Glenn Beck appeared this morning on Fox & Friends, where he insisted that the the Tea Party march on Washington attracted 1.7 million people. This is more than twice what even the organizers of the event say it was, with the FreedomWorks estimate yesterday being between 600,000 and 800,000.
Beck cited a university study of the crowd -- though he's not sure which university: "We had a university, I think it's University of -- I don't remember which university it is -- um, look at the pictures. And you know, they can do body space and calculate -- 1.7 million, that crowd was estimated."
Gretchen Carlson noted that they'd only been saying tens of thousands, which Beck brushed off as the official report. "If you look at the pictures, university looked at it, did the body count, et cetera et cetera, 1.7 million."

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Walter Mitty
September 15, 2009 9:05 AM
$10 bucks says it was Regent University...
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Minne sconsin
September 15, 2009 9:07 AM in reply to Walter Mitty
LOL!
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AhTrini1
September 15, 2009 10:56 AM in reply to Minne sconsin
ROTFLMAO
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TavernWench
September 15, 2009 11:20 AM in reply to Walter Mitty
FTW!!
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clandesdun
September 15, 2009 1:00 PM in reply to Walter Mitty
It was World Evangelism Bible College. Beck is an alum of sorts he took Crying on Camera courses from Jimmy Swaggert. Swaggert was quoted as saying "I didn't even have to switch off the LSU game, for a small donation from Beck I just asked Jesus during halftime."
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pv2k
September 15, 2009 9:08 AM
You'll have to forgive Glenn. Because he has lost so many advertisers lately, he has now taken to the bottle and is seeing double.
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clandesdun
September 15, 2009 1:07 PM in reply to pv2k
From Wikipedia:
Beck is a recovering alcoholic and drug addict.[7] He also has a diagnosis of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. [8] He and his first wife divorced amid his struggle with substance abuse. Beck cites the help of Alcoholics Anonymous in his sobriety, and he eventually converted to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,[9] which teaches against the consumption of alcohol.
He is currently a resident of New Canaan, Connecticut, where, in May 2008, Beck applied for a special permit to place a six foot wall around his home citing "security concerns" and "angry audiences."[10]
No shit.
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JNagarya
September 15, 2009 2:55 PM in reply to clandesdun
Oh -- then it was Crystal Meth. Cathedral University.
That also explains his being glassy-eyed.
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DonDavis
September 15, 2009 9:10 AM
Hey Teabaggers: Guess What the ORIGINAL Teabaggers Woulda' Said
http://satiricalpolitical.com/?p=8778
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bdh
September 15, 2009 9:21 AM
Well, if university looked at it.
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Overreach THIS!
September 15, 2009 9:23 AM in reply to bdh
Exactly. No more criticism from us.
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jenzinoh
September 15, 2009 9:48 AM in reply to Overreach THIS!
wait a moment... aren't universities bastions of liberal thought and anathema to the rights and causes of everyday Americans?
Or was that just Harvard?
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Overreach THIS!
September 15, 2009 11:35 AM in reply to jenzinoh
Oh,yeah! Wait a minute!
Hmmmnnnnn...
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JNagarya
September 15, 2009 2:54 PM in reply to jenzinoh
What's he's implying with his fiction is that even LIBRULS say it was 1.7 million.
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CT Voter
September 15, 2009 9:24 AM
A University looked at a picture, eh? The picture that was 10 years old, taken from a Promise Keepers rally:
Is Fox now so awful that Beck can make up huge whoppers and no one notices???
{Rhetorical question, of course).
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Minne sconsin
September 15, 2009 9:38 AM in reply to CT Voter
Thanks for the link! Wonderful!
Why should I be surprised anymore to find out that rightwingers lie as habit, without shame?
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Schmed
September 15, 2009 11:08 AM in reply to Minne sconsin
Seconded! I need to send this link to some Facebook associates who are using that old photo as part of their "memories."
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this
September 15, 2009 9:36 AM
Max Fisher over at The Atlantic Politics site: http://politics.theatlantic.com/2009/09/the_other_912_rally.php
Says this in an article title "The Other 9/12 Rally":
'What no one has noted is that two-thirds of the National Mall was filled by an entirely separate event on Saturday that had nothing to do with protesting the president. September 12 just happened to be the 24th-annual Black Family Reunion...'
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hunter
September 15, 2009 12:28 PM in reply to this
Er...this seems odd. The article you link to which claims the BFR was 9/12 links to a Washington Post story...which claims the BFR was on 9/13. Am I missing something?
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middlenamesareseriousbusiness
September 15, 2009 9:48 AM
To paraphrase Family Guy:
Are you sure it was a university? Are you sure it wasn't...nothing?
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Rich in NJ
September 15, 2009 9:50 AM
Do we really have to know what nattering nabobs of nihilism, Beck, Bachman, and Palin, think about anything?
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LowlyWorm
September 15, 2009 9:52 AM
Local papers around DC put the crowd at around 35,000. There was also a triathalon downtown that day. Beck was probably counting the athletes as his.
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brewmn61
September 15, 2009 10:50 AM in reply to LowlyWorm
I didn't realize that so many triathletes had potbellies and shaggy beards. And those were just the women.
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musgrove
September 15, 2009 9:59 AM
The sad part is that there are people who think there was 1.7-2 million there. If there was that many, you wouldn't have to argue about it, it would be obvious to everyone. But saying there was 1.7 million when there was like 60,000, your just asking for people to laugh at you.
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nova voter
September 15, 2009 9:59 AM
http://roflrazzi.files.wordpress.com/2009/04/celebrity-pictures-john-belushi-just-college.jpg
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clandesdun
September 15, 2009 12:33 PM in reply to nova voter
Funny, that's the same college I have on my resume. And then some "moran" that I interviewed with actually asked me for transcripts. "Transcripts? Ah don kneed no stenkin’ transcripts!”
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DonDavis
September 15, 2009 10:10 AM
FOX News Claims Teabaggers Were a ‘Million Klan’ March
http://satiricalpolitical.com/?p=8823
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rebop
September 15, 2009 10:13 AM
I'm supposed to trust some unnamed liberal university to count how many teabaggers showed up in Washington? Ha! Those leftist eggheads are probably sitting around debating how many teabaggers can dance on the head of pin.
My gut tells me there were at least 3 trillion people at that event. Now some liberal egghead will now doubt come along and tell me, "Well the latest United States Census Bureau estimate on the population of the entire Earth is only 6.784 billion." To which I say who are you going to trust some faceless Washington bureaucrat who wants to pull the plug on Grandma, or my gut? Case closed.
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Overreach THIS!
September 15, 2009 11:44 AM in reply to rebop
Right! You know, Madman Krauthammer celebrates the Fox tradition also popularized in 1984 that facts don't mean anything and you can change facts. He said that in some self-congratulatory awards ceremony appearance.
Which is to say I'm not wedded to 6.784 billion.
I estimated 20 million before, but if your gut is telling you 3 trillion minimum, then I'm prepared to go there as well!
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Virginia
September 15, 2009 10:23 AM
I was there on my bicycle and cycled around the whole area. No way were there more than 70,000 at its peak. The teabaggers were in the area between that west steps of the Capitol and 3rd street, which is the boundary between the Capitol area and the Mall proper. There were NO overflow teabaggers on the Mall proper other than a few stragglers. As others have noted, there were two other major events that day (the Black Family Reunion and the Nation's Triathalon) plus the usual crush of tourists on a pleasant September weekend. To estimate 100,000 would be hugely generous - anything more is sheer fantasy. I wish I had brought my video camera, but there must be enough footage to make the reality clear.
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rebop
September 15, 2009 10:29 AM in reply to Virginia
70,000 is a really generous estimate. A lot of those teabaggers look like they've been raised on a steady diet of deep fried twinkies, so you can't fit as many of them per cubic foot as at your average Promise Keeper's rally. Given the median teabagger BMI, I would revise your estimate downward to 30,000.
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NuttyProf
September 15, 2009 12:16 PM in reply to rebop
maybe glenn beck can ask "University" to work an equation for 1.7 million twinkie filled teabaggers @ gross cubic foot volume V=2,000,000 teabaggers + 800,000D + ??D(2)+ H = OMG please help me jesus
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rebop
September 15, 2009 1:56 PM in reply to NuttyProf
Yes, any equation University works out that does not account for the fried twinkie matrix is unreliable.
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roxanne
September 15, 2009 10:24 AM
MSNBC's Davis Shuster tweeted on Saturday that he's covered many protests and rallies in Washington over the years and that the crowd only reached 3rd street. For comparision he said that the inaugral crowd was all the way bac to 17th street. I've also seen a photo of Saturday's march which they claimed went all the way back to the Washington Monument but, you can clearly see that it did not. There was nothing but, grass behind these people. I suspect that fox won't show those photos.
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roxanne
September 15, 2009 10:31 AM
I'm just thrilled that they were able to track down the origins of the photo the wingers were passing aroud as ther's was actually the Promise Keepers rally. The sun was shining very bright that day but, Saturday was very dark and clowdy. I think it may have even drizzled a few times. Nice try losers. 6 months of plugging this event on fox news and they barely reached 50-60,000? The best part about this is that it shows fox news that while they reach a lot of these loons, they still can't motivate even 100,000 people after 6 months. Take a good look fox! This is how the elections will play out. Your side screams like idiots in tiny protest and our side comes out, wins elections and smacks down these cooks....AGAIN!
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SBG
September 15, 2009 10:33 AM
Body count? There were 1.7 million dead people there? This has been grossly underreported!
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twoviragos
September 15, 2009 10:34 AM
Is it just me or does "Fox and Friends" sound like the name of a children's show for the spawn of the right wing fringe?
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Leftflank
September 15, 2009 10:35 AM
G. Beck has now lost support from all "University".
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Chico Zen
September 15, 2009 10:42 AM
I say about 340 million people...
I must of been there, I just can't recall. In fact EVERY US citizen was tea bagging on sat.
What's sad is they just repeat blatant LIES... with a straight face. That's part of the stradegy.
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Kevin Sutton
September 15, 2009 10:52 AM
It was probably Denial State U
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LowlyWorm
September 15, 2009 12:00 PM in reply to Kevin Sutton
Wossamotta U?
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azpaull
September 15, 2009 11:01 AM
Re: headline saying that Beck was channeling Sagan
Sagan was looking for signs of intelligent life among the billions upon billions of celestial bodies; Beck is looking for signs of intelligent life, too, among the "1.7 million" not-so-celestial bodies.
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Winston Smith
September 15, 2009 11:12 AM
Obviously Beck is exaggerating but the fact remains that th 29%ers are fully mobilized, which is a lot better than we can say about progressives (IMHO).
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JohnW1141
September 15, 2009 11:19 AM
"I read a report" that there were 2.7 million there.
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Peter Principle
September 15, 2009 11:37 AM
Obviously, the fact that Beck, FreedomSucks, etc. are spinning this so hard with the Beltway media shows that they understand what a bust the whole event was.
The DC police and fire department may not be willing to count heads, and CNN and the New York Times may not know how, but I can assure you that every Congresscritter on the Hill is quite good at it.
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jeffgee
September 15, 2009 12:05 PM
"Everybody" in Beck's fantasy land means everybody who believes the Photoshopped reality of a photo of a crowd much larger than 9/12's taken years ago before the American Indian museum on the DC Mall was finished. They're not even good at creating a convincing lie but facts are dangerous things to the rotting dregs of the GOP base. Facts are to be feared, like everything else. The GOP base has been distilled to a caustic extract since the Palin rallies last year. The GOP base has broken bad.
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Hidden Oak
September 15, 2009 12:09 PM
60,000 at the polls is not 1.7 million. It's getting your ass stomped. Again.
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Crapola
September 15, 2009 12:10 PM
A more accurate count could have been obtained by just counting the empty bags of Cheetos left behind on the Mall. Why do we insist on doing these things the hard way?
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JNagarya
September 15, 2009 3:05 PM in reply to Crapola
And dividing the total by 1/3rd, because none of them could feel full with only one back.
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Les Ismore
September 15, 2009 12:42 PM
he is on safe ground and he knows it since there are no longer any "official" counts anymore.
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middlenamesareseriousbusiness
September 15, 2009 12:57 PM
Ah yes, university, my old alma mater. I have nothing but fond memories of university: hanging out on quad, pledging fraternity, and watching football team play rival football team at stadium.
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JNagarya
September 15, 2009 3:07 PM in reply to middlenamesareseriousbusiness
Yeah. Mine too. But I'm a boomer, so it was still new when I was there, and on a good day the quad would be filled to overflowing with 2.999953 million.
The total IQ was also higher: we didn't watch the football team. We watched the football cheerleaders.
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Mike Licht
September 17, 2009 7:41 PM
It was hard to estimate DC Tea Party crowd size with so many walker-wielding Medicare recipients protesting government healthcare.
See:
http://notionscapital.wordpress.com/2009/09/17/march-of-the-disgruntled-in-dc/
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Evlon
September 22, 2009 11:30 PM
The study that Glenn mentioned was from this fella at the University of Illinois which I found demonstrably bizarre. I have done my own study based on devised methodology and calculation which you can find here:
http://deathbymedia.wordpress.com/2009/09/22/912-washington-dc-tea-party-rally-crowd-estimation/
It's backed by evidence (pictures and clips) and determining the boundaries of the protesters and calculation of final tally derived from the density of the crowd at each given block. My calculus puts the figures around 130k up to 160k.
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