‘One Nation’ Rally: Liberal Media Concludes Size Doesn’t Matter (Beck Rally Crowd Much Bigger!)

Pajamas Media ^ | October 3, 2010 | Charlie Martin

[Kaslin]

Another exclusive Pajamas Media crowd estimate.

The widely publicized, heavily subsidized “One Nation” rally was Saturday in Washington, D.C. As has been openly admitted by the organizers, which included the AFL-CIO, the SEIU and Obama’s perpetual campaign organization Organizing for America, this rally was held in the same place and at basically the same time of the day as Glenn Beck’s 8/28 “Restoring Honor” rally, specifically to demonstrate the depth of support for the president’s program. The convention organizers had a number of advantages, perhaps the greatest being that the buses bringing in demonstrators were apparently subsidized by the rally organizers.

Some of the initial reports were very positive: the organizers estimated 175,000 to 200,000 attendees, according to Crooks and Liars‘ report of “preliminary satellite estimates … at about noon EST [sic].”

(Where do they get these satellite estimates? PJM has been completely unsuccessful finding satellite companies that can give us these sorts of pictures on demand; there isn’t a satellite passing over Washington, D.C., any time you want one.)

Comments from Left Field notes this “more than doubles the 87,000 attendees of Glenn Beck’s Restoring the Honor Rally,” using the CBS News estimate I discussed at length here in August (“You Can See November from the Washington Monument”).

Naturally, we were interested in the topic. Following various crowd estimates has become a running topic of interest at Pajamas Media, starting with my original crowd estimates that began with a “back of the envelope” calculation in a comment at Vodkapundit, followed by a more formal calculation here in PJM (“March on Washington: How Big Was the Crowd?“).

Since then, I’ve built up a fairly well described methodology: we use Google Earth to estimate the area of the crowd from whatever photographs are available, then multiple by several different constants depending on the crowd density. These estimates are taken from published Park Service standards going back at least to the Obama inaugural.

Since the “One Nation” rally was consciously positioned at exactly the same place as the “Restoring Honor” rally, we can compare with my original baseline very easily.

Here’s the crowd perimeter as I drew it with Google Earth:

That area was about 2.4 million square meters. Using the crowd density estimates, we finally arrived at these estimates for the Beck crowd:

Estimate	10 square feet per person	5 square feet per person	2.5 square feet per person
Maximum:	215,000 people		430,000	860,000
90 percent	200,000	400,000	800,000
75 percent		163,000	326,000	652,000
50 percent	108,000	216,000	432,000
CBS News Estimate	87,000	87,000	87,000
40 percent	86,000	172,000		344,000

The assumptions there correspond to the Park Service’s standard for a “dense crowd” of about 5 square feet per person, my estimate of the crowd densities observed in the photos (10 square feet per person), and estimates from people in the most densely packed parts of the crowd (2.5 square feet per person).

All things considered, I think the best estimate, finally, is that Beck attracted somewhere between 250,000 and 400,000 people.

The Associated Press summed it up this way:

Organizers claimed they had as many participants as Beck’s rally. But Saturday’s crowds were less dense and didn’t reach as far to the edges as they did during Beck’s rally.

This is illustrated in these comparative photographs:

Click here for a photo from Saturday’s left-wing rally.

Click here for a photo from the Glenn Beck rally.

Compare and contrast as necessary — as the lawyers say: “the thing speaks for itself.”

It’s difficult to place the edges of the crowd from these photographs, simply because the crowd in that one overhead photo is so far down the picture. However, the grassy area around the Lincoln Memorial is roughly one tenth the area in the full map above. That means the “One Nation” crowd would have been roughly 22,000 to 85,000 people at most.

[Anti-Bubba182]

They looked like they all got new tee shirts too.

[PapaBear3625]

As I recall the best shot from Glenn’s rally was taken from the top of the Washington Monument. For some reason I haven’t seen one taken from that same vantage point. Can’t imagine why. /s

You would expect that SOMEBODY, whether Fox News, Breitbart, some some private individual would have gone up there and taken pics, and they would have appeared on the web by now. Was there access to the Washington Monument during the rally?

[Anti-Bubba182]

Look here:

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/lets-compare-aerial-pictures-of-the-102-828-rallies/

[potlatch]

[They looked like they all got new tee shirts too]

Yes, lol, I forgot to mention that! Shoot, it was just a big picnic for them, with everything paid for and some freebies too!

Whatta sham, and the MSM goes along with it trying to make it look like a really big thing.

[potlatch]

Lol, my best laugh of the day......so far!

[RockinRight]

Well it’s what their wives have been telling them for years, so naturally, they’ll come to that conclusion here.

[Dilbert San Diego]

Well, the liberals were all set to have a p***ing contest about the crowd sizes of Beck vs. this joint liberal group rally.

If the liberal groups had gotten a bigger crowd, that would have been a big part of the story. It would have been played up as showing that more support the liberal/radical groups than support Beck and conservatives, etc.

But since the liberals can’t win that p***ing contest, they have decided that the crowd size doesn’t matter after all.

I can’t wait for the Jon Stewart rally on Oct. 30th. More liberal stuff to hear. Though in Jon Stewart’s case, it will be a liberal comedian making fun of conservatives.

Jon Stewart’s rally may well backfire as much as Stephen Colbert testifiying to Congress backfired. Comedians have their time and place, but there’s no way Jon Stewart can expect to be taken seriously as a serious commentator. Yet that’s exactly what he wants to do.

[Don W]

That’s pretty much what I was thinking: these people are so blinded by ideology that they can’t see the results of their ideas. The repeated failures of leftism is only because “THEY” weren’t the ones in charge...

It’s sad, and frightening at the same time.

[Republic]

Thanks for this posting! Interesting and the crowd comparison photos are excellent! A lot goes into estimating crowds, but nothing says it all like an over-head photo! ( As long as the photos were taken at approximately the same time of day. )

[ex-Texan]

Well -- DUH (!) -- our corrupt corporate media lie about everything. They lie all the time. They at the drop of a hat -- reflexively -- to prop up the usurper president Barry Soetoro aka Barack Obama. . . . LOL, LOL !

Do you guys out there in media land recall the event pictured below _______ ? ?

British Paper Reports Up to Two Million Protest Against Obama in Washington D.C. -- Very First "Tea Party"

Almost Two Million People Protest Against Obama in Washington D.C.

British Paper Reports Up to Two Million Protest in Washington D.C.

Time Lapse Video of 9-12 Patriot March from 8 AM to 11:30 AM

The March Was Scheduled to Begin at 11:30 AM. People Started Showing Up At 8:00 AM Until After 1:00 PM. The Camera Was Turned Off at Exactly 11:30 AM. Hundreds of Thousands More Were Gridlocked On Freeways and Trapped By Traffic

Lying U.S. Media Reports Bogus Numbers !

C-Span Video Shows Enormous Crowds in DC

Slanted ABC News Reports Only 60,000 - 70,000 Showed Up

USA Today: Tens of Thousands Rally in D.C. Against Federal Spending

[melsec]

Cheers

Mel

[nutmeg]

bookmark

[popdonnelly]

They’re liars. Of course they’re going to lie about this.

[Raycpa]

This is very unfair. From now on we must limit Beck attendee’s and require some of them to attend the socialist’s rally so that each has an equal number.

[potlatch]

[these people are so blinded by ideology ]

I’m glad you agree with my thoughts. I do a lot of reading all over the web and am astounded that they see things the total opposite of how we do. It’s VERY scary and you can’t convince them of anything by talking or even showing evidence!

[popdonnelly]

They still expect Mommy to pick up after them.

[ex-Texan]

Our corrupt media constitute a national disgrqace:

Video: Philip Berg Interview on the Usurper President

[keats5]

Fom the article:
“Some of the initial reports were very positive: the organizers estimated 175,000 to 200,000 attendees, according to Crooks and Liars‘...”

LOL.

[potlatch]

Yep, that's what a ‘nanny-state’ kind of government does to them. Takes away all incentive to ‘do for yourself’!

[az_gila]

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/lets-compare-aerial-pictures-of-the-102-828-rallies/

The shadows tell the story... I looks like the commie rally pic was taken at near noon sun time - 1:00 pm local clock time.

What were the hours of the rally?