concluded with "We occupy Oakland." "We will NOT occupy Palestine." The former got a loud roar; the latter got a lukewarm reception from the crowd.
I think KCBS, KGO, and KQED need to take heed from KPFA's coverage and actually get reporters to go out and INTERVIEW people instead of just giving traffic reports.
KALW had some call-ins, including a couple from listeners who were apparently there, but again, not a whole lot of substance.
KPFA shined, though. They had people in the crowd. They had good reporting. They had recordings of the various speeches that had been given during the earlier rally. You'd have thought that no speech-making was done if you base your knowledge on the other stations.
What's more, these were some important things KPFA covered that I heard nowhere else:
(1) Protestors kept yelling "PEACEFUL protest; PEACEFUL protest" to try to disuade people from trashing businesses;
(2) When the Wells Fargo was graffiti'd by some folks, other protestors began REMOVING the graffiti as much as they could.
(3) At one point, some protestors put THEMSELVES between other protestors and the businesses they were intent on trashing.
(4) Numerous interviews with shop owners indicated that the protest today was welcome for business (mostly restaurants) because the past couple weeks business has been down due to outsiders staying away.
(5) One business offered a 25% discount on food if people would come back on Thursday.
(6) Shop owners generally said that they were "in the 99%", in other words, they tended to side with the protestors.
(7) Among the speeches played by on KPFA was one by activist Angela Davis, who did a sort of call and response speech, which concluded with "We occupy Oakland." "We will NOT occupy Palestine." The former got a loud roar; the latter got a lukewarm reception from the crowd.
I think KCBS, KGO, and KQED need to take heed from KPFA's coverage and actually get reporters to go out and INTERVIEW people instead of just giving traffic reports.