I spent the morning looking at just about every news site and political blog that I know of to see what the narrative would be today about the One Nation March. After Beck's rally, I found that almost every news organization had crowd estimates and since then the media has basically been pushing the myth that there were "300,000 to 500,000" people at his rally. I have found this pretty odd. Even MSNBC has been quoting that number... anyway... I just think it's odd that almost every site and blog states almost the exact same headline about the One Nation March... "10's of thousands".
It seems like a pretty bipartisan effort to downplay the turnout at the event. So much for the "liberal media bias". It's like they all read the same AP ticker and used that as a basis for their story... only editing certain parts and then releasing it as their own... until I came across this bullshit by John Avlon at The Daily Beast:
The One Nation rally Saturday fell far short of Glenn Beck’s march
I am fairly certain that I have seen this pompous ass pose as a Liberal on CNN on many occasions (am I mistaken?)... but if you read the article above you would think it was written by Eric Erickson.
...the rally offered a snapshot of the fragile coalition that is the contemporary far left—a dizzying array of activist organizations and identity politics, with financial muscle provided by the labor unions who bused their members in.
Speakers like Schultz, Jesse Jackson, and Van Jones are stars in this crowd. But for all the chanting about how "the people, united, will never be divided," this turnout was small, and suffering from an enthusiasm gap compared to the conservative populists who crowded the mall a month ago for Glenn Beck’s "Restoring Honor" Rally. Yes, the music was better and the crowd more diverse, but this rally provided plenty of evidence the Wingnuts on the loony left are alive and well.
Mr. Avlon goes on to paint the march in a rather unseemly light and quotes people on multiple occasions to play down attendance. From the other diaries I have read about the march here... it didn't appear to be anything like he is describing. I wasn't able to attend but I watched the majority of the rally on CSPAN and from the pictures I saw... there were plenty of people there. What do you make of the narrative that Mr. Avlon is pushing with his commentary?
UPDATE: This is the only aerial picture I have found.
http://i.huffpost.com/...