How Did Occupy D.C. Protesters Respond to a Table Full of Job Applications?

Posted on November 2, 2011 at 2:57pm
by Christopher Santarelli

The news media watchdog Accuracy in Media (AIM) released a video Wednesday that may denounce the notions from some that the Occupy protesters are primarily concerned with jobs.

In it, “head hunters” set up a table full of job applications near the protest and start offering them to protesters. But the reception they get, according to the video, is less than warm. To many, that might seem odd considering the protesters have camped out in our nations capital for over a month following the Occupy Wall Street protest that began on September 17, partly because of no jobs. Accuracy in Media put it this way in a written statement:

“After more than a month of protest demands for better employment opportunities and benefits, Accuracy in Media saw fit to test their desires with…employment applications. Our ‘headhunters’ were treated to every excuse as to why these jobs aren’t good enough for them. We guess middle management opportunities with healthcare and 401k benefits aren’t desirable anymore.”



AIM Director of Public Relations & Online Development Logan Churchwell told The Blaze by phone Wednesday that while the “head hunters” in the video were AIM employees, the hundreds of job applications they had on hand were indeed genuine. Churchwell explained that while the “head hunters” in the video were not real (and did not at any point reveal to the protesters that they were employees of AIM), the organization did comb over the Washington Post classified page for real jobs, and printed PDF applications for every opportunity they could find for college grads or entry level positions with opportunity for advancement.

That is with one caveat: Churchwell admitted that the Solyndra application (the failed energy company) was the only application that was not real, but the group put it in with the other opportunities to see how aware the protesters were of current events.

Chuchwell said that AIM looked to see how protesters would pursue job opportunities, “If you handed it to them on a platter.” He concluded that it’s hard to take seriously that the protesters they spoke with were demonstrating against a lack of employment opportunities, given that only two protesters requested job applications from AIM “head hunters” that were at the Occupy DC camp for hours this past Friday.

According to him, the only applications that the protesters took were from Disney and Solyndra.