Originally Posted by ptownrob

It is remarkable to watch Fox news, especially Glen Beck, claim the outrageously false numbers of protesters at the anti-Obama march on September 12. As anyone who knows the size of the National Mall and has attended marches and rallies, it's pretty clear that based on photos and videos, the crowd extended from the base of the Capitol to about 9th St. That's anywhere from 50-100 thousand- a pretty paltry sum for claims of "1.2-2 million." Similarly, those numbers hold for a "2.5 hour" march from the Ellipse, down Pennsylvania Ave, and onto the Mall at 4th St.
To make matters of falsification even more offensive, no one seems to be able to cite the "University" that supposedly analyzed the crowd size, and Fox was even caught showing a photo from a rally 10 years ago. I attended the "March on Washington" for GLBT rights in 1993, where the crowd was estimated by organizers at 1.5 million, and by the Park Service at 1.2 million. The Mall was packed from the Capitol all the way to the Reflecting Pond in front of the Lincloln Memorial- a distance of 1 1/2 miles. The March was so long, that it was still going on after six hours, and even then, most peole had simply given up on the walk, since the numbers had doubled back over themselves.

So why is it so important for the fringe right organziers to claim huge numbers? I'm not saying all the marchers were fringe. Obviously, many believe deeply in their "cause" as much as we did against the Bush Cabal. In fact, we even use the same words- Nazi, Fascists, etc.
When McCarthy was asked "Have you no shame sir!?" At least there was the wiggle room of him actually responding "No, I don't." The lies about the size of this past weekend's rally, and Fox's seemingly unending propagandizing a patently phony number remind me of an episode of "Intervention" in which the subject is in such denial that a "truth squad" of loved ones must intervene.
No one denies that there is a large, energized base of people who are anti-anything that is not their version of what America "is." But why the absolute need to exaggerate, distort and lie about it? Could it be that, in reality, the number of malcontents pretty closely matches the same numbers that thought McCain was too liberal, let alone Obama? In other words, in this Democracy, a minority of the electorate.

Hmm...

P.S. Did you see tonight where Bush was quoted as saying Palin was totally unqualified for running for VP? He asked who she was. "The Governeor of Guam?" I'll let you Palin-Bush lovers choose which one you'll cannabilze on that one. lol