What are the chances every paper is instituting an "Occupy Wall Street" Beat?

According to Democracy Now, this Thursday, many Occupy protesters marched on D.C. to take a stand against a Democratic party fundraiser for the 2012 election.  They were not actually protesting the Democrats need to fundraise, but rather their connections with Wall Street.

Points this helped them prove:

That Occupy is a non partisan movement.

An incredibly strong NYT article published yesterday said of the movement something that went against public perception.  It was a reminder that this is first, and foremost, a movement and needs to be taken as such.

"There is the Occupy show by the news media, defined by police clashes and a lack of hygiene- images that tell non-Occupiers that the movement is leaderless, chaotic and one its way out.  But as the marchers passed through towns large and small, and ordinary Americans came out of their homes and businesses to give food, money and words of support, it became clear that this movement isn't going away."


As for the march mentioned by Democracy Now: It's 600 miles.  According to the NYT, a march left Thursday from the MKL memorial in Washington and will travel 600 miles to his gravesite in Atlanta, Georgia. There may or may not be some sort of culmination at the end.

Lessons learned from this article:

1. Instead of "occupying" land, the protesters are walking through it.  They are finding that marches are more successful because it encourages police riots less. 

2. Just like in any other movement, group, or congregation: there are major disagreements and power struggles, but also an extreme amount of bravery and silent leaders that step up in a "leaderless group".

3.  This isn't going away.  

Chasing Madoff

Bernie Madoff.... you know the story, right? He ran the biggest ponzi scheme of all time?  Well, every horror story is not without a hero, and this one is the certainly no different.  In this case, it's Harry Markopolos.

Markopolos was the whistleblower of the major Madoff Ponzi scheme in 2008.  Years before, he had discovered that there was no doubt the numbers Madoff was coming up with were impossible.  After endless amounts of work, the SEC did not believe any of the attempts Markopolos made for them to see the fraud.

After the story about Madoff being a fraud broke, guess who made the front page of the Wall Street Journal? Yeah, it took that long.  Corruption really gets you. Alas, after working for years, and fearing the bad guys would catch up to him, before the government believed the fraud, Harry Markopolos could breathe again.

Since, Markopolos and his team have come out with a book and a documentary.  The independent documentary was entered in film festivals worldwide and eventually had a limited release in the United States.  Personally, I thought it was fascinating.  It shows the team effort, and the dark times they went through in order to expose this fraud.  Most of all, it shows the corruption in government, and in our financial system and how that ultimately came to ruin many investors lives.

Above is the documentary poster, and the trailer can be found here.

So how does this peak my interest?  My mother is Markopolos' lawyer.  She's the one on the right of Harry in the poster! I've had the privilege of meeting the "Foxhounds", as they call themselves, and appreciate their work from afar.  Furthermore, I got to witness the evolution of the documentary.  Not only was I there for her interview (which was a whole day affair), but got to see multiple screenings at the International Film Festival in Amsterdam (IDFA), and the release in the Berkshires. Watching my mother work as an associate producer as well as seeing how the film improved from one festival to the next has been an enormous treat.