Saturday was to be a nationwide turnout for the Occupy Wall Street movement, with large protests across the land. From media coverage which portrays the movement as growing, one would have expected a large turnout, at least as large as the April 15, 2009 Tax Day Tea Parties. … The Occupy Wall Street movement momentum is a media creation. As Walter Shapiro wrote a few days ago, the reality of relatively small crowds does not justify the “whole world is watching” coverage. Yes even small crowds can generate the impression of momentum, particularly when the President of the United States finds it convenient to use them for his own political purposes.

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They’re both populist, grass-roots, anti-Washington movements, determined to challenge conventional wisdom and the powers that be. But for veterans of the two-year-old tea party movement, the parallels to the “Occupy Wall Street” movement now occupying the media spotlight end right there. Tea party leaders are openly rejecting attempts to liken the Occupy Wall Street protest to their movement, saying that the two groups are heading in opposite directions.

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ABC stepped up its promotion Sunday night on behalf of the far-left protesters, which they failed to label, making a special effort to explain and frame their grievances – a service they never provided to the Tea Party. “Tonight, the anger spreads,” anchor David Muir hailed in teasing World News on Sunday night. “Those Wall Street protests now going global. This evening here, we learn about the lives behind the protesters here in this country, showing up in cities coast to coast.”