Hiding in Plain Sight

When this AP-derived story was first put up, it said "thousands" had gone to Washington. CNN delicately edited it to make it "crowds." Notice the tightly cropped photo, too; not a panaramic shot like the big 2003 rallies.

It amuses me no end that a rally that drew, according to the semi-official DC Police estimate, 100,000 people was described not as "tens of thousands" or "a crowd estimated to reach one hundred thousand" but as "thousands." It's technically true, of course, but serves to hide the indelicate truth: Attendance at anti-war rallies has steadily declined since 2003.

That's not how it went during the Vietnam years, is it? And they had to face truncheon-swinging cops and National Guard troops using live ammunition and frat boys willing to bust heads. Just goes to show what a bunch of over-privileged, comfort-loving, sunshine anti-warriors they are today. Piff.

And then there's the pro-war counter-rally. This time, CNN will say "hundreds of people, far fewer than organizers had expected" while avoiding -- or actively working to mis-paint the situation -- mentioning the same disappointment on the Left side.

Can't wait to see which story Chris Peck's Commercial Appeal goes with tomorrow, and what the doofus headline writer there comes up with. "Many dislike war" maybe? Peck can tart up the pages any way he wants, but when he's reporting self-evident crap he can expect circulation to continue to decline. I doubt, though, that he'll start to research on his own the reporting he takes as gospel from the likes of the New York Times and the Washington Post. Cardinals, after all, don't question the Curia.

MONDAY MORNING UPDATE: Well, well! A quick check of the Commercial Appeal website finds nothing at all. What if they gave a protest and no one reported it? I heard on the radio that Cindy Sheehan was supposedly mad at Hurricane Rita for sucking up all the media oxygen.