After the Fire: NewsHour Coverage of Civil Unrest in America, 1991-2021

In September 2011, to protest growing economic inequality in America, the Occupy Wall Street Movement emerged as a group of demonstrators took up camp in Zuccotti Park in New York’s Wall Street financial district. Occupiers soon set up camps throughout the country and the protests continued into 2012. To cover this growing movement, NewsHour correspondents interviewed the occupiers in New York, D.C., Oakland, and Boise, asking them why they were protesting and what were the goals of the movement. In the studio, these conversations continued with academics, politicians, economists, and writers. Correspondent Jeffrey Brown moderated a discussion about the causes, strengths, and weaknesses of the movement, and economic correspondent Paul Solman argued the positives and negatives of economic inequality with Richard Epstein. Portland occupier Jim Oliver and Mayor Sam Adams were invited on to debate the safety of Portland’s Occupy Camps and whether or not the occupiers in these camps should be evicted. The NewsHour covered the eviction of occupy camps across the country and showed the often aggressive and violent removal by police of protesters in places such as U.C. Davis and New York City.

Fig 4. Screenshot of a U.C. Davis university police officer pepper-spraying student protesters at close range.

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