From WNYC in New York, this is On the Media. I'm Bob Garfield.

And I'm Brooke Gladstone.

Increasingly, the world watches the protest called Occupy Wall Street,

now finishing its third week, camping out in Lower Manhattan.

Recent clashes in which police pepper sprayed and beat protesters with batons

drew even the most resistant media outlets.

Each new depiction of the abuses of the police on the First Amendment,

the more waves of occupation will spread across this country.

And you should be proud of that police

because you are participating in our media publicity campaign.

Some Occupy Wall Street advocates complained about what they called a news blackout in its early weeks,

but in fact, this progressive populist protest did better than its anti-government analog, the Tea Party.

According to the Pew Research Center, the Wall Street protests made up 1.6% of the overall newshole

in the week of September 26th to October 2nd. The first Tea Party protests in February 2009 received no measurable coverage. True, much of the Occupy Wall Street coverage has been dismissive or worse, but the Tea Party condemned its coverage too. Soon, of course, the Tea Party scored pots of conservative money in a house organ in Fox News. For now, Occupy Wall Street, which calls

for economic justice for the vulnerable but offers no specifics, no demands, and no candidates,

is on its own. Thursday was sunny and fine and Foley Square was full of people, many looking

like they'd slept there, which they had. There was food, lots of

cameras, the curious and the committed, the latter with signs condemning the one percent of

Americans whose grip on wealth and power makes life so hard for the other 99 percent. The mood

was good. Bill Dobbs was sitting at a tiny table with a handwritten sign saying press, so people like me would have someone to talk to.

He had worked with the AIDS activist group Actup years ago.

We're down here giving off a loud outcry in the shadow of Wall Street.

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