I suppose it's one of the benefits of occupying a parallel universe like the right-wing blogosphere: facts are truly irrelevant. And I'm pretty sure partisan conservatives prefer it that way. They love just making stuff up.

As we've noted, this afternoon Malkin plucked out of thin air the bogus claim that ABC News reported the 9/12 protest crowd was 2 million strong. False. Nobody at ABC News ever made that claim, and no sane observer of the D.C. event today would claim with a straight face that somehow 2 million people overtook the nation's capitol.

It's pure fantasy.

But did that stop anybody on the right from repeating the hollow claim? Please. Did Newsbusters link to Malkin's phony claim? Check? Wizbang. Check. Gay Patriot? Check. Examiner.com? Check. Right Pundits? Check.

I think Malkin should have just claimed 12 million protesters showed up. Because every one of her willingly gullible followers would have linked to her anyway.

UPDATED: More blogging comedy. Right-wing blogger Stephen Green first claimed that CNN reported the crowd was 2 million story. (CNN did no such thing.) Then later in a “correction,” Green, following Malkin's phony lead, reported it was ABC News which claimed 2 million. Of course, ABC News denies that fact, and nobody can find any evidence that ABC News ever made the claim.

Psst Stephen, Malkin made that part up.

UPDATED: A frustrated Michelle Malkin reader posted this comment:

On September 12th, 2009 at 8:05 pm, Rob said:

Also, could someone PLEASE provide the evidence/link to the over one million mark? I need to prove to a few people that it was that high…

Thanks!

Who wants to be the one to tell “Rob” there's no “evidence/link” to be found that over one million people turned out today. Malkin just made it up.

UPDATED: FoxNews.com pegs the crowd at well below 2 million. “Tens of thousands,” in fact. Part of a liberal media conspiracy to low-ball estimates, no doubt.

UPDATED: Do you laugh or cry when you read this kind of nonsense?

ABC News reports that two million Americans flooded D.C. in what people in the crowd were calling “a conservative Woodstock” Like the liberal Woodstock of the '60s, thousands were rumored stranded on freeways.

UPDATED: Atlas Shrugs gets in the idiocy act (don't act surprised):

The two photos above show a tiny fraction of the two million ABC estimates attended.

Keep in mind ABC News was on the record pretty much all day Saturday denying the 2 million story. But bloggers like Atlas Shrugs couldn't be bothered to, y'know, correct erroneous posts. That's just not how the right-wing blogosphere works people.

UPDATED: Right-wingers (i.e. Instapundit) are clinging to this typically awful and unsubstantiated article from the British press which claims “up to two million people” marched on Washington. Good luck finding the sourcing for that vague estimate in the article. There is none. The British press, as is its custom, is just regurgitating a right-wing lie.