Is Instapundit's Glenn Reynolds making up Tea Party facts?
February 13, 2010 8:58 am ET by Eric Boehlert
Because in his WSJ write-up about what he witnessed at last weekend's Tea Party convention in Nashville, the the RW blogger announces that the movement has spurred "millions of Americans to the streets over the past year." [Emphasis added.]
Really Glenn? I'd sure be curious how many millions and millions of Tea Party fans have taken to the streets in the last twelve months. Is it 4 million, 9 million, 14 million? Because as I noted last weekend, when the New York Times tried to push the same milions-and-millions line, I don't see proof that any "millions" have participated in Tea Party protests over the last year.
We all remember that at their largest event last September in Washington, D.C., Tea Party advocates claimed 2 million people protested. (Reynolds himself helped push that phony line at the time.) But in the end, that estimate was off by roughly 1.9 million. (Oops!)
So if the biggest Tea Party event drew approximately 60,000 people, and most of the other very, very large events attracted, say, 10,000 people, that means that either A) the Tea Party movement hosted hundreds and hundreds of huge, five-figure events that I never heard about in order to reach the "millions" tally, or B) Tea Party advocates like Reynolds, are making stuff up again in effort to puff up their cause.
Which is it Glenn?
UPDATED: Last April, Nate Silver's site, fivethiryeight.com, posted an extensive list of crowd estimates for every Tea Party even held on April 15. The total: 112,000 attendees. That, combined with the D.C. event equals approximately 172,000 Tea Party protesters. Although, if you want to get technical about it, it's likely there was overlap between the April 15, protests and the D.C march in September. Meaning, if lots of the same people participated in the two, you wouldn't count them twice as part of Reynold's alleged "millions of Americans" total.
There were certainly Tea Party events and protests held outside of the April 15, and September events. But I'd sure like to see Reynolds point to concrete numbers (as opposed to make-believe RW blogosphere numbers) that show how those events attracted millions, when the two biggest Tea Party mass gather days last only tallied 172,000.
UPDATED: And no, don't ask RW blogger Jim Hoft (aka Gateway Pundit) to help with Tea Party crowd estimates. He lies about that kind of stuff.
UPDATED: Does being a Tea Party cheerleader entitle you to your own set of facts?
UPDATED: Meanwhile, I chuckled when I read Reynolds WSJ headline, "What I Saw at the Tea Party Convention." Because after reading the column it's clear Reynolds slept through Joseph Farah's primetime birther speech since Reynolds makes no mention of it. Instead, Farah's embarrassing fiasco gets flushed down the memory hole. Farah's loony birther talk doesn't fit with Reynold's spin that Tea Party attendees were cheerful, everyday folks, therefore Farah does not exist.
Punchline: Reynolds claims Tea Party followers crave transparency!
UPDATED: It's been crickets from Reynolds. I'm taking that as confirmation he cannot point to any evidence/facts/proof to back up his claim that "millions of Americans" have taken to the streets to protest in the last year.
And if Reynolds cannot confirm the fact, when will the WSJ issue a correction? Although I've noticed lately that being a "conservative journalist" means not having to correct, or even acknowledge, egregious errors. Just ask Greg Pollowtiz at National Review.
How many Tea Party candidates are challenging Ron Paul again? Last I heard there were three.
Finally, it seems that these oh so carefully chosen and elected "Tea Party" folks seem to be alot more "liberal" than perhaps the party likes and have even gone so far as to denounce the movements effectivness... Scott Brown for example.
I still think that's true but they'll have smaller majorities.
You might as well nominate Brown, b/c he'll never get re-elected to the Senate from Mass -- not after his voting record: "No, no, no, no, no . . . " Go ahead. I dare ya.
The F-Newz narrative that Karl Rove's Propaganda Factory has been cranking out will strangle itself -- just like fascist media outlets have always done.
Enjoy your 15 minutes, loser.
And we can't have that!
Beck and friends accuse libs of trying to win by any means necessary all the time - another case of projecting their own vile strategies on others. Sure the Tea Bag movement can win elections. We know that conservatives have used bullying tactics and even the supreme court to stop vote counting in the past, yet we are to believe that such actions define progressives.
The Tea Baggers appeal to people who have been conditioned for years by the right wing media accept only a narrow range of interpretations and solutions to every issue. Basically they have been taught that conservatives are the victimized good guys. They seem incapable of understanding other approaches to problem solving, seeing anything else as evil, pure and simple. Of course they accuse progressives of the same thing, ignoring the diversity of approaches that exist in the non-conservative world.
They can win all the elections but our problems are not going to be solved by people who celebrate being ideologically closed minded.
(sorry soze - i want to get this info ABOVE the cynic)
So, cynic, I did compare Maulcin's photo and the chart. It's comparing apples and oranges. The photo is of Pennesylvania Ave (and no guarantees it is even a photo of 9/12) and the chart is of the Mal. BIG difference.
Compare the crowd and where it reaches in this picture to this chart.
"I've lived in Washington. It looks more than 60,000."
By the two pictures I posted above there were clearly more than 70,000 people on the Mall. Even taking into effect the crowd density.
I'll question your conclusion, though. The chart you linked to states the crowd estimate was based on a density of one person for every 2.5 feet. Photos taken from the ground during the inauguration confirm that people were packed shoulder to shoulder.
That wasn't the case with the 9/12 rally. People had plenty of room to move around. That photo from the air, taken at an angle certainly looks impressive, but even in that you can see gaps.
Lets face it; Malkin is not the best source for the crowd estimate. She's already been caught looking at a single tree and seeing a forest. She, and many others, have inflated their crowd estimates to such a ridiculous level that a million seems almost reasonable by comparison.
The TeaBaggers have been making the claim that they had numbers that nearly matched the inauguration crowd. That's ridiculous. The crowd density wasn't nearly the same.
Here's a charming little site.
http://teabagobama.blogspot.com/
The thug cartoon of Obama is almost as hilarious as;
No kidding ?
http://nrd.nationalreview.com/article/?q=Mjk1YmRjNzIxNmUwMTI0ZWYxZWU4OWU2MzFiOWJmNDE=
The article link clearly lays out that the liberal media took the verb and made it into a noun. Thank you for proving my point, by the way.
Regardless, I thank you for responding to what I've posted. That shows you are thinking about what I've said. You had written "Anybody that uses the term 'TeaBaggers' shouldn't be taken seriously," earlier. I guess we've changed your mind.
One down. 69,999 9/12'ers to go.
If someone says they're going to teabag, it's a reasonable, logical conclusion that they are a teabagger.
On the other hand, if somebody comes to a reasonable, logical conclusion, it's unlikely they're a Teabagger.
http://www.zazzle.com/teabag_obama_tea_party_2009_tshirt-235863270395216329
We had the Metro ridership.
Photo comparison of inaugeration and 9/12 event
Yup, that shore looks like 2 million people.
And, here is a nice link that explains the math.
And the street was about 1/3rd as wide as the Mall, so the numbers are totally wrong.
The ONLY fair measure of people attending can come from the increase in Metro ridership, and based on that, there were 60,000-100,000 there. I've documented this previously, and used it, among other things, to debunk ALL the fools who tried to push this nonsense before.
Glenn Reynolds is making up Tea Party facts.
Fox News poll: Public thinks the Tea Party movement is a black helicopter-racist crowd
And the survey says:
Fruitless mix of racism, conspiracy theories 79% (156,751 votes)
http://crooksandliars.com/john-amato/fox-news-poll-thinks-tea-party-movement
Not even Faux viewers(Faux created the movement)are fooled. You belong to lunatic fringe. Thats why you are ridiculed and laughed at here. Keep that in my mind next time you cry foul.
Fool.
While you're at it, why don't you (wiki) take a look at the election of 1912. Tell me what went wrong. (Never Mind. I'll tell you: Right Wing internal competion handed Democrat Wilson the presidency.)
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So yeah: Keep up the good work. All the Tea-Baggers can do is screw everything up for the Republicans.
can you say "token" black man? Kind of like the token people of color at the Republican response to Obama's state of the union address.
I agree...the numbers seem wildly overstated...with no honest rationale except partisan blather.
Regardless of the actual numbers...liberal icon Arianna Huffington says it's a mistake to disregard the movement...even after issuing stinging blasts at their agenda:
-- There was much to mock about this past weekend's Tea Party convention...But it would be a huge mistake to dismiss the movement that led to the event...some of what's fueling the movement is based on a completely legitimate anger directed at Washington and the political establishment of both parties.
Think of the Tea Party movement as a boil alerting us to the infection lurking under the skin of the body politic. --
Will federal politicians continue the course of pompous disregard for the concerns of the public? Time will tell...particularly in Nov. 2010.
A reading of Huffington's article finds her distaste for the willful disregard of the concerns of the middle class...both left and right...by congress.
She clearly doesn't support the agendas of the Tea Party. But she clearly is disgusted with congress and it's failure to listen to the people.
Her warning is a shot across the bow of congress that business as usual signals dire consequences for that willful ignorance...whether it's from left or right wing movements.
I don't know if the GOP will stop filibustering everything, why do you ask?
Just in case you don't find the answer, here it is: 0
http://gatewaypundit.firstthings.com/2010/02/figures-obama-misrepresents-republican-2009-filibuster-record/
Denial?
The hyped up Tea Party movement is a political ponzi scheme.
http://newsroom.dc.gov/show.aspx/agency/fems/section/2/release/18165
Also you only count 2 events. What about the nationwide protests on April 15th and July 4th? You do know those happened right? Or are you just purposefully avoiding them?
Also have you held Barak Obama accountable for being a John McCain birther?