• Listen to this segment

• Listen to the entire program

A Think Progress analysis of news coverage found that from October 11th to the 16th the word “jobs” was mentioned 2,738 times, the phrase “Wall Street” 2,387 times, while “Occupy” grabbed over 2000 mentions. Compare that to late July when a similar media analysis turned up over 7500 mentions of “debt” to only 427 mentions of “unemployment.” Think Progress analyst Zaid Jilani observes, “[t]he 99 percent movement has scored at least one victory: successfully re-framing media coverage…” The lack of a list of demands from Occupy Wall Street has forced journalists to describe why the movement exists, often by interviewing many different participants rather than analyzing one talking point. In countless news stories, whether supportive or not, income inequality in the US has been forced into the coverage. This week CBS news reported, “The nation’s widening income disparity is one of the issues driving the ongoing “Occupy Wall Street.” In a story on an Occupy solidarity protest in Irvine last Saturday the right-leaning Orange County Register talked to participants and concluded, “The loosely organized group is coalescing around economic and social issues mostly centered on what protesters believe is the growing gap between the wealthy and the rest of the country…” The nation’s focus has been so drawn to income inequality that conservative House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, during a Fox News appearance on Sunday, surprised many by acknowledging the problem. Occupy Wall Street began just over one month ago. The group remains leaderless and governed by consensus, but a working group has formed to take on the task of forming a demand, or list of demands, that may be accepted to define the future of this movement.

GUEST: Nathan Schneider, a journalist who has been covering OWS as editor of WagingNonviolence.org, The Nation and Harper’s.