ABC News: 'Hundreds of Thousands' At Restoring Honor Rally; Palin Chides AP's 'Tens of Thousands'

Saturday, August 28, 2010 | Kristinn

[kristinn]

ABC News has thrown in the towel on the liberal media's efforts to downplay the huge numbers of Americans who came to the Restoring Honor rally held today at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. by radio and TV host Glenn Beck.

The subheadline of an online report at ABCNews.com reads: Restoring Honor Rally at Sight of MLK's 'I Have a Dream' Speech Draws Hundreds of Thousands of People

Sarah Palin, speaking to Politico during an impromptu interview at Reagan National Airport after her speech at the rally chided the Associated Press for lowballing the monster crowd:

Holding her BlackBerry up with one hand, she lamented that the Associated Press had only pegged attendance as "tens of thousands."

Asked if there were more than 100,000 people there, Palin said: "Oh yeah."

Photo facing West from the top of the Washington Monument.

Photo facing East toward the Washington Monument from 17th, NW, six blocks from the Lincoln Memorial.

[jimbo123]

[Tucker39]

Glenn will have an accurate (ballpark) figure from National Park Service Monday morning. That’s about as close as they can really get.

[bcsco]

IIRC, from the Tea Party rally last year, the NPS doesn’t normally provide figures. They might give some (as you state) ballpark figure based on non-statistical observation, but that’s all. I doubt there’s any way one can closely estimate the number attending.

But the photos speak for themselves.

[ratzoe]

You can correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe the National Park Service got out of the mall attendance game after the 6-mill man march.

[Tucker39]

As Glenn said on his Friday morning radio show, they count the number of buses and extrapolate from there. It ain’t what a CPA would do, but it’s close enough for our purposes.

[KevinB]

I don't think the National Park Service gives estimates anymore, but this chart will help. I was there and based on my observations and the pictures I've seen, 500k is a safe bet.

[abigail2]

THANK YOU! Amazing!

[Larry Lucido]

they count the number of buses and extrapolate from there

Doesn't work if Ray Nagin is in charge of busses.

[dalebert]

closer to a million...

[rfp1234]

Awesome rally! The LSM can’t spin everything anymore.

One sore spot is still the top-of-the-hour ABC news radio update. They mentioned the huge crowd, and played a clip of Dr. King’s niece speaking out against racism, then they mentioned Sarah praising our military heroes.

But right after that they said “Conservative commentator Glenn Beck also spoke to a crowd of right-wingers at the same location”, trying to imply that it was a separate event.

The dinosaur media are desperate. Keep up the good fight!

[The Hound Passer]

AP tipped their hat today and proved they are biased. This is from its report on the Obama pre-inaug concert at the Lincoln Memorial: (bold added for emphasis)

WASHINGTON — Under the gaze of Abraham Lincoln's imposing statue, Bruce Springsteen belted out "Come on up for the rising," a martial band right below him, a gospel choir right behind him. Flags were everywhere.

It was a signature snapshot of rock, race and tradition intermingled, just one piece of Americana on Sunday as some of the biggest names in show business commanded the marbled sweep of the Lincoln Memorial in front of a vast sea of people — and four dancing Obamas.

U2, Beyonce, James Taylor, Garth Brooks and Usher were among the A-list performers who served as opening acts for a president-elect ascending to the White House in two days.

Several hundred thousand people flanked the reflecting pool, filling the Mall past the World War II Memorial and back to the Washington Monument. They transformed a historical staging ground of protest into a roaring celebration....

They cheered for Obama when he asserted, "The dream of our founders will live on in our time." U.S. Park Police Chief Sal Lauro said the crowd appeared to be similar in size to the one that rang in the millennium on New Year's Eve nine years ago. An estimated 300,000 people attended that event.

Full article here: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/28721619

[bcsco]

That’s about all they can do. Not all arrive by bus, and not all buses will be filled, but it’ll give some round figure. Better than what we’ll get from the media. Even the ABC figure of 100,000 is way low.

[NoLibZone]

The ACORN- Standing Ovation for Calderon groups are not going to like this.

They will have to make them out to be racists.

[justlurking]

You can correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe the National Park Service got out of the mall attendance game after the 6-mill man march.

The NPS estimated 400,000 for the MMM, and got sued to either change or retract their estimate.

So, they quit doing it, except for Obama's inauguration.

[Kaosinla]

Great Pics! Another AP Photo (cleaned up the contrast a bit)

[don-o]

What about Metro riders? Can those numbers be obtained?

[the_Watchman]

They only had a permit for 300,000. Perhaps they could offer to “pay a fine” if the Parks Service would only let them know how much they exceeded their permit?! :)

[kristinn]

Thanks!

[kristinn]

Metro releases daily ridership numbers. But today’s will not be accurate as they opened the faregates at some stations to relieve crowding.