[lbo-talk] 300,000 demonstrators, stretching for 10 blocks, in NYC

[Chuck]

Yoshie Furuhashi wrote:
> "The demonstrators stretched for about 10 city blocks as they headed
> down Broadway. A police spokesman declined to give an estimate of the
> size of the crowd, although organizers claimed there were 300,000
> people. There were no arrests," says Associated Press (at
> <http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/04/29/war.protest.ap/index.html?section=cnn_latest>). 
> 
> Phew, it wasn't as small as I feared it might be!  But I bet the
> media will give bigger space to the infernal pro-war rally in DC on
> the 30th.

While it's good that people turned out for this event, it's physically 
impossible to fit 300,000 people into 10 city blocks.

For size comparisons: football stadiums often seat 50-70,000 people. The 
Superdome seats around 72,000 and Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor seats 
around 110,000 people (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michigan_Stadium).

It's really dishonest for protest organizers to publicly announce wild 
attendance figures for their events. It is extremely hard to count 
people in huge crowds, but leftist organizations consciously lie on a 
consistent basis about protest estimates. Let's aim for honesty, 
accuracy and a bit of humility.

Chuck
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