9/12 Grassroots movement or Fox News movement?

[Wax]

Tomorrow, you may or may not be aware, is the date of Glenn Beck's 9/12 Project, which the Fox News host
http://tunedin.blogs.time.com/2009/09/11/dont-tell-me-what-912-means-glenn-beck/

[russ_watters]

Well, today is 9/12, but in any case, what does it matter who the leader of the project/movement is?

Also, you aren't confusing this with the marches going on in Washington today, are you? WASHINGTON — Tens of thousands of fiscal conservatives packed streets in the nation's capital Saturday to protest what they consider the federal government's out-of-control spending.http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2009-09-11-tax-rally_N.htm

That's apparently led by Dick Armey: FreedomWorks Foundation, a conservative organization led by former House Majority Leader Dick Armey, organized several groups from across the country for what they're calling the "09.12.09 March on Washington." That's from the USA Today aricle. Here's the website of the organization: http://www.freedomworks.org/

[Galteeth]

It'a a mixture of alot of things really.

[turbo-1]

The tea-baggers claimed a huge crowd turned out, but the truth is that the crowd numbered only in the tens of thousands despite organization, support, and promotion from the right. The monster crowd pictures disseminated in right-wing circles are actually from a Promise-Keepers rally over 10 years ago.

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2009/sep/14/tea-party-photo-shows-large-crowd-different-event/

[WhoWee]

The tea-baggers claimed a huge crowd turned out, but the truth is that the crowd numbered only in the tens of thousands despite organization, support, and promotion from the right. The monster crowd pictures disseminated in right-wing circles are actually from a Promise-Keepers rally over 10 years ago.

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2009/sep/14/tea-party-photo-shows-large-crowd-different-event/

NBC doesn't seem to agree.
http://clipmarks.com/clipmark/B13902D9-2EBE-46A7-8257-44425E3B3146/

[turbo-1]

NBC doesn't seem to agree.
http://clipmarks.com/clipmark/B13902D9-2EBE-46A7-8257-44425E3B3146/Even Fox news reported that the crowd numbered in the "tens of thousands" which agrees with the estimates made by the DC Fire-Department who would have been responsible for public safety and first-responder planning had the crowds been larger. When Fox refuses to up the ante over "tens of thousands" despite their tendency to inflate right-wing events, it's a good time to take a breath. Officials in DC said that the mall was well-occupied from the Capitol to 3rd street, which is a far cry from the crowd that attended Promise-Keepers and filled the mall back to 17th street and spilled over into the area around the Washington Monument.

If you want to trust news-outlets and spokespersons instead of public-safety officials who actually do this stuff for a living, .... fine.

[WhoWee]

Even Fox news reported that the crowd numbered in the "tens of thousands" which agrees with the estimates made by the DC Fire-Department who would have been responsible for public safety and first-responder planning had the crowds been larger. When Fox refuses to up the ante over "tens of thousands" despite their tendency to inflate right-wing events, it's a good time to take a breath. Officials in DC said that the mall was well-occupied from the Capitol to 3rd street, which is a far cry from the crowd that attended Promise-Keepers and filled the mall back to 17th street and spilled over into the area around the Washington Monument.

If you want to trust news-outlets and spokespersons instead of public-safety officials who actually do this stuff for a living, .... fine.

I don't know how many people were there. I just thought it interesting that NBC reported hundreds of thousands.

This is a possible explanation for the Park Police estimate.
http://overlawyered.com/2009/09/d-c-park-police-crowd-estimates/
"

Overlawyered

Chronicling the high cost of our legal system
D.C. park police crowd estimates

by Walter Olson on September 13, 2009

The hot blog topic of the moment is over the size of the crowds at yesterday’s “9/12″ Washington rallies critical of the Obama administration’s direction. As we noted back in 2004, U.S. National Park police, who are in charge of the Mall and related public spaces, used to estimate crowd sizes, but when their assessment of attendance at the Million Man March differed from that of march organizers, the organizers threatened to sue. So park police stopped putting out crowd estimates, which now seem to be left to the probably less expert D.C. fire department. Don’t we all feel better informed now?"

I lived in D.C. and have been in large crowds around the monument. I remember a 4th of July concert featuring the Beach Boys (with Ringo on drums), the Grass Roots, and a young Janet Jackson that had a million people and there was plenty of room to spare.

This looked like a fairly large crowd to me - nothing else.