Tea Baggers Get Attention, For Some Reason

From the New York Times (and no, I'm not going to waste the 15 seconds it would take to link to this article:)

"A sea of protesters filled the west lawn of the Capitol and spilled onto the National Mall on Saturday in the largest rally against President Obama since he took office, a culmination of a summer-long season of protests that began with an opposition to health care and grew into a broader dissatisfaction with government.

The crowd numbered well into the tens of thousands, though police declined to provide an estimate of the size of the crowd. Many of the participants simply came on their own and were not part of an organization or group. But the size of the rally took the authorities by surprise, with throngs of people streaming from the White House to Capitol Hill for more than three hours."

You just know that similar stories, replete with mock amazement, are going to fill all of the supposedly serious media.

I was at a rally against Bush a couple of years ago, that had not "tens of thousands" but three to four hundred thousand people. The mainstream media hardly saw fit to dignify it with any coverage at all.

If the size of this rally took anyone by surprise, it was surprise at how few people the right's concerted efforts turned out.

These pathetic wankers have been organizing this thing for months, and have had the backing of a network of lobbyists and highly financed astroturf organizations, as well as such "news" outlets as Fox. This turnout is totally pathetic; and yet you know that our press is going to tell us that it is some sign of momentum on the right.

Any serious person that looks at this has to know that these people represent a miniscule segment of the American people; and they don't have enough dedication to do more than throw an occasional public tantrum. Yet our pathetic press is going to treat this as a serious story about a substantial and rational segment of our population.

UPDATE: As I mentioned in the comments section, the Washington D.C. Fire Department estimated the crowd at 60-70,000. ABC, referring to this estimate, used the same numbers. I now read that the head of the organization that led the demonstration is claiming that ABC estimated the crowd at a million to a million and a half- a bald faced lie. Michelle Malkin is claiming two million. It will be interesting, over the next few days, to see what lies they spin out to cover the miserable failure of their great national event.

BUT WAIT-THERE'S MORE: The momentum builds! The momentum of the Conservative Lie Machine:

World Net Daily: "A million or more rock Washington- Taxpayer march could be biggest rally ever in capital"

Red State: "2 million people showed up in Washington, DC to protest the leftward drift of this country"

Pammy the Human Baboon (sorry, I can't help myself): "Millions on the Mall"

How high can the numbers go? Only time will tell. Pammy is in the lead now, but let's see how things develop in the next few days.

Comments

They have to report this crap or FOX News might attack them Green Eagle. Just as our politicians cowered in fear of being called pussies during the leadup to the Iraq invasion, our news media cowers in fear of Beck or OReilly calling them "liberal" or unfair and unbalanced.

Damn shame what these right wing assholes have done. Will the real media ever fight back against FOX and Friends?
Green Eagle said…
The Washington D.C. fire department is calling the size of the crowd 60-70,000- about one fifth or sixth the size of the last big Washington antiwar protest. I understand that the wingnuts are claiming upwards of two million, and are already whining that the press is lying about it, because it is in Obama's pocket.

Maybe the press will split the difference and agree that a million showed up.

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