Elizabeth Warren: I Created 'Occupy Wall Street'

[FarCenter]

Massachusetts Senate candidate, consumer activist, and Wall Street Enemy #1 Elizabeth Warren took credit for the Occupy Wall Street movement in a new interview with The Daily Beast.

“I created much of the intellectual foundation for what they do,” she told Samuel Jacobs. “I support what they do.”



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/elizabeth-warren-i-created-occupy-wall-street-2011-10

[Modern_Matthew]

1. This won't go over well with the Occupy crowd. Big mistake. nt

[Luminous Animal]

18. I'm pretty sure that OWS is smart enough to read the entire article and realize

that this is an attempt to misrepresent Warren.

[FormerDittoHead]

55. Yes. At no time did she actually say, "I Created 'Occupy Wall Street'"

This is how they work, people. They will just make stuff up and hope it sticks.

[Lance_Boyle]

2. Al Gore invented the internet.

If she really said this she has a foot-in-mouth problem. If not I assume it's just more responsible journalism from our awesome American media.

[redqueen]

27. +1... hopefully enough people have learned from the Al Gore treatment. (nt)

[Cosmocat]

56. EXACTLY the same thing ...

Gore never said he CREATED the internet, but said something along these lines that the right wing just ran with it, and the "liberal media" just parroted.

We need BOLD and fearless dems, but why make it easy for the right to negatively spin what you say ...

[unblock]

61. the funny thing about gore was that he was mocked for all his "information superhighway" talk

they mocked him for talking non-stop about the internet, sponsoring funding for the internet, pushing every government agency to construct a user-friendly website, pushing every government agency to make reams of information available online.

and then they mocked him for saying that he did more than anyone else IN CONGRESS to create the internet, a statement that no one with actual comprehension of the english language or of the history of the internet could possibly dispute.

[Common Sense Party]

77. "I took the initiative in creating the internet"

Pretty difficult to spin that any other way.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BnFJ8cHAlco

[cascadiance]

72. Pacific Bell in their ads many years back claimed "they invented the internet"...

... far more than Al Gore did. I really wish I could find one of them on the internet now. People go back through your old VHS tapes, etc. from that time to see if you can dig one of them up. A youtube of that would be a perfect response to people yammering about Al Gore's statements which are far more truthful than what Pacific Bell made a point of pushing in those days.

Of course corps won't DARE try to take credit for anything to do with what OWS is doing now.

[treestar]

86. GMTA

My brain went right there, too!

[Festivito]

96. Al was able to say that WITHOUT using the word "invented." Amazing. /nt

[City Lights]

101. That was the first thing that came to my mind when I read the OP. eom

[meegbear]

3. Oh good ...

"I Created 'Occupy Wall Street'". "I Created the internet". The memes just write themselves.

[Name removed]

23. Deleted message

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Ship of Fools]

4. Uh oh ...

[AngkorWot]

5. Yo, OWS, I'm really happy for you

Imma let you finish but Elizabeth Warren is the greatest protest movement of all time

[Marr]

70. I'm not surprised at who's anxiously running with this lame smear. /nt

[sibelian]

76. Me neither.

[AngryAmish]

6. With modesty like that she is going to be right at home in the Senate.

[wtmusic]

7. The "intellectual foundation" is common sense. nt

[HughBeaumont]

8. Great. Because another "I invented the internet" is all we need.

I'm willing to bet this completely out-of-context interpretation of what she said will end up biting her in the ass.

This movement didn't start because of one person. This movement started because the boot finally gets uncomfortable to some after a while.

[auburngrad82]

9. Don't you think it could have been taken out of context?

Gore's "quote" about the internet was taken out of context and was never corrected until after the damage was done and the election was over.

It wouldn't be the first time the MSM took a quote out of context.

[Scuba]

46. +1

[eShirl]

10. I love how they create the misleading impression the title is a quote.

not

[wtmusic]

20. Good catch - shame on 'Business Insider'.

The source article draws no such conclusion. :thumbsup:

[wtmusic]

22. To email the author:

Zeke Miller
[email protected]

[FarCenter]

11. Daily Beast -- Who's Afraid of Elizabeth Warren?

The Harvard professor has spooked the right. As she begins her high-profile Senate campaign against GOP star Scott Brown in Massachusetts, the consumer advocate tells Samuel P. Jacobs how she created 'much of the intellectual foundation' for the Occupy Wall Street movement. She also talks about her past life as a Republican and the challenges of being a woman on the campaign trail—and says she's no 'guileless Marxist.'

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/10/24/elizabeth-warren-i-created-occupy-wall-street.html

[eleny]

12. Keith Olbermann is also taking some credit

The other week he replayed one of his special rants where some time ago he called for a grass roots uprising (my paraphrase).

[IDemo]

25. I believe Robert Reich, Ted Rall and others also called for grass roots action

How much influence anyone had individually remains open for debate.

[moondust]

47. And Al Gore did on Countdown. n/t

[eleny]

91. i missed that interview. thanks!

[TacoD]

57. If any one person can be given credit for OWS

It's Kalle Lasn.

[tcaudilllg]

78. Everyone who supports this movement deserves the credit.

Leadership is one thing, credit is another.

OWS is so many ideas... which one is she taking credit for?

[calimary]

81. AND Michael Moore. Hey, I don't frickin' CARE! As long as SOMEBODY got it going.

As long as SOMEBODY's message was heard and internalized SOMEWHERE!

Hey, look - let's not start dumping on her, too, okay? Geez! Soften her up and shoot her so full of holes so that the jackals and weasels can eat her more easily? SHEESH!

Please understand - we are LUCKY AS HELL that we have at least SOME voices out there, raising themselves above the fray, so that they start getting noticed, and getting face time, and starting to make waves and attract followers and start educating people. Sometimes you need several advanced algebra teachers, and maybe even a couple of tutors, before you find even ONE who explains it Just Perfectly, that it finally jells in your brain and starts making sense and you start "getting it," in ways you couldn't with anybody else trying to explain it to you.

I think we need 1000 Elizabeth Warrens! And 1000 Robert Reichs! And 1000 Paul Krugmans! And 1000 Michael Moores! And 1000 Ted Ralls! The more, and more varied, the messengers (or teachers, if you will), the more likely the lesson will be able to sink in somewhere and with more of us students.

I'll take them ALL! Because they ALL will help the movement and buoy it up and give it strength and solidarity and support and well-vetted/well-studied/well-developed talking points, and more credibility. MORE! I don't care who started it or how many started it! And it shouldn't make much difference to anyone else, either.

Elizabeth Warren cut through the crap from the first time I ever saw her, I think, on Rachel Maddow's show. She's brilliant and knows her stuff and explains it all clearly and simply and you can grasp it when she's teaching, and it makes sense! I think she's got a good point here - and that she DID have a SHIT-TON to do with the movement getting started, if only to educate enough people to get fired up about getting up off their asses and out of their living rooms and into the streets. Michael Moore, too. And Olbermann - they were both talking at length, and frequently, about the need for people to rise up and actually vote with their feet - get OUT THERE ON THE STREET AND PROTEST!

And as OWS gains more momentum, you'll start seeing all kinds of outsiders and poseurs trying to claim some credit. Unlike them, Elizabeth Warren has 10,000,000% credibility in making that claim.

[eleny]

90. agreed!

[EC]

36. Occupy did play that special comment to open

the occupation, so....I guess he could claim some credit?

[Fumesucker]

13. I've said some really stupid shit in my life..

But I'm not sure if I've said anything that lacks self-awareness quite that much..

I really hope this is some kind of hack-job misquote.

[Luminous Animal]

21. It's the Daily Beast's interpretation. There is no such quote in either the truncated version

or the long version.

The headline is bullshit and, as usual, DUers are led by the nose by the right wing media.

[wtmusic]

35. The Daily Beast headline is clean, it's Business Insider. nt

[Luminous Animal]

66. Look at the the title of your browser window when you click on the Daily Beast link.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/10/24/elizabeth-warren-i-created-occupy-wall-street.html

Mine says this. "Elizabeth Warren: 'I created Occupy Wall Street' - Daily Beast

[wtmusic]

67. Ah, so it does.

They changed the title of the article, but forgot the <title> tag.

[TorchTheWitch]

98. What she DID say is bad enough

She takes credit for the "intellectual foundation" of OWS which is nonsense. That "intellectual foundation" is common fucking sense and has been around forever if only politicians like her bothered to notice the common sense grievances of the people.

[0rganism]

14. d'oh!

This'll float like a lead zeppelin... If true, Warren has just fucked up her campaign, real good-like.

[Luminous Animal]

15. The OP misrepresents Warren.

And nowhere in the article is there any quote where Warren takes credit for OWS.

[sibelian]

80. She is quoted as taking credit for the "intellectual foundation" of the movement.

Is this true or false?

[nadinbrzezinski]

89. The foundation actually is in Spain

:banghead:

[DianeK]

16. I love Elizabeth Warren but...

I think if we were going to credit anyone with the intellectual foundation of this movement we need look no further than Bernie Sanders first speech he ever made..compare it to the last speech he ever made...he has been saying the same thing for the last 40 some years

[evrstrong]

85. I'd give it to Ralph Nader...

YES, Ralph Nader!!!

[blm]

17. Exaggerated headline...Common practice corpmedia uses to force a controversy where there isn't one.

In recent years, Elizabeth Warren and groups working WITH her DID generate much of the research, data gathering, and intellectual analysis OWS uses as the basis of its case against Wall Street. We've been posting about Elizabeth Warren's work here at DU for some years now. Not hard to believe that other internet sites shared that same information.

[coalition_unwilling]

19. Ecclesisastes: "Vanity, vanity, all is vanity". This is such bullshit, and

she should know better. If anything, Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, V.I. Lenin, Proudhon, Mao and Ho Chi Minh among others created the intellectual foundations much more so than Warren could ever dream of doing. What a fool. The source article from dailybeast is quoted correctly in Busines Insider. So unless Warren disavows the quote, she's erroneously taking credit for the intellectual foundations of OWS.

[Luminous Animal]

24. As usual, DUers are being led by the nose by the right wing media.

[coalition_unwilling]

29. Not true. Busienss Insider quotes an article from The Daily Beast

that, in turn, quotes Warren as taking credit for much of the intellectual foundations of OWS. There's no being led by the nose. Warren has stuck her foot in her mouth and needs to retract it ASAP.

Or am I missing something?

[wtmusic]

32. To compound things, you're misquoting the Daily Beast.

Words matter.

[coalition_unwilling]

37. Quote from the Daily Beast:

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/10/24/elizabeth-warren-i-created-occupy-wall-street.html

*********************

Quote from Business Insider:

http://www.businessinsider.com/elizabeth-warren-i-created-occupy-wall-street-2011-10

*********************

The quotes match up exactly.

I never claimed to be quoting the Daily Beast, more like paraphrasing. i've gone back and edited my paraphrase to bring it more closely into alignment with the words she actually used.

[Luminous Animal]

65. When I click on the Daily Beast the title on the top of my browser says 'I created

Occupy Wall Street'

Funny that. It's quite a bit different than her claim of creating the intellectual foundation. Of course, that (and her support for OWS) are the only quotes that we get from the Daily Beast (which is a right wing publication). We have no clue what the question was. We do not know if that quote is in a larger context. All we get is a fake quote and a reply to a reporter that seems to be just floating in the air unattached to any context.

[redqueen]

33. It's severely disappointing...

it'd be one thing if people were saying, 'oh great the media is going to twist her words like they did Gore's' but instead what I'm seeing is more of an auomatic acceptance that she said it.

:banghead:

[Odin2005]

26. The headline is RW bullshit!

[truebrit71]

30. No kidding....what a con job...folks...READ the article first...they made up the quote..

..

[Zorra]

28. I tried to follow the link to the interview, and there was no interview.

Can someone please tell me how to access the interview? I must be missing something.

Thanks.

[Pirate Smile]

34. It came from this article:

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/10/24/elizabeth-warren-i-created-occupy-wall-street.html

[Zorra]

41. But that's not an interview. It said : "Read the full interview here -"

But the link went to that opinion piece, not to an interview.

Is there a way to get to the actual interview?

[EC]

31. First off, that is not what she said.

“I created much of the intellectual foundation for what they do,” she told Samuel Jacobs. “I support what they do.”

Second, she's right. All the shows that she went on the last few years and explained exactly what happened and is happening gave rise to people understanding that the deck is stacked.

[Name removed]

38. Deleted message

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[NYC_SKP]

39. The author, Zeke Miller, is a RW Tool, Wannabe 1%er, Can't-Get-A-Date, Puke-Encrusted Turd!

:puke:

[closeupready]

44. There we go.

Thanks.

[bvar22]

100. Suprising that this turd is being given credibility and "catapulted" on DU,

Eh?


You will know them by their WORKS,
not by their excuses.

Solidarity99!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[EC]

40. You know what is the worst thing about this whole thread?

THE IDIOTS THAT ARE READING THE LEAD--IN AND NOT READING THE REST OF THE POST....


WHY ARE SO MANY HERE BEING SO OBTUSE?

It says right in the OP that is not what she said, here is the quote: “I created much of the intellectual foundation for what they do,” she told Samuel Jacobs. “I support what they do.”


WHERE DOES IT SAY THERE THAT SHE CREATED OWS?

[coalition_unwilling]

43. The worst thing is that people who do read the story accept

at face value that Warren created much of the intellectual foundation for OWS. She did not and to claim she did comes off as vain and deluded.

[Change has come]

94. Maybe this will be fixed in DU3 too?

IT SAYS SHE "CREATED OWS" IN THE OP'S HEADLINE. Isn't that enough for you?




:sarcasm:

[closeupready]

RW Business Insider made that quote up; what she DID say is 100% TRUE.

Unrecced for the lie that she said she created OWS.

[coalition_unwilling]

45. No. Warren DID NOT create much of the intellectual

foundation for OWS, her claims to have done so notwithstanding.

[closeupready]

49. Yes, she did. She was talking about these issues eons ago on PBS,

Frontline, elsewhere.

[coalition_unwilling]

51. I guess we're going to have to debate the meanings of "create"

and "intellectual foundations." I'll grant that Warren discussed the issues and she deserves credit for so doing. But she DID NOT "create" the "intellectual foundations" (unless we're going to ignore Karl Marx, Keynes, V.I. Lenin, ad infinitum who all wrote and thought long before Warren was even a gleam in her parents' eyes).

[closeupready]

60. Sometimes, saying grandiose things is simply a matter of having a brainfart.

If she is later asked if her words were to be interpreted as meaning that we should be worshipping her as a Financial Goddess Supreme, she would explain better what she meant.

Anyway, I don't disagree with you that she is not to be considered an equal to Aristotle or Adam Smith, but I also think maybe you're splitting hairs about this particular quote. Cheers.

[Luminous Animal]

74. From the Huffington Post we find out that she was referring specifically to the issue of

consumer debt. Not the movement.

"Warren also said that she supported the Occupy Wall Street protests. "I created much of the intellectual foundation for what they do," she added, referring to her academic research on consumer debt. "

Someday, much like Al Gore inventing the internet we will be privy to the actual question she was asked and the context of her answer.

In the meantime. We continue to be led by the nose by the rightwing press.

[coalition_unwilling]

84. I was writing without the benefit of the Huff Post. Given this new

contextualization of her quote (namely, the addition of the subordinate clause beginning with the word 'referring'), I believe I need to retract what I wrote about Warren's vanity and self-delusion. I apologize for needlessly inflaming this thread. In my defense, I could only rely upon the two sources presented at the time (Business Insider and Daily Beast), neither of which saw fit to mention this limiting condition.

[Luminous Animal]

95. Thank you so much for that. Your reaction is why I've been so adament

about this issue. DUers, the left, Democrats, etc. need to step back and consider the source before levying judgment. Acorn, an organization slowly built by the efforts of hundreds of volunteers over decades by mostly poor people, was destroyed in a month by Brietbart's reporting and the rightwing's framing and liberals acceptance of that framing. Many DUers were quick to condemn based on rightwing propaganda alone.

It was heartbreaking.


I truly believe that our initial response should be to suspect and reserve judgment of ALL negative reporting of anyone who champions democratic ideals.

[abelenkpe]

75. 2 Income Trap review

This is "the rare financial book that sidesteps accusations of individual wastefulness to focus on institutional changes," raved the Boston Globe.

Elisabeth Warren has been talking about making vast changes for a long long long time. Way before it was fashionable, way before most cared.

[Mass]

82. Did you read the book?

What were the vast changes she was proposing?

[abelenkpe]

87. She basically was saying that famlies today

don't spend more on luxuries: vacations, tvs, etc but do spend more on basics: health care, energy, homes, and education. That they work longer hours with less benefits than families in the seventies and require two incomes while simultaneously leaving them more vulnerable to bankruptcy because there is no wiggle room. In the past if a one income family lost work the other parent could get a job to bridge the gap. Now losing one job can lead to bankruptcy. One medical emergency - bankruptcy. That younger generations were being burdened by so much debt that they were being forced out of the middle class unable to keep up.
She saw a need to lower the cost on necessities: education, healthcare, energy, home prices or at least bring them in line with salaries (or salaries in line with their costs) Also need for greater job security in order to support a healthy middle class.
She didn't talk about corruption in politics brought about by excessive lobbying, revolving door between political appointees and corporations and citizens' united. What she did do was recognize the effects of decades of undermining workers. There is a great talk she gave on youtube with graphs and such if you want me to look for it?

[mod mom]

42. MISREPRESENTATION in headline.

Kind of reminiscent of what they did to Al Gore. unrec'd.

[JuniperLea]

48. GAWD I hate seeing DUers fall for RW bullshit...

All y'all who bought this nonsense need to do a self-realization reality check... pronto!

[Name removed]

50. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[JoePhilly]

71. +1

[TwilightGardener]

52. A: She can certainly claim some credit for drawing attention to the plight of

average Americans having the deck stacked against them. And B: I don't care, doesn't change my hope that she becomes Senator.

[Lint Head]

53. I invented the knock knock joke.

[Rex]

54. That is pathetic...the editors should be fired for misleading the country

oh wait...this is what passes as honest journalism. :eyes:

[Mass]

58. This is a two level issue. First level, business insider headlines with something she never said.

Level 2: what she actually said is arguably false. She certainly was an important supporter of the middle class. Did she create the intellectual foundations of the movenment. At a certain level, may be, but she is not the only one and there were people who contributed a lot more.

Does it matter? Not really? She is running against a tool.

[coalition_unwilling]

59. Thank you. You have stated the situation far more cleanly

than my pathetic efforts.

I am glad she's been raising the issues for as long as she has and I hope she wins her election.

[Luminous Animal]

73. She never claims to have created the intellectual foundations of the movement.

Fortunately, Huffington Post provides a tiny glimpse of her quote in context. She was referring to her research on consumer debt. So, what she was saying is that she created the intellectual foundations for addressing the issue of consumer debt.

"Warren also said that she supported the Occupy Wall Street protests. "I created much of the intellectual foundation for what they do," she added, referring to her academic research on consumer debt. "

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/25/elizabeth-warren-occupy-wall-street_n_1030974.html

[Mass]

79. Do you think that her reasearch on consumer debt is "much of the intellectual foundation for what

I would disagree.

[Exultant Democracy]

92. there is a difference between much and majority. When you come to protcting consumers from banks

and other business then yes she is very right in her statement. If you think that protecting consumers from banks doesn't have much to do with the OSW movement then I would disagree with you.

[sinkingfeeling]

62. Self delete.

[Mass]

63. Interestingly, they do not emphasize she was a Republican until the early 1990s.

I guess that would cut the argument she is a communist.

[sinkingfeeling]

64. Too bad she didn't say that.

[Tatiana]

68. I don't believe she said that. More like this is a right wing attempt to divide and conquer. n/t

[Aerows]

69. This is what happens when decent people run for office

Elizabeth Warren rocks as a person, and she would be a credit on the Senate, therefore she's going to be nit-picked to death. That's what happens when decent people run for office, they get nit-picked on things that don't matter.

As usual, the press picks anything they can to alienate a decent person's base. She can weather the storm though.

[mmonk]

83. Why #Occupy Wall Street (video with Elizabeth Warren)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=wK1MOMKZ8BI#!

[nadinbrzezinski]

88. Misrepresent much

[krabigirl]

93. no, she didn't. sorry. nt

[Cowpunk]

97. Demand A Retraction! Zeke Miller at Business Insider made this up.

I am amazed how many people here at DU fell for this already.

We need to fight back and get the fraudulent title of Zeke Miller's article changed, or this will indeed become a right-wing line of attack against Elizabeth Warren.

Zeke Warren's contact info:

Zeke Miller is a politics reporter at Business Insider.
Contact: e-mail: [email protected]
AIM: zekejmiller
Work Phone: [phone]
SMS: [phone]

The article can be read here.

Spelling edited.

[piratefish08]

99. unlike many repliers to this post, OWS protesters will actually read the article

before throwing Warren under the bus.

[lame54]

102. they should embrace her