Jason C. McLean

Sometimes all it takes is a little violence to get attention. In this case it was police violence.

Last week on Forget The Box I wrote about how the mainstream media was ignoring the Occupy Wall Street protest pretty much across the board, just like how the state-controlled media in places like Egypt and Bahrain ignored the Arab Spring.

Now it seems they are reporting on it, now that 80 people have been arrested and others abused by the police for no good reason. Take this report from CNBC, for example. The commentary is bang-on and it should be spread around and seen by as many people as possible:

Now that you’ve digested some of that brilliance, ask yourself: why did it take a thug NYPD for major media to shine the spotlight on such an important subject?

I guess social movements are one thing that can be mentioned or ignored depending on how well connected and financed they or their opponents are, but violence sells regardless so if it bleeds, it leads.