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.
[…]
All of which begs the question of why liberals wrung their hands so publicly over Beck’s spectacle, as though this even might actually dwarf the 1963 March on Washington in terms of historical and political significance. At this point, it’s obvious that Beck’s stunts have a self-conscious hint of irony to them. His increasingly messianic self-conception and his outsize comparisons between himself and important American historical figures seem deliberately designed to make liberals issue angry public denunciations, which only increase his profile and solidify his stature in the conservative movement, where Pissing Off Liberals is actually more important than anything else. He’s figured out how this hustle works. What I don’t understand is why liberals keep indulging him with their outrage.Beck’s inversion of history, by which a people demanding more supply-side tax cuts and a conservative takeover of Congress become the civil rights activists of their time, is too patently absurd to take seriously. The historical context of the 1963 march, the size of the crowd, and MLK’s avowedly leftist social and economic politics make an enduring association between that event and this one impossible. The only people who should be genuinely angry about Beck’s event are the conservatives who have apparently decided to take the comparison to heart.
One of the least important issues regarding a rally is: How many people attended.
Attendance is a worthy issue when discussing a mob. When discussing a rally, the most important issue is what was being urged.
Ideas vs Popularity.
Yea, Verily.
More left vs. right divisional politics. How completely fucking boring.
It’s time for him to get a robe. The sheeple are growing less interested.
“but no where near the estimated 1.8 million that attended Obama’s inauguration”
Our gathering was larger than your gathering!
Seriously, this has to be the saddest excuse for journalism. It is absolutely nothing more than a slam piece. Biased reporting and journalism is completely and totally useless to anyone. It doesn’t matter if it’s Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, or the Washington Post. Biased reporting is completely and totally useless.
The Daily Show said it best its Glenn’s “I have a Scheme” speech
From a New York Times story…
“Washington officials do not make crowd estimates, but NBC News estimated the turnout at 300,000, while Mr. Beck offered a range of 300,000 to 650,000. By any measure it was a large turnout.”
#4 Derek the point is that Beck even with all of Fox news his radio show and modern social networking and a country in recession he could only manage a crowd as large as a collage football game. Oh and collage football game would have a lot more race diversity.
All this news about Beck only serves to massage his ego best to turn it off before he gets to full release.
Right vs. Left; Red-state vs. Blue-state; Conservative vs. Liberal. Can’t we all just agree on the fact that Glen Beck is a clown?
I produced several different estimates of crowd size. One says 1-100,247, the other 40,000-314,159, and the third 240,000-9,234,157
The average is well over three million.
3 million it is then.
Figure that Republicans and Conservatives actually have JOBS, as opposed to welfare bums that swell the crowds at Far Leftist Events….
Not every Conservative can afford to take time from their honest paying job to attend a function in Washington DC, but every fucking unemployed Democrat slimeball can simply go there on a bus, even if it takes a week.
#8, we don’t have to agree on it…. He said it himself.
Did that work?
http://gawker.com/5189897/glenn-beck-calls-himself-a-rodeo-clown
Faxon: millions and millions of people live withing a few hours’ drive of DC.
MikeN, good point, but how about we rely on someone who used science to develop an estimate?
#11
“but every f#*%ng unemployed Democrat slimeball can simply go there on a bus, even if it takes a week”
with what for bus fair, food, lodging for a week on the road?
being poor and/or unemployed makes for very limited travel opportunities and DC is not a cheap place to stay.
when you use words like “every” leads me to discount your critical thinking
seems more likely republicans and conservatives with JOBS could make the trip.
CBS, that’s funny. Now find someone with credibility. Judging by the NYT estimates, they’ve actually been shamed into reporting occasional truth.
I think Glen Beck has missed his calling as a
televangelist.
That’s not fair because there was a gun show the same day.
Meanwhile, the CBS news reporter who reported the story last night started by saying it was a “huge” crowd, then reported CBS’ number, and then said it was the largest gathering of people on the mall since President O’s inauguration, never mentioning that 1.8 million people attended that event. If 87K is huge, how exactly would she have described 1.8 million?
It’s appropriate on this special anniversary to compare Beck to MLK.
http://bit.ly/bIEGCL
Everyone here who is saying that the attendance numbers don’t matter would be the same people bragging about them had a few million people shown.
Just keep thinking the same way you are my neo-lib friends. All you need to to is keep telling yourself that your messiah Obama and savior Pallosi is doing a great job, and that its all someone else’s fault. Their are no people angry at the course of the government, and that everyone wants a largest government possible, that is in charge of every part of your life.
In fact if you want to think their was only 3 people at the Beck rally, and that no one supports him thats exactly the way you should believe.
Just keep telling yourself that, at least until after November.
#21 Bob said it first.
It was a nice turn out. These people paid their own way.
Nothing was preventing anyone else from booking the place and doing a rally. Why didn’t they?
Only IDIOTS care about “turn out.”
Stoopid Humans.
#21 Bob said “…Dem telling your self that and that its all someone else’s fault..”
I’m sure that during Obama’s second term (with Hillary of course), things will get better. In the mean time, stay strong!
Your point above is a perfect segway for this great joke I heard in my elitist group…
How You Can Spot A Republican..
A woman in a hot air balloon realized she was lost. She lowered her altitude and spotted a man in a boat below. She shouted to him, “Excuse me, can you help me? I promised a friend I would meet him an hour ago, but I don’t know where I am.”
The man consulted his portable GPS and replied, “You’re in a hot air balloon, approximately 30 feet above ground elevation of 2,346 feet above sea level. You are at 31 degrees, 14.97 minutes north latitude and 100 degrees, 49.09 minutes west longitude.
“She rolled her eyes and said, “You must be an Obama Democrat.”
“I am,” replied the man. “How did you know?”
“Well,” answered the balloonist, “everything you told me is technically correct. But I have no idea what to do with your information, and I’m still lost. Frankly, you’ve not been much help to me.”
The man smiled and responded, “You must be a Republican.”
“I am,” replied the balloonist. “How did you know?”
“Well,” said the man, “you don’t know where you are or where you are going. You’ve risen to where you are due to a large quantity of hot air. You made a promise you have no idea how to keep, and you expect me to solve your problem. You’re in exactly the same position you were in before we met, but somehow, now it’s my fault.”
#23
Only IDIOTS care about “turn out.”
Only IDIOTS care about “Glenn Beck.”
Fixd
Cursor_
#24 Dallas Even as a Republican that joke made me smile.
MLK “I have a dream”
G Beck ” I have a delusion”
Reports in the paper today (The Arizona Republic – A Gannett paper) said that the National Park Service police started closing off access when they estimated 300,000 people; the overflow went to the areas surrounding the mall area, so most agencies are centering around 500,000-600,000.
The more important aspect of the rally was not the Merit awards or that Washington D.C. hasn’t seen that many crackers since the Bonus Army or the apparent fact that nobody got out of line and no arrests needed to be made, but that so many people of so many different faiths were able to come together in peace and that 500 kids of Special Warfare Operators KIA will be able to go to college, free, because of the over $5,000,000+ raised for that purpose.
GigG said,
From a New York Times story…
“Washington officials do not make crowd estimates, but NBC News estimated the turnout at 300,000, while Mr. Beck offered a range of 300,000 to 650,000. By any measure it was a large turnout.”
I wish that the NYTimes had bothered to fully site the NBC article because I wasn’t able to find it in my brief search. I did find an article on msnbc saying that Beck had a permit for 300,000. http://msnbc.msn.com/id/38895645 I wonder if the NYTimes is mixing that up with actual attendance?
Regardless, the pictures full of white people with graying hair won’t change people’s minds about who the Tea Party or Fox News audience really are.
Too bad we couldn’t just give those people their own state so we could stop hearing them talk. Glenn Beck has to be the most annoying guy, and Palin the most annoying woman, both at the same place.
I was in D.C. that weekend due to a work meeting and I was at a couple restaurants and saw a lot of the Beck followers. One waitress told me that they don’t like tipping much (in D.C it’s common knowledge to tip about 25% and I don’t even live there). Also I heard some fight broke out after a Beck follower through a hissy-fit at a fast food joint because D.C. charges a “bag tax” for plastic bags, so he threw the food at the worker at the restaurant.
Seriously these people should get there own little state so we don’t have to hear about them anymore. Do they realize Beck is doing this just for the money (and maybe fame)? He was in Fortune magazine talking about how he’s just an entertainer and he’s doing it for the money and he doesn’t care much about politics. He made over $15,000,000 last year.