Paid protesters at the "Occupy DC" protest?

[Roselma]

Source: Mediaite

"While the Occupy Wall Street movement has captured the imagination of genuine activists nationwide, intrepid libertarian reporter Michelle Fields for The Daily Caller uncovered that some protestors were being paid off to attend one of the rallies in Washington DC. “Some of them are volunteers. Some of them aren’t. I can’t identify them. I’m not going to get into an identification game,” admitted an organizer from DC Tenants Advocacy Coalition, a group that advocates for affordable housing."



Read more: http://www.mediaite.com/online/daily-caller-uncovers-occupy-dc-organizer-admiting-to-paying-protestors/

---

Occupiers need to get ahead of this. According to this, people are being paid to "occupy" which makes the movement look no more populist than the Tea Party to the news media. It discredits their movement and their message.

[kenfrequed]

1. "intrepid libertarian reporter"

Yeah right... what other stories has she friggin broken?

[aquart]

2. We've got billionaire backing? Oh, wonderful.

I'm available to be paid to protest Wall Street.

What could be better than being paid to do what you love?

[louis-t]

3. Paid by whom?

Repugs are full of cute stories, but never any proof.

[BobbyBoring]

4. You live in a cave?

The evil George Soros!

[louis-t]

16. I WAS GUNNA SAY THAT!!!

[msongs]

5. it's true, government agents and spies are paid to infiltrate nt

[sce56]

8. +1 Bingo

[Luminous Animal]

42. Did you watch the video? I can't believe that people are jumping to judgment

without actually watching it.

Every single person asked stated, flat out, that they were not paid. Then a cut to an answer to a question that does not appear on camera. We have no clue what question that guy was answering.

[PetrusMonsFormicarum]

6. Pot to kettle: You're black!

A lame article attempting to discredit a movement that is specifically about NOT astroturfing and NOT turning over one's voice to corporatist talking points and pride of ignorance.

[arcane1]

7. Well, if an "intrepid libertarian reporter" says it, it must be true!

It's not often I hear a reporter identified by their political leanings.

[Fire Walk With Me]

9. If they are there, locate them and expose them.

[Luminous Animal]

41. Really. Watch the original video. Each of the guys questioned denied being paid.

Then there is a cut in the video with the "boss" making a statement to a question that we do not get to hear.

[sce56]

10. Shades of BrietFart?

I bet that this is another drive-by shooting from those bums that killed Acorn!

[NICO9000]

11. Calling bullshit on this one

Where's the $$$ coming from to pay anybody? Michelle Fields, intrepid liar. Prove it baby!

[ooglymoogly]

12. batshit, bullshit. nwat

[BumRushDaShow]

13. And the FUD begins. n/t

[emcguffie]

14. I just read something like this on another site.

A long article by Webster Tarpley, that I cannot make myself read, about how OWS is going after the wrong folks. They should be targeting the Elite, he says, which means the Bildergers, the Trilaterals, the Fed, et cetera, but not the poor workers on Wall Street.

I am dizzy.

I have also read some nonsense about how all of this is an act, that New York just needs a big Hollywood sign. That this is all a set-up meant to lead to riots and then a fascist takeover. Yeah, I guess a fascist takeover by that nasty Communist Obama?

I must admit, in my more fevered moments during the BUsh regime I was afraid of a real, full-fledged police state takeover, martial law and all that. But to accuse this movement of an effort to bring that about?

[Ian David]

15. An "intrepid libertarian reporter." Really. In other words, Breitbart? n/t

[plumbob]

17. Fields is the dip who got the smackdown from Matt Damon on

education, when she suggested that tenure creates lazy bad teachers.

I can safely ignore her.

[lsewpershad]

18. "intrepid libertarian reporter"

my ass. Sounds more like a trouble maker to me.

[kestrel91316]

19. Thank you for your concern.

[Scuba]

20. Baseless claims deserve no attention. n/t

[EFerrari]

21. Maybe you could help by checking your sources more thoroughly. n/t

[Crowman1979]

22. Excuse me, but the entire Libertarian ideology is paid off by the Koch bros.

[HereinDC]

23. Bullshit is right....

I work 6 blocks from Freedom Plaza.
I took a long lunch yesterday and today....and spent a good hour down there.

I was not paid by anyone.

[FedUp_Queer]

24. Amen!!!

I work 2 blocks from there and went down there last night. If someone's being paid, I sure can't see it. They take donations for food and they are sleeping on the ground and ratty air mattresses. One of the guys there did tell me the following:

1) somebody put up a website at www.occupyparty.org which has NOTHING to do with the real protesters;

2) cops are infiltrating the protesters. They told me that cops are wearing bandanas, baggy sweats and surgical masks (I don't know if it's true, but that's what one guy said).

3) I also saw, FOR MYSELF, an unmarked, white NYPD surveillance van. How do I know it was NYPD? It DID have NYPD license plates. For anyone down there, it's sitting across from Sephora amongst some news vans.

[mulsh]

25. Michelle Field- winger-shill

Remember this video from last summer? Michelle "interviewing" Matt Damon

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJ7icVvDK9I&feature=player_embedded

Take anything these folk come up with with a healthy dose of skepticism.

[Tunkamerica]

26. same reporter

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/reliable-source/post/matt-damons-clash-with-libertarian-journalist-michelle-fields-on-education-is-a-viral-hit/2011/08/03/gIQAYMNisI_blog.html

just graduated from college

[Demonaut]

27. really? by posting this crap lbn you're giving legitimacy to this shit

who are you?

[TacticalPeek]

28. "Paid off" is sloppy, prejudicial language that reveals the slant given to the reporting.

"Paid off" is what one of the 1pcters would be if I paid them to, contrary to their beliefs, go down and join the protesters to rail against Wall Street. Or vice versa.

It implies corruption and deceit for monetary reward.

"Paid to protest" is what the folks sipping champagne on the poster-bestrewn balconies are being, on the company dime.

[Rabblevox]

29. I've been a "paid protester". Here's the deal.

Many labor groups, non-profs, and activist organizations have paid staff (duh) who do community organizing and direct action work. Sometimes that involves planning and organizing bringing busloads (or vanloads, in my case) of volunteers to an important out of town protest or event.

The paid staff gets their regular salary or hourly during these events (although you wind up getting paid for 8 hours and working 20)

So yes, there are Occupiers getting paid by their various organizations. (and usually not getting paid very much)

That's a whole lot different than the bagger's version, IMO.

[Habibi]

39. Thank you for chiming in.

I mean that. It's good to know.

[No Elephants]

45. Thanks for the info, but this particular story looks like pure Wrong Wing bullshit.

Good to know, though.

[SidDithers]

30. The Daily Caller is Tucker Carlson's website...

so take anything reported there with a mountain of salt.

Sid

[kenfrequed]

31. So its just a big ole pile of right wing BS

Basically.

[Shandris]

32. Remember.

She could PERSONALLY pay her driver to 'hire' someone to stand in the crowd and be interviewed. She wouldn't know who it was, and they would be a 'paid attendee'. Her 'reporting' would be completely accurate, and achieve the desired result -- to make it SOUND like large numbers of the protesters are paid to be there. Weasel words.

[Luminous Animal]

33. Did you watch the video? All denied being paid then *CUT* and we hear an answer

to a question that we don't get to hear.

[Doctor_J]

34. Yeah, thanks fror trolling

We miss you when you're away.

unrec

[sabrina 1]

35. Lol, 'first they ignore you', then they 'make fun of you' and then

'they attack you'.

Let's see the proof. What a load of trash. 'I'm not going to get into the identification game'. Of course not, this is called 'spreading a smear' by simply saying it and then letting others spreads it around so that it gains traction, and before long it will be accepted by enough people with zero evidence, the mission will be accomplished.

The solutions is simple. Either this moron presents the facts or this is pure garbage.

[Capitalocracy]

36. They're saying it on Fox, too

similarly with no evidence... apparently this is the answer they've come up with in the boardrooms. Good luck with that one.

[ThomWV]

37. I'll buy off on this when I see the hired busses they bring them in on. Otherwise I call Bullshit.

The Koch brothers hired fleets of busses to haul their hired Teabaggers in to town halls and city parks. There is nothing at all like that going on with the current protests. if there were the cameras would be on those busses every single minute, using it to discredit the movement.

[sabrina 1]

38. Oh yes, unrec for discredited source. These sources don't belong

on legitimate forums.

[annabanana]

40. horseshit.. purest unadulterated crap. . . .n/t

[ohheckyeah]

43. The newest meme.

I just read on another message board how this is a bunch of paid protesters.

[No Elephants]

44. Hey, OP Roselma. that website is suspect, at best. Glenn Beck at the top? Really?

[Zorra]

46. LOL! And everyone gets a free red spotted pony for attending, too. nt

[EFerrari]

47. Why is it I NEVER get the good gigs.

lol

[WhoIsNumberNone]

48. This Fox "News" Barbie wannabe must be a big fan of James O'Keefe

This is a non-story if I ever saw one. Nobody ever says they're being paid, nobody ever says they don't know why they're here. Where's the scandal?

[buckrogers1965]

49. Our politicians are paid to work for corporations.

So why can't people be paid to work for something they actually believe in?

Not that this is true. Nobody was paid to protest on the left.

But there are a lot of paid operatives on the right paid to post to web sites.