There's another big problem with the photograph: It doesn't include the National Museum of the American Indian, a building located at the corner of Fourth Street and Independence Avenue that opened on Sept. 14, 2004. (Looking at the photograph, the building should be in the upper right hand corner of the National Mall, next to the Air and Space Museum.) That means the picture was taken before the museum opened exactly five years ago. So clearly the photo doesn't show the "tea party" crowd from the Sept. 12 protest.
Also worth noting are the cranes in front of the Natural History Museum (the second building from the lower left of the National Mall). According to Randall Kremer, the museum's director of public affairs, "The last time cranes were in front was in the 1990s when the IMAX theater was being built." That makes the picture at least a decade old. (We'll update this item if we find out when exactly it was taken.) The conservative bloggers who originally posted the picture have backed down. Say Anything updated its original post to say that the picture was "of the wrong rally." An accurate photo "clearly shows that [the rally] didn’t take place on the mall nearly as extensively as the image I mistakenly posted does." Power Line took the picture down all together. We decided to still rate it on the Truth-O-Meter because so many people saw the photo on Facebook or other sites over the weekend and probably were unaware it was not from the Saturday protest. It may be a real photograph, but it does not depict the much smaller crowd that showed up for the protest. We rate it Pants on Fire! On Sep 14, 4:58 pm, jgg1000a <[email protected]> wrote: > Do I have to repost the links to people who actually did the math??? > Why do you rely on folking spreading fake news??? You should rely on > the continuous photos of the site.. Oh I know, you must deny that the > Tea Parties are a grass roots movement... > > On Sep 14, 4:47 pm, VT Sean Lewis <[email protected]> wrote: > > > Tea Party protesters trying to tout the size of their march on > > Washington last weekend have been passing around a photo of a packed > > National Mall. But the picture is years old. > > > Politifact asked Pete Piringer, public affairs officer for the D.C. > > Fire and Emergency Department, if the rally was big enough to fill > > that space. Piringer said no -- and moreover, the picture can't be > > from 2009. > > > "It was an impressive crowd," he said. But after marching down > > Pennsylvania Avenue to the Capitol the crowd "only filled the Capitol > > grounds, maybe up to Third Street," he said. > > > Yet the photo showed the crowd sprawling far beyond that to the > > Washington Monument, which is bordered by 15th and and 17th Streets. > > > There's another big problem with the photograph: it doesn't > > include the National Museum of the American Indian, a building located > > at the corner of Fourth St. and Independence Ave. that opened on Sept. > > 14, 2004. (Looking at the photograph, the building should be in the > > upper right hand corner of the National Mall, next to the Air and > > Space Museum.) That means the picture was taken before the museum > > opened exactly five years ago. So clearly the photo doesn't show the > > "tea party" crowd from the Sept. 12 protest. > > > "I've seen bigger crowds at Montreal Expos games, but I still wouldn't > > fake a photo just to justify your predictions of millions descending > > on Washington," said one gleeful Democratic media strategist. "This is > > grade-A stupid and just plays into the argument that these were > > astroturf protests to begin with. They've always brought the noise, > > but the question that was supposed to be answered this weekend was, > > could they bring the numbers? In that respect this was an unmitigated > > disaster." > > > A number of conservative blogs have since taken the photo down. Some > > have corrected their posts. Others say the circulation of the picture > > was a left-wing conspiracy to discredit the event. However, many of > > them are still claiming that at least a million people attended the > > march. Nate Silver estimates about 70,000 protesters showed up. > > > It isn't the first failed attempt by the protesters to inflate the > > size of the event. On Saturday, organizer Matt Kibbe announced on > > stage that ABC News had estimated a crowd of 1 to 1.5 million. ABC > > News had reported no such thing. > > >http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/14/912-tea-party-photo-false_n_... --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum * Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/ * It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls. * Read the latest breaking news, and more. -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
