Occupy Wall Street vs. Tea Party Aspirations

This diagram of overlapping aspirations seems genuine, in regard to the hopes and gripes of people attending both OWS and tea party events.  But there are major differences in the ways the two movements are funded.  We've yet to get a good look at where the long-term money helping OWS's staying power might come from.  Even though it has been around a while, its public face as covered by the MSM is brand new.

Dennis Zaki adjusting my hat as I interview Eddie Burke at a Tea Party event on Memorial Day, 2009 (can't remember who took the picture)

I was surprised by how much the tea party events from April 2009 though the 2010 elections were covered by the MSM.  I'm not surprised by how little the MSM has covered OWS.  The media made the TP people seem much bigger, more self-motivated than they actually were or are, and are now trying to paint  the OWS folks as being manipulated behind the scenes by organizations or forces with very tenuous connections to what the movement seems to actually be.

Linda Kellen of (The Mudflats) and me at Saturday's Occupy Anchorage event in Anchorage - Linda Scates

I've been here in Alaska to cover both movements, and plan on continuing to do that.