By many accounts the crowd was at least 800,000 to 1.5 million, and perhaps as high as 2 million (much more on that later) – mostly ordinary citizens who paid their own way to D.C. to protest Big Government. Whether you agree or disagree with them, THIS DESERVES TO BE FRONT PAGE NEWS ON EVERY NEWSPAPER IN THE COUNTRY. And it should go without saying that coverage should be honest in reporting the facts. It is an insult to our intelligence for media to report “tens of thousands” when anyone present, or looking at pictures of the crowds, could see that it was much, much bigger than that.

The leading news organ of the media, the New York Times, buried a mostly negative piece on page A37 of Sunday’s edition. They ran bigger and more positive stories about an ACORN rally that featured 40 protesters! http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/13/us/politics/13protestweb.html?_r=1

USA Today wrote that “tens of thousands of fiscal conservatives packed the streets.” http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2009-09-11-tax-rally_N.htm    FoxNews and CNN websites ran similar stories referencing “tens of thousands.”

The Washington Post did manage a front page story (how could they not, with a million people on their doorstep) however they repeated the silly claim that it was “tens of thousands.” http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/12/AR2009091200971.html  However they took heat for front page billing from the left-wing Media Matters (leftist journalists). http://mediamatters.org/blog/200909130006

The British Daily Mail, with no dog in the hunt, filed the story “A million march to US Capital to protest against ‘Obama the Socialist’”. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1213056/Up-million-march-US-Capitol-protest-Obamas-spending-tea-party-demonstration.html As I said, why cannot a single US publication get this right?

Brent Bozell’s Media Research Center, a conservative media watchdog organization, created a Report Card on Media Coverage of the event, which is focused primarily on TV and cable networks. They gave most networks a passing grade (“good coverage” although it was “largely antagonistic”). http://www.mrc.org/realitycheck/realitycheck/2009/20090915110753.aspx MSNBC dismissed the march as “the fringe of the fringe.” On a positive note, NBC referred to “a sea of people as far as they eye could see” and “hundreds of thousands.”

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/09/14/new-silent-majority-white-house-says-health-care-protesters-mainstream/ Fox was positive, of course, but still blew it on the size.

So, how big was that crowd, anyway?

Newsmax analyzed various media reports and claimed that mainstream media (Surprise, Surprise!) downplayed the size of the crowd, although Newsmax didn’t provide any new estimates. http://www.newsmax.com/insidecover/912_rally_media_crowd/2009/09/14/259829.html?s=al&promo_code=88A6-1

Michelle Malkin has some amazing photos and video, showing the crowd extending down Pennsylvania Avenue as far as the eye can see. http://michellemalkin.com/2009/09/12/yes-the-picture-is-real-nutroots/  

PA Pundits gives an analysis with their final estimate at 1.8 million. http://papundits.wordpress.com/2009/09/12/912-tea-party-in-dc-headcount/

Gormongons (whoever that is) perform a series of fascinating (if you are a mathematician perhaps) calculations to arrive at an estimate of 750,000 (however they claim that most other 1-2 million crowd estimates were actually much lower than the unofficial estimates). http://www.gormogons.com/2009/09/how-many-people-were-at-big-912-tea.html

NiceDeb analyzes the crowd size using “the same methods used by USA Today to calculate the size of the Obama inauguration” – their estimate “clearly over 1 million.” http://nicedeb.wordpress.com/

What does it all mean?

Online competition is killing the print newspapers – but it’s not just about the medium. These newspapers have lost our trust – this is just one more very glaring example. Drunk with the power of having created and helped elect President Obama, they are oblivious to their perilous situation. 

Sunday morning Charlie Gibson was asked about the ACORN story, on the air. He laughed, then admitted that he didn’t know anything about it, then chuckled again and said it was probably a story for the cable networks. Clueless. He should be fired, along with every news editor who is either too ignorant or too biased to run an honest story.

Even David Westin, President of ABC News, has complained that today’s news is too much entertainment and too little objective reporting. How and why would that change? It seems to me that we the consumers can affect it through our choices in the marketplace and by communicating our concerns and desires to media executives. 

An even more important issue is the moral one, which goes to the heart of our cultural and political decline. One of my favorite authors, Malcom Muggeridge, himself a journalist, editor and producer of television documentaries, wrote that “It is a truism to say that the media in general, and TV in particular…are incomparably the greatest single influence in our society today…This influence [is] largely exerted irresponsibly, arbitrarily, and without reference to any moral or intellectual, still less spiritual, guidelines whatsoever. Furthermore, if it is the case, as I believe, that what we still call Western civilization is fast disintegrating, then the media are playing a major role in the process by carrying out, albeit for the most part unconsciously, a mighty brainwashing operation, whereby all traditional standards and values are being denigrated to the point of disappearing, leaving a moral vacuum in which the very concepts of Good and Evil have ceased to have any validity.” We need to insist, then, not only that news organizations report news with a degree of objectivity and balance, but also that they follow common standards of morality. The ACORN story should shock them out of their self-serving dream world back into reality – We the People demand honest journalism. Our political system, our economic system and our entire way of life depends, in part, on effective investigative journalism. If they won’t do it, someone else will. It can turn quickly.

It’s time for conservatives (those who can invest anyway) to buy some newspapers – and how about flipping one of the Three Sisters (ABC, NBC, CBS)? This crowd (and Fox News’ dramatic growth) indicates to me that there is a huge market that’s not being served.