By The Numbers… How the Media Has Attempted to Minimize the March

The Constitutional Alamo ^ | 09/13/09 | Michael Naragon

[Publius772000]

For those of you who are conservative and have long known that the State Media is biased against those who oppose their philosophy, the tone of the reporting is exactly what you would expect. I myself try to avoid the American counterparts of Tass and Pravda as much as humanly possible, preferring news to commentary. However, when I heard the report from ABC News Radio on Sunday morning, I had to do the audio version of a double-take.

“As many as 75,000 protesters marched down Pennsylvania Avenue,” the report began. “75,000?” I wondered aloud. “How are they going to pull off that number, given the wide angle shots?”

Curious, I perused other “mainstream” media sources to see if they had all coordinated their misinformation as completely as usual. Sure enough, here was the informal result:

ABC News Online: “Thousands of conservative protesters from across the country converged on the Capitol Saturday morning to demonstrate against President Obama’s proposals for health care reform and voicing opposition to big government, what they say is over-the-top spending. Carrying signs depicting President Obama as Adolf Hitler and the Joker, and chanting slogans such as ‘No big government’ and ‘Obamacare makes me sick,’ approximately 60,000 to 70,000 people flooded Pennsylvania Ave, according to the Washington DC Fire Department.” ABC followed the lead of many of the other agencies, choosing to focus on some protesters’ equating Obama with Hitler or making statements about the Second Amendment. In this way, they not only minimize the numbers, but reduce the demonstrators to some sort of cartoonish fringe.

Associated Press: “Thousands marched on Washington…” Not even tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands, which also would have been downplaying the numbers. “Thousands” could have been used to describe the crowd at Roswell, Georgia’s Tea Party as well.

[Publius772000]

More analysis of several other news sites at the original article. Thanks for reading!

[La Lydia]

It’s coverage was neh, but the Washington Post had a huge picture, top of the front page, showing the crowd looking up toward the Capitol.

[bgill]

Bookmarked.

[icwhatudo]

The “tens of thousands” and “75,000” are based on an estimate attributed to the DC fire department and (since no other estimate from an official source was made available) thats what the media ran with.

MSNBC has claimed that figure is incorrect and the crowd actually numbered in the HUNDREDS of thousands.

Yes...MSNBC said that-LOL!!!

[icwhatudo]

Link to MSNBC report:

http://www.freedomslighthouse.com/2009/09/nbc-report-says-their-people-estimate.html

[Whenifhow]

“It’s coverage was neh, but the Washington Post had a huge picture, top of the front page, showing the crowd looking up toward the Capitol.”

I was watching c-span this morning and caught the end of the program from yesterday. (I think it may be aired again this evening). They showed the front page of several newspapers, such as the Washington Post and many photos in the pages inside the paper.

Then there was time for questions from people who call in, and there were several people from the left who called to express their opinion.

We should let people know about this so they can call in about matters. It might be an effective way to voice your concerns, since most people try to call a congressman and are either put into voice mail or no answer.

C-span
http://www.cspan.org/Watch/Media/2009/09/12/HP/R/23055/Conservatives+to+march+on+Washington.aspx

Also I noticed on Fox today they were showing pictures of the Health Care supporters on their march today. It would be interesting to see the numbers on their march.

[Old Flat Toad]

The ABC FM radio report in Tucson at @11am said “an angry mob of several thousand”.( Insert deep gut laugh)

[fso301]

Figure the distance along Pennsylvania avenue from the intersection of 14 St NW and E St NW to the capitol steps is about 1.25 miles or 6,600 feet per Google Earth. Pennsylvania Ave including sidewalks is about 160 feet wide as measured by Google Earth.

Along that length of Pennsylvania Ave, there are (6,600 x 160) = 1,056,000 million square feet. Assuming a crowd density of 1 person per square yard and there are 9 square feet per square yard, dividing 1,056,000 by 9 results in a crowd density along Pennsylvania Ave between the intersection of 14St NW and E St NW and the Capitol steps of 117,333 people.

For sure the crowd extended West off the above image from Michelle's site but Pennsylvania Ave ends one block West at the White House. I can't comment on the size without photos. Obviously I can't comment on crowd sizes that may have simultaneously been on side streets, the Capitol lawn and the mall.

[icwhatudo]

[icwhatudo]

Based on the above, MSNBC, and the meter count from Freedom Works, I think 450,000+ is a fair estimate.

[Whenifhow]

This site has some great pictures!
http://constitutionallyspeaking.wordpress.com/2009/09/12/conservative-patriots-v-government-trough-feeders/

[UnbelievingScumOnTheOtherSide]

What is most remarkable is that it was a march that could draw few of the locals in to swell the numbers. It all had to come from “middle” America. (everywhere more than 20 miles from either coast)

[icwhatudo]

THIS PHOTO IS NOT FROM THE TEA PARTY!

THIS PHOTO IS NOT FROM THE TEA PARTY!

THIS PHOTO IS NOT FROM THE TEA PARTY!

THIS PHOTO IS NOT FROM THE TEA PARTY

Please be careful as this photo is from the million man march. The left is using it as a tactic to discredit the real photos. Real photos will have a huge white tent in middle of field.

[Whenifhow]

I questioned the photo too because I thought I saw mention of it on another thread, but the properties do say 912 aerial.

[MosesKnows]

How the Media Has Attempted to Minimize the March

How is not the question or even the issue.

The correct question is why?

[dandiegirl]

“The correct question is why?”

The media and BO and his minions are scared too death. The media realizes that their man is vulnerable and they are in a panic trying to decide whether to stay with him or ditch him and at least keep some viewers. We won’t go away just because they choose not to accurately report the facts. I would have loved to be a fly on the wall yesterday with BO, Rahm and Axelrod monitoring the protests.

[the anti-liberal]

I can only assume that someone downloaded it, renamed it, then reupped it.

Here's an FR post from 2008 McCain-Palin crowd: 23,000, or a third that size with the same image.

[the anti-liberal]

I meant to include you in the previous (#17) post.

[babyfreep]

I’m amazed.

[Publius772000]

>>How is not the question or even the issue.

>>The correct question is why?

Need you ask such a question? I address that in the blog, but their motivations are so obvious that I didn’t feel the need to go into it in depth.