Was the Glenn Beck rally turnout really that impressive?

[RamboLiberal]

While the official Tea Party estimates of Saturday's rally attendance may range between a gajillion and the fafillion, the company CBS hired to give an estimate placed the turnout at a respectably large 87,000, larger than the official estimates of turnout last year's 9/12 rally but no where near the estimated 1.8 million that attended Obama's inauguration.

The number of people who showed up for Beck's rally was also considerably smaller than the 1963 March for Jobs and Freedom, at which Martin Luther King Jr. gave his "I Have A Dream" speech and which Beck self-consciously styled his "restoring honor" event after, to the irritation of many liberals. The 1963 march drew around 200,000 people, according to contemporary estimates. The crowd then was considerably more diverse, had a leftist economic agenda and was organized by admitted socialists who palled around with a number of other lefty types who likely would have ended up on Glenn Beck's chalkboard back in the day. That crowd also was produced without the kind of financial support provided by Freedomworks and Americans for Prosperity, and at a time when long-distance communication tools were considerably more limited.

In fact, given the money and technology available to Beck, it feels like there should be a way to adjust for inflation when it comes to historical comparisons of crowd sizes. Imagine what King, the black church and labor movement could have done if they'd had access to the Internet and a television network.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/plum-line/2010/08/was_the_glenn_beck_rally_turno.html#more?hpid=topnews

[old mark]

1. It was to me - I had no idea we had so many assholes on the East Coast

who could find the Lincoln Monument...

Who would have thought it?

Rec.
mark

[peace13]

2. Every time that mans name is mentioned a kitten is killed.

We had 500,000 for the anti- surge protest and MSM did not even cover ten minutes of the rally. CSPAN covered it for an hour! It is interesting to note that the audience numbers for 'he who shall go unnamed' are being inflated by the media. You knew it would happen.

[doc03]

3. CBS said 87,000, Brian Williams said somewhere north of

300,000 and Joe Scarborough said over 500,000. I really don't think it was more than the 9/12 rally I know someone that attended that one and he said there was probably over 500,000. He e-mailed me a time lapsed video of the 9/12 March as it came down the street and there was far more than 87,000 from what I saw.

[jdlh8894]

4. Why should I care about numbers?

My Dad can beat your Dad!
My Dick is bigger than your dick!

Playground BS!

There were people there.Does it matter how many?
We have WORK to do!

[Blue Owl]

5. It was actually 43,500

The reflecting pool made it look like there were twice as many.

[Rebubula]

6. LOL....n/t

[pauldg0]

9. One third ....

...of them were the press.

[laurel46]

7. How about controlling for tourists?

The park service estimates 24 million visitors each year to the city. If spread evenly, which it probably is not, thats about 70k per day who were there for other reasons.

[classysassy]

8. Ifgnore tyhe evil bastard

and hope Fox news get the message.

[The Wizard]

10. How many of the turds

were paid by and bussed in by the Koch brothers? It was just another scam by Nazi propagandists.
In essence they were just putting new clothes on an old whore.

[Enthusiast]

11. I'll go with 87,000. nt