Adam Shapiro has been covering the Occupy Wall Street movement since the beginning, and working the front lines both in Zuccotti Park and, since the eviction, at the New York Stock Exchange.
What makes his job more difficult than most reporters is that Shapiro is the man on the ground for Fox Business Network.
While the protesters criticize the bankers and the financial industry as a whole, News Corp., and Fox News in particular, have been a special target of the occupiers' outrage.
TheWrap talked with Shapiro about the heckling he's gotten, why the Occupy Wall Streeters have more in common with the Tea Party than they'd like to think -- and cutting his teeth at a Ku Klux Klan rally.
What has your involvement in the story been?
I was on it from the periphery at the beginning, and in the middle of it starting about a month ago, and then this week covering it intensely. I’ve been down there talking to protesters live round the clock this week.
So why has your coverage intensified this week?
The eviction at 1 a.m. on Tuesday ... If you have a business right next to the park, this is a moment they had been pushing the city for for several weeks. For the protesters, they saw it as an infringement on their right to free speech. This is something that has gotten the attention of the United States and the world -- well, I can’t speak for the world.
Also Read: Hackers Threaten to Shut Down Fox News Website Over Occupy Wall Street
Obviously the movement has been critical of, and in some cases hostile, towards News Corp and Fox. How has that affected your ability to cover it?
What makes you say that? [Laughs] It affects my ability in being able to speak to protesters live. A lot of reporting that people do -- at least that I do -- is talking one-on-one with people without a camera. I’ll talk to people without a camera for half an hour. Then when you go live, it’s a whole different story.
There was an incident on Tuesday where they were all yelling at me as I tried to report. I turned to a protester I’d spoken to without a camera and asked what this meant for the movement moving forward. Another protester said, "Don’t talk to him, go along." I knew I wouldn’t get anything live.
Here's the video of that:
Have you had any memorable confrontations?
No. First of all, my job is not to confront. I was local reporter and local anchor most of my life. Years ago when I was working at WXIN in Indianapolis, there was a Ku Klux Klan rally. There were thousands of protestors – Klan and counter-demonstrators. The counter-protesters outnumbered the Klan, and there was a riot.
