How come news reporters can't fuckin' count?

[readmoreoften]

I was at the rally in Austin, Texas today. They said "about 200 people showed up." I know what a crowd of 200 people looks like. It was at least 500 people. I heard 2000 at a later event (although that seems inflated.) But lemme tell ya, it wasn't "200 people" that filled the balcony, the stairway, and flooded the base of city hall.

200 people. You gotta be fucking kidding me. I hope y'all get paid off well by your corporate masters.

[Maat]

1. They always do that.

I'm surprised that they were honest about how many showed up in San Diego (around 25,000). That was only because the police and the organizers insisted on the high count. Even so, they 'downgraded' it down to 20,000. Pathetic.

[patrice]

2. That's what the anti-War movement has been asking for the last 5-6 years.

I think "journalists" have an, unspoken at this point, understanding that the Style (like MLA or APA or whatever) for referring to any count that is too big to know exactly is to underestimate by a factor of 10, so 100s are 10s, 1000s are 100s, 10,000s are 1000s, and 100,000s are 10,000s etc. . . .

[Smarmie Doofus]

3. Might also be an 'official police estimate."

Corporate press usually dutifully passes along police misinformation in return for access. Police crowd estimates are almost always biased against the left and certainly against GLBT demos.

[patrice]

6. This about the police makes sense, because they'd have a vested interest

(budget-wise) in making such expressions of Freedom look un-successful to the public in general (so others won't think it's worth doing).

[madmadmad]

4. when i went to one of the war rallies here in l.a.

the official count was 250,000 or sumpthin' but i guarantee you it was a million. i've seen plenty of 250k gay pride events over the years, but i have never, ever, ever seen anything like that march. blocks and blocks and blocks of solidly packed humanity, stretching further than the eye could see.

[Irishonly]

5. I thought there were more in Pomona also

There is going to be another in Claremont in December.

[readmoreoften]

7. Well I'll be damned. The Austin-American Statesman counted the crowd as "over 2000"

Way to get it right for a change... :applause: