Free Republic

SO I TRAVEL for eight hours overnight on a noisy, uncomfortable bus to join a massive antiwar protest in D.C. on Saturday, conservatively estimated as a crowd of 100,000 (and more, probably), and then, after miles of marching and another eight-hour ride back, I pick up The Sunday Globe and read a story on our protest on Page A6, just above a story of almost equal length about a couple of hundred counterprotesters. And lo, in Monday's Globe, there, given significant prominence, is a story on Page A2 with a picture about one-third the size of the page, ''400 rally...

<p>San Francisco -- A survey using sophisticated aerial photography of Sunday's anti-war march and rally in San Francisco has produced results that indicate a far smaller crowd than the 200,000 protesters estimated by police and event organizers.</p> <p>The results of the independent survey, commissioned by The Chronicle and SFGate.com, cast doubt on traditional counting methods and contradict the crowd estimate of 200,000, which was reported in this newspaper and news media around the world. Crowd size in a demonstration is important because organizers tend to use it as evidence of support for their cause.</p>