UPDATE November 30 • 12:30pm
The tents are down and on their way to a landfill. 1400 officers, 292 arrests, no injuries. Mission accomplished for the Los Angeles Police Department to generally positive reviews.
“This is what cooperation looks like,” said an Occupy LA leader in praising the LAPD which showed immense restraint as officers swarmed into the Civic Plaza shortly after midnight. Not everyone agrees with the glowing assessment, but from the hours of video shot at the scene, only one incident emerged of cops behaving questionably in beating down a demonstrator. Bean bags were shot at some hugging trees from branches high above the ground, the only firepower employed.
L.A. has managed to preserve its reputation as the only major U.S. city to not engage in police brutality with Occupy demonstrators — and that’s admirable. But the way the LAPD crossed a line in dealing with the news media should rank high among aftermath issues.
A closer look is warranted, as is insight on the shadowy participation of the Department of Homeland Security, and the federal court which dragged its feet and didn’t rule on a temporary restraining order request before the LAPD sweep took place.
Chief Charlie Beck’s “pool coverage” permission strategy allowing only a few to officially cover the story isn’t among the LAPD’s best moments. No Hispanic media in a city with 48% Latino population? No significant bloggers or live stream feeds?
Reporter Ruth Fowler reported that the LAPD initially was “only going to let in one media outlet for each medium (print, TV and radio).” The list was expanded to nine. But media participating in the Chief’s gambit found themselves relegated to a cordoned-off area where, astonishingly, cops ordered reporters to keep mum.
As LA Weekly blogged, “Embedded media won’t even be able to use their cellphones during the raid. Officer Karen Rayner at LAPD media relations says, ‘I think I heard somebody say they weren’t allowed to use their cellphones or tweet or anything like that.’ And KNX news radio confirms to the LA Weekly that their reporter at the scene has been ‘embargoed’ from leaking information until the eviction is over.”
Wil Wheaton summed up what many others were tweeting. “So the LAPD decides which media outlets get to cover the eviction? And the press is going along with this? Shame on them all. LAPD now telling media to leave... It is up to us, Citizen Journalists, to be a check on power” as he trashed “corporate media’s failure to do its job.”
Citizen journalists indeed played a major role. “The ever-brighter spotlight on the LAPD,” as KTLA anchor Micah Ohlman put it. Anyone watching television while monitoring #OccupyLA on Twitter couldn’t help but miss the disparities between broadcast reportage and the boots-on-the-ground reality of tweeters.
KTLA turned in the best coverage in my opinion, led by a remarkable performance by reporter David Begnaud, one of the few journalists who actually probed authentic Occupiers and let them have their say. Begnaud kept his poise and balance in hours on air, asked the right questions of Occupiers and authorities, and demonstrated the power of what a single, focused and intelligent reporter is capable of. Despite not being an LAPD-approved journo, Begnaud stood his ground with up-close coverage provided by a most able camera person.
Admirably, KTLA’s anchors gave him a long leash, assuming a background role of filling in the blanks, as did fellow reporter Carolyn Costello reporting from a less-newsy section of City Hall grounds.
By comparison, Fox 11 snarled at and ridiculed the protest, singling out the most bizarre demonstrators for interviews and pandering to the “get a job, take a bath” crowd while sacrificing the underlying issues of the story. The message seemed clear: Want air time on Fox 11? Light up a joint.
KNBC and KCBS bailed out early, reverting from live coverage on their 11pm broadcasts and switching to Leno and Letterman — perhaps with some reservations. KNBC’s Ana Garcia tested the waters on Twitter, asking for reaction to the cutaway. By the time cops swept in, both stations returned to live and local.
While journos who'd bought into the LAPD’s VIP area languished, those who ignored the trap were generally allowed to continue to work, though bounced from the encirclement cops drew around the soon to be arrested.
The net effect became clear as dawn broke. The LAPD had accomplished its task without the command and control breakdown of the 2007 MacArthur Park May Day Melee, that rubber bullet-strewn incident resulting in millions in payouts to victims of police brutality.
Still, the LAPD’s media relations ploys must be revisited. The department yet again arbitrarily revoked the “permission to cross police lines” authority of its own press passes, an all too common tactic used in situations large and small. The media is the LAPD’s best bud when it wants something, treats it offhandedly when it doesn’t.
It’s a bad-boyfriend relationship that’s persisted for eons and seems unlikely to change. The LAPD has acknowledged the issue in meetings with journalism organizations over the years without ever resolving it, or addressing the vexing question of who qualifies as an accredited journalist in the New Media era. Hopefully, news organizations will press for answers in the narrow window of opportunity before Lindsay Lohan pulls another prank.
