15 thousand vs. 2 million: Media throws wide on anti-Obama protest numbers

Up to two million march to US Capitol to protest against Obama’s spending in “tea party” demonstration
David Gardner, Daily Mail, 14 September 2009

As many as one million people flooded into Washington for a massive rally organised by conservatives claiming that President Obama is driving America towards socialism.

The size of the crowd – by far the biggest protest since the president took office in January – shocked the White House.

That photo of the 9/12 march on Washington? It’s fake.
By Matthew Shaer, The Christian Science Monitor, 14 September 2009

On Sept. 12, a group called FreedomWorks – with a little help from Glenn Beck at Fox News – organized a “taxpayer” rally in DC to protest the “irresponsible government takeover of our nation’s healthcare, devastating new energy taxes, and trillions of dollars in red ink.” When the mainstream media didn’t pick up on the story, several conservative bloggers began distributing a photo of protesters clogging the DC mall.

Problem: the photo is from a totally different event. Politifact, a nonpartisan journalistic fact-checking organization, checked in on Monday with Pete Piringer, public affairs officer for the DC Fire and Emergency Department. Piringer “unofficially” estimated that between 60,000 and 75,000 people had shown up. He added that the photo circulating conservative sites was almost certainly not from this year.

[Read the report | Politifact link]