The Beck Rally was VERY well-attended

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

What does it mean to attend the Beck rally?

What was the Beck rally?

It was a TV production. Can anyone doubt it? The people who actually showed up in person were extras recruited to appear in a TV production.

So yes, it was very well attended. "Attending" a TV show is seeing it on TV.

It was on TV, and not just C-Span. It was on the news.

It is the topic of three NYT op/ed columns.

It is the topic of 20% (?) of threads here in GD the last 24 hours.

Taken altogether for some reason the Beck rally was treated like a real thing and thus it was a real thing.

[blogslut]

1. A real boring thing

I can't help but laugh at the idea of all those star-spangled haters leaving the event, expressing a collective: "Huh?"

[liberal N proud]

2. Both NBC and ABC news this AM portrayed is as a Christan Revival

A circus in other words.

[blogslut]

3. Oh, it was totally a revival

A dull, meandering deluge of Jesus-flavored blah.

[kstewart33]

4. Sorry, not buying it.

The event was portrayed by the media as a test of the strength of the tea baggers. It was promoted nonstop on Beck's show and on Fox.

87,000 people showed up.

That's fewer than the number of people who will show up to see one U of Michigan or Bama football game this fall.

The media reported on it, surely, but it's August. The media will report a cow attempting to mate with a horse in August.

[mwb970]

8. How sure are we about the 87,000 figure?

I have no idea how many were there, but that seems low to me. Or is it?

It would be much easier to get an accurate estimate of the number of blacks, gays, Latinos, and Muslims present: approximately zero.

[femmocrat]

10. Our local news and paper said 500,000.

Of course they are owned by Scaife. :puke:

[Andy823]

12. Yes your are right

And thousands of those who showed up were "bussed" in by other groups that were also having right wing events that weekend. They had specials on hotel rooms that also got them a bus ride over to Beck's revival show, or should I say snake oil show! This was done to show how "popular" the tea party was, and I think many who went were very disappointed in what they heard. It was "NOT" what the were promised. This was all about Beck's "ego", and him trying to show all those who watched that he was "not" the racist, hate monger he really is! He promised miracles, he promised something "bigger" than the moon landing, he hinted that God would be talking though him and he only wrote down a few "bullet" points and he was going to let the "holy spirit" speak through him. What I saw was him reading the whole speech he gave off his notes, no miracle, nothing big at all, and not one time did the "sprit" speak through him!

I am sure he will "hype" it up as more than it was, but it was a nothing event that only helped him make a ton of money off of the suckers that thought they were helping the vets, but who didn't know that the majority of their money would go to paying the bill for the event, and Palin's speaking fee of course. Beck once again pulled a con job, and pretty soon some of those who think so highly of him will see through the BS and see him for what he really is, nothing more than a con man!

[RKP5637]

5. One thing missing were burning crosses, maybe that's for the sequel. n/t

[Submariner]

6. 87,000 Klan members with their hoods off

Just a Klan rally without the hoods.

[proud2BlibKansan]

7. Who needs hoods when you have t-shirts like this?

[DLine]

15. Always count on a tea bagger....

to drop some info

[Fumesucker]

17. LOL.. Complete with misspelling..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mauritania

:rofl:

[IDemo]

18. LOL

Did he by chance mean Mauritania, or is "Mauitania" a neighborhood in Hawaii??

[proud2BlibKansan]

20. I guess he thought Maui changed its name

LOL

[oberliner]

19. What message is this t-shirt meant to convey exactly?

What point is he trying to make?

Also, Mauritania is spelled wrong (missing an "r") - which begs the question, did he have this t-shirt made himself?

What prompted this man to make or buy a t-shirt with that particular sentiment?

I would be curious to hear his explanation.

[IDemo]

24. He only wants to "restore America"

[yella_dawg]

9. This time of year is sometimes called "the silly season".

Thus the Beck rally, as you say, a TV production. In recent years, TV productions are frequently deemed newsworthy, for some elusive reason. The right wing has simply chosen to produce their version of Mad Magazine as a reality play, so to speak. The right does drama as poorly as it does comedy. It's simple, really.

Bread and Circuses, meet Social Security Checks and Beck Rallies.

[KinMd]

11. These people would HATE Dr.King

...if he were still alive. I'm sure he would be for "smaller" government. For endless wars, for the "papers please" law, for the demonizing of US citizen who are Muslims. And the idea that the first African-American president isn't "one of us".
I'm sure Sister Sarah and Beck would have been on the Pettius Bridge.

[GoCubsGo]

21. They DID hate him when he was alive.

That's what makes this whole event so damned ridiculous.

[KT2000]

13. Howard Stern

could probably pull a crowd of that size.
This was a radio stunt done by a guy who is on tv.

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

16. Howard Stern had a lsubstansial effect on our culture

For good or ill we live with the fruits of Howard Stern's influence every day.

All the OP is saying is that it makes no sense to analyze the rally in terms of how many people physically showed up because that is not the purpose of the event.

We had an anti-Iraq-war rally that was many, many times the size of Whitestock but got less coverage.

Which was the bigger rally?

The one with more people or the one with more coverage?

Beck got people to pay attention to his clown-show. His clown-show is a bid for attention.

So it was successful at what it sought.

[KharmaTrain]

26. We Live By Stern's Influence Every Day???

That one I have to snicker at. I'd be curious to find out what those influences are...and why I surely didn't get the memo. Just like with Dreck, both are entertainers with huge egos that made millions of dollars for their respective owners. Since Stern vanished into the rabbit hole of satellite radio he's all but invisible.

[Vickers]

14. ...by white people. n/t

[DailyGrind51]

22. We are in the new Weimar Republic and the teabaggers are the new brown shirts!

Beck is the new Ernst Rhoem. Now, who will emerge as the new Adolph Hitler?

[Skidmore]

23. So, are we going to get to the polls this November and counteract the

effects of the Teabaggers or are we going to lend them de facto support by sitting on our hands and voting the extreme right wing in? I feel physically ill at the thought of the extent to which some of the left are willing to hand power to these people.

[oswaldactedalone]

25. AMEN BROTHER!!

Stop all your bitching about Obama and work to elect Democrats. Do you really want to hear the tea party idiots crowing about their big November win? Do you really want to watch them dismantle our country and send it into anarchy? Get off your whining ass and do something to prevent this from happening.