Actual Count: 87,000 attended Beck's "Whitestock" rally today. (CBS)

[jefferson_dem]

Hell, that's only 913,000 short of Michele Bachmann's "million mythology."

Glenn Beck Rally Attracts Estimated 87,000
Posted by Alex Sundby 1 comments

An estimated 87,000 people attended a rally organized by talk-radio host and Fox News commentator Glenn Beck Saturday in Washington, according to a crowd estimate commissioned by CBS News.

The company AirPhotosLive.com based the attendance on aerial pictures it took over the rally, which stretched from in front of the Lincoln Memorial along the Reflecting Pool to the Washington Monument. Beck and former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin spoke at the rally.

Beck, who predicted that at least 100,000 people would show up, opened his comments with a joke: "I have just gotten word from the media that there is over 1,000 people here today."

AirPhotosLive.com gave its estimate a margin of error of 9,000, meaning between 78,000 and 96,000 people attended the rally. The photos used to make the estimate were taken at noon Saturday, which is when the company estimated was the rally's high point.

Rally organizers had a permit for crowd of 300,000. Crowd estimates used to be provided by the National Park Service, but the agency stopped counting crowds in 1997 after being accused of underestimating the size of the Million Man March in 1995.


The area around the Lincoln Memorial in Washington during a rally organized by conservative commentator Glenn Beck is seen in this aerial picture taken Aug. 28, 2010.
(Credit: AirPhotosLIVE.com)


The area around the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in Washington during a rally organized by conservative commentator Glenn Beck is seen in this aerial picture taken Aug. 28, 2010.
(Credit: AirPhotosLIVE.com)

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20014993-503544.html

[livetohike]

1. Lots of green space between the people

It looks sparse in these shots. What a bust.

[krispos42]

4. Yeah, I noticed that too...

It doesn't seem to be densely packed like, say, Obama's inaugeration was.

[livetohike]

9. Must be afraid of getting "cooties" from their neighboring

teabagger :-). Or else they were told to spread out and make it look like there were more people.

[targetpractice]

14. Maneuvering room for their Hoverounds...

...which were paid for by Medicare, of course.

[BrklynLiberal]

20. LOLOLOLOLOLOL Excellent!!

[dionysus]

21. that is sooo wrong.

get it right, it's rascal scooters :D

[jefferson_dem]

33. HaHa.... Did you see Wonkette?

America’s Special People Arriving For GlennBeckPalooza



Oh, ye Armies of the Night! Rise up … or, hell, just remain seated. Remain seated, ye lardbottoms, and also stick to daylight hours, so you don’t run into each other, on those ridiculous scooters paid for by Socialist Medicare. Wonkette’s photographic war correspondent Dana Ryan is already just cold shooting pictures of the most historical/miraculous event ever, which starts tomorrow we think?

<SNIP>

This was a movie about puppets who go to Hollywood to become stars. As they travel, they frequently consult the script of the movie in order to know what to do next. When they reach Hollywood, they begin making a movie about the movie the viewer has just been watching. The puppets build plywood simulacra of props that, earlier in the film, were represented as real. Then the roof of the soundstage smashes in and a powerful rainbow shines down and obliterates everything, including a plywood imitation of the fake rainbow that had appeared in the first scene. The frog and bear and pig simulations panic as the fake/real and real/fake worlds nearly destroy each other. The puppets then look directly into the camera and instruct the viewer that “life’s like a movie: write your own ending.”



Are we reliving the counter-culture classic Easy Rider right now, as freedumb’s just another word for nothing left to lose? All they wanted, was to be free. And that’s the way, it turned out to be.

http://wonkette.com/417780/americas-special-people-arriving-for-glennbeckpalooza#more-417780#ixzz0xxEUPlb5

[roxiejules]

36. Don't think we have to make fun of the old, disabled or overweight

in order to disagree with Glenn Beck or the Tea Party. How sad.

[jefferson_dem]

37. Aw.... but nobody's doing that.

We're only making fun of Teabaggers...who happen to be in Medicare-provided scooters. Get a grip.

[roxiejules]

38. Good...

But, the scooters say "Rent Me" on the front.....wouldn't that be a park rental, not Medicare?

[jefferson_dem]

39. Aye...

You're right. Guess their Medicare-provided scooters didn't make the trip.

[BrklynLiberal]

19. They all needed space to spread out their blankets and lawn chairs..

[LiberalFighter]

43. My local paper used a condensed revised version of the Washington Post article

Beck urges return to traditional values

Beck’s rally was billed as a peaceful and non-political “re-dedication” of the traditional honor and values of the nation. Throngs of people crowded shoulder to shoulder for six city blocks, from the Lincoln Memorial past the reflecting pool to the World War II Memorial.

Nothing about "shoulder to shoulder", "six city blocks", "reflecting pool", or "World War II Memorial" in the WP article on their site.

[krispos42]

2. Not bad, although with Fux News promoting the hell out of this you'd think it would be higher.

When did Beck announce this? End of June, right?

[ck4829]

3. Green never looked so beautiful.

[prolesunited]

5. On these shots, you can really see how spread out they are

Maybe they were going by the red state strategy of counting land mass and not density.

You couldn't walk through the crowds this easily at Obama's inauguration.

[jenmito]

6. Of COURSE Beck and the other RWers are already lying. Later, Beck announced that the "media"

said there were 300,000-500,000 people there, and "If the MEDIA says that's how many people are here, we can only imagine how many are REALLY here." I bet the "media" he was talking about was Faux. :eyes:

[mzteris]

7. and you have to figure that there are

people there who were "in Washington, DC" and wandered over to see what the fuss was all about? I mean, how many people - apprx - are "on the mall" at this time of year anyway?

[LonePirate]

8. The reflecting pool needs to be drained and cleaned!

It looks to be almost as toxic as the people and vitriol around it.

[Jade Fox]

10. "Whitestock". Best laugh I've had today! nt

[Chipper Chat]

12. I noticed one large well-dressed black man near the stage.

But he was probably a DC Plainclothes policeman.

[emilyg]

11. Not bad.

[jefferson_dem]

13. Not bad...

but not many more than will see the Redskins play at RFK on any given sunday.

Hey, hate is a motivator.

[BlueIdaho]

15. I had no idea

The Koch Brothers employed so many people...

[Mr. Sparkle]

16. For someone who averages 2 million on cable, thats kinda sucks.

It also does not include his radio audience.

[Botany]

17. Attn teabagers who went to Beck's "Whitestock" Rally pix

Now here is a crowd.



WhiteStock :rofl: Go Jefferson_dem

[Lucky Luciano]

26. Wow. That puts it in perspective!

Packed all the way to the Washington monument. At whitestock it is quite sparse near the Washington monument from the aerial shots provided in theOP.

[jefferson_dem]

34. Impressive contrast. And even moreso... here are some pix from the concert before the inauguration.

..<I was there>... :) ... Which took place at the same spot as today's Whitestock.

Note how the images were taken from way on the other side of the WWII memorial, which is where the Whitestock crowd thins out.

[BrklynLiberal]

18. Thanks for this post...

Let's just wait and see what number the Beckerheads and RWingnuts pull out of their butts.

[Botany]

25. Michele Bachmann ...... 1,000,000 people

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/t/bwahaha-michele-bachmann-_22371980254.html

[GoCubsGo]

27. She's not exactly the sharpest tool in the toolbox

No big surprise that she can't count.

[readmoreoften]

22. The LGBT National March on Washington had 200,000

Obviously America's a right-wing nation :eyes:

[BrklynLiberal]

24. Women's Rights March in 2004 had 1.2 million.....

[niyad]

29. funny that the media never mentions that one when they talk about large marches.

women's rights, of course, do not count, just like women don't

[BrklynLiberal]

31. Very ture. We were looking for the news copters....not one was ever seen

[Mad_Dem_X]

50. Yes. I was there. The media pretty much ignored it.

[BrklynLiberal]

23. DailyKos post by an African American who went to the "rally"....

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=9035801&mesg_id=9035801

[nmbluesky]

28. Michagain stadium

111,000

[BrklynLiberal]

32. They sure do love their football out there, dont they? LOL

[Drunken Irishman]

40. Been to Michigan Stadium. Quietest 111,000 I've ever heard.

[jillan]

30. That's still alot of nuts.

[Fearless]

35. I'm surprised the universe didn't cave in on itself with such concentrations of dumb in one place.

[BrklynLiberal]

52. lol...

Maybe that is how black holes are created....

All About Black Holes

The anomalous black holes are concentrated areas of mass so immense, that the mammoth force of gravity denies anything within a certain area around it from passing. This area is called the event horizon of a black hole.

We have given black holes their name because light inside the event horizon can never be seen by mankind, or any outside observer. We believe that black holes in space are created by the collapse of a red super giant star. As these stars reach the end of their lives, an imbalance of inward and outward pressure forces the star to collapse.

Information on black holes is limited, though numerous schools of theory exist. We know black holes exist not because we can see them, but because of the impact they have on the space around them.

[Fearless]

53. I don't know about black holes, but Beck rallies seem to have a black void

A place where black people mysteriously fail to congregate. Go figure! :rofl:


Edit: Very embarrassing spelling error.

[BrklynLiberal]

54. ...

:thumbsup:

[activa8tr]

55. Very good one! A void of blackness. Void of Muslims and

Hispanic's, too, if I noticed correctly, not one scared Muslim woman.

[Fearless]

56. Well they do have one...

Although I'm not entirely sure what race, ethnicity, or nationality he's trying to fall into. Perhaps Argentinian?

[activa8tr]

57. He's a member of the ORANGE race... not that there's anything wrong with

that.... we welcome all races here in the USA... but this particular specimen is not really part of the human race.

[Fearless]

59. Definitely not human, but if he behaves we'll get along.

[Arkana]

41. Feh. That's all they could get? The anti-war rallies on the mall had more.

Obama pulled crowds twice that on a bad day.

[jefferson_dem]

42. The "I Have a Dream" crowd (250k) versus the "I Have to Scream" crowd (87k) in pictures.

1963:

Yesterday:

http://www.bluevirginia.us/diary/1545/250000-vs-87000

[donal dubh]

44. I doubt even the 87 thousand claim...

perhaps that many people were there, but many of them were simply there for the freak show. And many were there videoing the event for posterity and likely more than a few were hoping for some drama. All in all? just another sideshow. They will lose in Nov. They will turn on their own. Much like the fiscal vs. social conservaties have done before. Now, if there were some way to energize the left to lay a serious beating on these clowns this fall, maybe they could get Palin to agree to shut up if her political value seems to lead to negative results...?

[vaberella]

45. Is that the majority of White people left in America? n/t

[RamboLiberal]

46. There was a +- 9,000 in the estimate

Event organizers, who had a permit for 300,000 people, estimated there were 500,000 in the "enormous and impassioned" crowd, according to the New York Times.

CBS put the figure much lower, based on an analysis of crowd photos done by the firm AirPhotosLive.com. The company examined photos taken around noon, at the peak of the event, and determined that between 78,000 and 96,000 people were in attendance.

Rally attendees filled six blocks, according to CNN, which compared the task of counting the crowd to guessing “how many jelly beans are inside a huge jar.”

ABC reported "more than 100,000" people in the crowd, while NBC Nightly News said "tens, perhaps hundreds of thousands" had traveled far and wide to be part of the event.



Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2010/08/29/2010-08-29_crowd_estimates_at_glenn_becks_restore_america_rally_depend_dramatically_on_who_.html#ixzz0y13QmEWw

I go with the CBS since it seems the most scientifically accurate.

[Yavin4]

47. A Good Number of Them Are Probably Tourists Who Were Curious

I'd like to see aerial photos of the mall when there's not an event.

[Mad_Dem_X]

51. Good point. n/t

[babylonsister]

48. Someone needs to tell morning schmo; he keeps repeating 500,000

as an accurate number. :eyes:

[RamboLiberal]

58. The dingbats at NBC & MSNBC said 300,000

some park official told them. Who? Joe Schmo national park ranger? Cause as many have pointed out the park service doesn't estimate crowd sizes.

I stick to the scientific survey CBS had done with overhead photos & a grid overlay.

[RedCloud]

49. Maybe there were 4 brazillion people there.

Most likely trapped as tourists and being sent to jail for not being citizens.

[and-justice-for-all]

60. I question that number...nt