Sawyer's Flub: Claims Wall Street Protests Have 'Spread to More Than a Thousand Countries'
So enthused about promoting the far-left protests, ABC anchor Diane Sawyer on Monday night's World News championed 'the Occupy Wall Street movement' by ludicrously claiming that 'as of tonight, it has spread to more than 250 American cities, more than a thousand countries - every continent but Antarctica.'
Protests against the wealthy in 'thousands of countries,' including Cuba, China and every country in Africa? Per the U.S. State Department, however, there are only 195 nation states in the world, so Sawyer imagined five times as many protests as could possibly have occurred. (Video below)
She proceeded to advance the agenda of those protesting by running down statistics to illustrate income inequality: 'So how much does the top one percent in this country earn? Well, on average their incomes, $1.1 million. Compare that to the bottom 90 percent, 100 million households. They earn an average of $31,000.' She fretted that since the 1980s, 'the top one percent saw their incomes go up more than 11 times what the rest of America saw.'
(Audio: Matching MP3 audio clip)
[UPDATE: Cities, not countries. In the video of the October 10 World News, posted on ABCNews.com and usually drawn from the updated version prepared for the West coast, Sawyer hyped the protesters this way: 'We'll bring you up to date on the protesters, that Occupy Wall Street movement. As of tonight, it has spread to more than 250 American cities and more than a thousand cities around the world - every continent but Antarctica.']
CBS and NBC on Monday night once again ran full stories on the protesters, providing day after day coverage they never offered the Tea Party.
On the NBC Nightly News, Mara Schiavocampo tried to mainstream the crowds by exploiting kids, beginning her story: 'Today demonstrations continued in cities across the country, including here in New York where protesters were joined by some new, younger voices. From school, to the streets. On day 24 of the Occupy Wall Street protests, demonstrators were joined by a group of students on their day off.'
Schiavocampo then showed a bite of a little girl who pleaded: 'I want to make the world to be a better place.'
Earlier:
> 'ABC Enters Full Cheerleading Mode for Leftist Protests 'Growing in Size and Diversity''
> 'Amanpour Touts Wall Street Protests as 'Revolution,' Pleased Politicians 'Finally' Recognize It'
> 'NBC: Occupy Wall Street Like an 'Arab Spring,' is 'Drawing Historical Comparisons''
> 'Networks Again Trumpet What NBC's Williams Celebrates as 'the Protest of This Current Era''
> 'ABC and NBC Champion Left-Wing Anti-Capitalist Protests, Fueled by Cookies from a 'Grandmother in Idaho''
From anchor Diane Sawyer on the Monday, October 10 World News on ABC:
Speaking of Wall Street, we thought we'd bring you up to date on those protesters, the Occupy Wall Street movement. As of tonight, it has spread to more than 250 American cities, more than a thousand countries - every continent but Antarctica.
And of course they are calling for the one percent of richest Americans to find more ways to help the 99 percent and we wondered what's the gulf between them tonight? So how much does the top one percent in this country earn? Well, on average their incomes, $1.1 million. Compare that to the bottom 90 percent, 100 million households. They earn an average of $31,000.And what happened to that top one percent since the end of the recession, these tough times? Well, the wealthiest one percent saw incomes increase by half a percentage point while everyone else saw their incomes drop by the same amount. And this is on top of what's been happening since the 1980s where the top one percent saw their incomes go up more than 11 times what the rest of America saw.
Numbers giving rise to some of those impulses, like Molly Catchpoll, the young girl who decided to organize a petition against Bank of America for raising fees on its customers now....
- Brent Baker is Vice President for Research and Publications at the Media Research Center. Click here to follow Brent Baker on Twitter.