Birfers And ‘Baggers On Parade Of Deception

[Joanne98]

Most reputable sources gave the event numbers of 60-70,000 or thousands or tens of thousands. Disreputable sources wanted it to be 1.5 million to 2 million, so they said it was 1.5 million to 2 million. That was easy.

Conservative activists, who organized a march on the U.S. Capitol today in protest of the Obama administration’s health care agenda and government spending, erroneously attributed reports on the size of the crowds to ABC News.

Matt Kibbe, president of FreedomWorks, the group that organized the event, said on stage at the rally that ABC News was reporting that 1 million to 1.5 million people were in attendance.

At no time did ABC News, or its affiliates, report a number anywhere near as large. ABCNews.com reported an approximate figure of 60,000 to 70,000 protesters, attributed to the Washington, D.C., fire department. In its reports, ABC News Radio described the crowd as “tens of thousands.”

Brendan Steinhauser, spokesman for FreedomWorks, said he did not know why Kibbe cited ABC News as a source.

As a result of Kibbe’s erroneous attribution, several bloggers and commenters repeated the misinformation.

And perplexed ABC’s reporter on the scene:

# have checked all of our coverage – ABC never reported 2 million. if you find it, send it to me. this is a total myth.about 11 hours ago from web
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# I don’t know where those numbers are coming from, but there’s no way there were 2 million there.about 11 hours ago from web
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# Tweeps, I’m confused. Keep hearing ppl say “ABC news is reporting 2 million” – where is this coming from? have not heard anyone say thatabout 11 hours ago from web

The Daily Mail published an article, “Up to two million march to US Capitol to protest against Obama’s spending in ‘tea-party’ demonstration,” which flooded right wing sites. A very similar Associated Press article entitled, “Thousands of downtown DC protesters blast Obama” was apparently based on the same scheduled press release, but updated to better reflect what actually happened.

Birther Major Stefan Cook spread the word on Free Republic:

Live Thread: 912DC March on Washington (We’re Having a Tea Party!)
9/12/2009 1:16:05 PM · 2,706 of 3,285
roaddog727 to who knows what evil?

Consider this:

2.0 million folks represents. 2/3 of a percent of the entire US population.

That is a significant.

This photo of the very successful October 4, 1997 Promise Keepers gathering appeared on Tweets and websites purporting it represented yesterday’s turnout.

Continued>>>
http://ohforgoodnesssake.com/?p=3025

Pictures at link

[TrogL]

1. This is how authoritarians behave

Basically "what I believe must be true".

Hence, they'll go to any lengths to make it "true" even if it's false.

They love authoritative sources ("the Bible says it so it must be true") and they think everybody else blindly believes authoritative sources (eg. the newspapers) so if they manage to get something into print, they'll refer to it endlessly.

They do the same thing with the ex-gay movement. They take the insane outpourings of defrocked Dr's Campbell, Nicolosi and Scoliosis (or whatever the ruck his name is) and plaster it anyplace they can, touting it as "fact".

Now that they've got this one "fact" that ABC News said 2 million people were there, we're never going to hear the end of it. The problem is, they will believe it even though all evidence (eg. photographs) says otherwise.

Remember, two plus two equals five.