Is Instapundit's Glenn Reynolds making up Tea Party facts?
Written by Eric Boehlert
Published
Because in his WSJ write-up about what he witnessed at last weekend's Tea Party convention in Nashville, the the RW blogger announces that the movement has spurred "millions of Americans to the streets over the past year." [Emphasis added.]
Really Glenn? I'd sure be curious how many millions and millions of Tea Party fans have taken to the streets in the last twelve months. Is it 4 million, 9 million, 14 million? Because as I noted last weekend, when the New York Times tried to push the same milions-and-millions line, I don't see proof that any “millions” have participated in Tea Party protests over the last year.
We all remember that at their largest event last September in Washington, D.C., Tea Party advocates claimed 2 million people protested. (Reynolds himself helped push that phony line at the time.) But in the end, that estimate was off by roughly 1.9 million. (Oops!)
So if the biggest Tea Party event drew approximately 60,000 people, and most of the other very, very large events attracted, say, 10,000 people, that means that either A) the Tea Party movement hosted hundreds and hundreds of huge, five-figure events that I never heard about in order to reach the “millions” tally, or B) Tea Party advocates like Reynolds, are making stuff up again in effort to puff up their cause.
Which is it Glenn?
UPDATED: Last April, Nate Silver's site, fivethiryeight.com, posted an extensive list of crowd estimates for every Tea Party even held on April 15. The total: 112,000 attendees. That, combined with the D.C. event equals approximately 172,000 Tea Party protesters. Although, if you want to get technical about it, it's likely there was overlap between the April 15, protests and the D.C march in September. Meaning, if lots of the same people participated in the two, you wouldn't count them twice as part of Reynold's alleged “millions of Americans” total.
There were certainly Tea Party events and protests held outside of the April 15, and September events. But I'd sure like to see Reynolds point to concrete numbers (as opposed to make-believe RW blogosphere numbers) that show how those events attracted millions, when the two biggest Tea Party mass gather days last only tallied 172,000.
UPDATED: And no, don't ask RW blogger Jim Hoft (aka Gateway Pundit) to help with Tea Party crowd estimates. He lies about that kind of stuff.
UPDATED: Does being a Tea Party cheerleader entitle you to your own set of facts?
UPDATED: Meanwhile, I chuckled when I read Reynolds WSJ headline, “What I Saw at the Tea Party Convention.” Because after reading the column it's clear Reynolds slept through Joseph Farah's primetime birther speech since Reynolds makes no mention of it. Instead, Farah's embarrassing fiasco gets flushed down the memory hole. Farah's loony birther talk doesn't fit with Reynold's spin that Tea Party attendees were cheerful, everyday folks, therefore Farah does not exist.
Punchline: Reynolds claims Tea Party followers crave transparency!
UPDATED: It's been crickets from Reynolds. I'm taking that as confirmation he cannot point to any evidence/facts/proof to back up his claim that “millions of Americans” have taken to the streets to protest in the last year.
And if Reynolds cannot confirm the fact, when will the WSJ issue a correction? Although I've noticed lately that being a “conservative journalist” means not having to correct, or even acknowledge, egregious errors. Just ask Greg Pollowtiz at National Review.