Fox Nation Compares Egyptian Protests To Tea Party Rallies, Grossly Miscalculates Rally Attendance

On February 2, The Fox Nation compared the Egyptian protests to the 2009 tea party rallies in the United States and criticized President Obama for “hear[ing] the voices of [the] Egyptian protests” but not “American tea parties.” In doing so, Fox Nation cited wildly inflated crowd estimates for the September 12, 2009, tea party rally, claiming that “hundreds of thousands of protesters took to the streets of Washington [sic] DC.” In fact, as Media Matters has noted, a D.C. fire department official estimated that “between 60,000 and 75,000” people participated.

From Fox Nation:

Hundreds of thousands of protesters in Egypt take to the streets demanding change from what they perceive to be an unresponsive government. United States President, Barack Hussein Obama is so moved that he calls the President of Egypt urging Mr. Mubarak to step down from his office, perhaps immediately...and assured protesters “we hear your voices”...Think back now to the summer of 2009 when hundreds of thousands of protesters took to the streets of Washington DC and cities all across this nation to protest the Obama Healthcare Bill that was passed anyway, against the will of the majority of the American people. Did President Obama take to his all powerful, all seeing, presidential podium and say, “we hear your voices”? No, he didn't...In fact, the White House unbelievably declared that it wasn't even aware of the protest rally that received nationwide coverage in advance of the rally. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said, “I don't know who the group is.”