Washington (SEP 12, 2009) Mainstream media completely missed the real story of the 9-12 Tea Party protest in DC. It was an abject failure. Amazingly the media continues to misreport the real size and tone of those in attendance. Despite the advance promotions (and advertisements from FOX News), apparently to manufacture a national news event to report, fewer people turned out than would fit in a football stadium. For comparison, consider that far more people turnout locally for rock concerts or sporting events. Pictures of the event may look impressive from staged angles until you realize that much more of the National Mall was occupied by the Black Family Reunion Celebration. The oft-shown image of crowed Pennsylvania Avenue adjacent to Freedom Plaza with the Capitol looming in the background is misleading, too. Compare footprints from a map: five lanes of city street for the block is roughly equivalent to one side of the lower bowl at Redskin Stadium thats only room for about 12,000 people nowhere near the tens of thousands reported. Representative Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) announced attendance at 1.5 million to the sparsely populated attendees gathered beneath the Capitol. While it is difficult to traverse the crowd in most DC protests, concerts, etc., amazingly, I was able to walk from the back perimeter to the front of the stage in less than 30 minutes. Evidently propaganda rules the day as Tea Partygoers are willing to be misled and the media is more than willing to mislead.

This video is a shorter version of the 6-minute video I posted a week after the event. National television and cable news outlets were not the only biased-right offenders. The Washington Post also failed to report key aspects of the event as noted below:

One black person in the crowd from Third Street to the stage near the steps of the Capitol but the Washington Post ignores this obvious evidence of racism and reports tens of thousands massed to loudly protest President Obamass race to socialism. To the contrary, video evidence proves that the crowd was NOT massive or loud but mostly scattered and disinterested older protesters with illogical, anti-progressive, anti-Obama messages. Since I was able to walk easily from the very back of the protest to the front of the stage near the Capitol during the middle of the rally, it is doubtful there were even 10,000 people present.

The Washington Post led with headline stories about the protest both on Saturday (9/12/09) and Sunday (9/13/09). Anti-war and other protests during the Bush years never garnered such prominent, lavish attention from the Post so much for the myth of the liberal press.

In addition to the misinformation about the makeup and size of the crowd, the Washington Post falsely reported other aspects of the event. On the video you can hear the sound system clearly behind the back of the crowd on the National Mall, yet the Post reported: Authorities in the District do not give official crowd estimates, but Saturday's throng appeared to number in the many tens of thousands. A sea of people surrounded the Capitol reflecting pool, spilling across Third Street and along the Mall. The sound system did not reach far enough for people at the edges of the rally to hear the speakers onstage.

There are many clues in the Post reporting and in my video that the crowd size was minimal including all of the empty space, green space, only one street closure, and ease of access. I walked from the back to the front in about 30 minutes, stopping to converse and film dozens of protest signs. Watch the video and compare your experiences at crowd events think critically. If you have ever been to a concert or a football game, then you will know for certain that there were not 20,000 or 30,000 people present at the 9-12 Tea Party Protest. Deceptive media outlets and personalities everywhere reported up to 2 million in attendance (Rush Limbaugh). Hey Mom, I guess that makes me 1 in 2 million!

The deceptive or careless misrepresentations by the Washington Post and other media outlets mock the protestors that went before the 9-12 Tea Party. They filled block after block of the National Mall, shoulder to shoulder, shout to shout, but received scant attention comparatively before, during and after. Mainstream media today leans right and cannot be trusted to report rather than promote news or even provide basic facts accurately.

Opinion and video blog by Red Arrow Guy. (less info)