How many?

Whether you agree with Beck and / or the diverse aims of the US Tea party movement, it does seem to me that their numbers / influence are being talked down. Mainstream press reports have often indicated far fewer than the videos posted as attendees at these events. Was there violent disorder? No. Unlike others from the opposite ends of the political spectrum.

It's at times like these I switch off the rhetoric from both camps and use my own eyes. How many were there? Only a 'few thousand'? I think not. Even to my observation, I think the crowds at both the 'Restoring Honor' and Tea Party protests last year easily breached six figures, and no CGI.


Whichever way you cut it, that's a lot of pissed off people. Yet CBC gave equal story time to a much smaller rally led by the Rev Al Sharpton. Hmm.

Update: Just had a look at the pictures over at Gateway Pundit and a couple of other sites. Then measured up the area using Google Earth.

The ruler indicates the length of the area covered in people at the 'Restoring Honor' event. That's an area just over half a mile long by a quarter mile wide. Working on the pictures published at Gateway Pundit, and assuming a crowd density of one person per square yard, a space three feet to a side, and given that a third of the visible area taken up by the event has no people on; let's say at total area of 258133 square yards occupied at one person per square yard average density. That means over a quarter of a million people at a conservative estimate.

That's impressive.