MTV And OWS

I remain pretty skeptical of the idea that it would be a useful or substantive discussion of the issues to have someone from Occupy Wall Street on the next edition of The Real World. But I should probably give MTV, which is airing an OWS special on Nov. 5, some credit for the way they’re framing their news- and opinion-oriented coverage of the movement. Among the things they’ve done is taken folks like David Banner and Kevin Smith, who have their own constituencies who are not necessarily going to march down to Zuccotti Park, and positioned them as open-minded but curious observers (and in some cases, participants). This seems to be exactly what the movement should want: folks with some influence, who you might not expect as supporters, taking the position that it’s dumb to dismiss the folks in Zuccotti Park as dirty hippies, but important to listen and find an issue or two you can latch on to. Folks may differ on the importance of the actual occupations, but I think everyone agrees that the wider the participation in a conversation about income inequality, the better.