“it’s critical to keep in mind that any report from such a source has an agenda other than informing the public.”
And this goes from the tea party people as well. I got into a heavy discussion with a conservative who believed the 2 million figure, and that the D.C. Parks people were about to release an “official” estimate, and that the MSM was doing its damnest to hide it all.
Remember, folks, all factions have an agenda. You will get played by them all.
Instead, here’s the takeaway from this:
* Crowd estimates are notoriously unreliable. People in the middle of a crowd are not reliable estimators of size.
* The MSM did cover the event. It was on CNN. The Associated Press, New York Times and the Washington Post did file articles on it. The AP moved at least a dozen photos from the demonstration that newspapers could use. (You may argue on the slant of the reporting — and I’ll agree with some of it — but it wasn’t buried.)
* However (and I think this is a big one), none of them did any followup on what the demonstration meant. It was a successful protest. It was an unusual protest, with the group’s membership obviously trending upwards. Attention should be paid. But there was nothing for the next two days, except for one article discussing how difficult it is to judge crowd size.
