Did Obama Draw that Many People?
May 21, 2008 Political
Recently, news stories touted how Barack Obama drew a crowd of 75,000 people to a rally and they trumpeted how this was the largest crowd in history. It must mean that the Obamessiah is the real deal and that people come from miles around just to hear him speak.
What the news outlets left out of the story is that a popular Portland Band gave a free concert before Obama spoke. Not one outlet mentioned that perhaps some of those people came for the free concert. Most news organizations failed to even mention that the band, The Decemberists, performed for the crowd (it was in an Oregon piece). The band would explain such a large crowd when he has never done this before.
Instead of letting us know that rock stars performed they just told us of the Barack Star thus giving the impression that he was responsible for the number of people who showed.
John Kerry drew 50,000 when he had Leonardo DiCaprio and rocker Jon Bon Jovi accompany him. Certainly that many people did not show up just to see Kerry (who served in Vietnam).
Sure, Obama is a big draw but I wonder how many liberals will consider this intellectual dishonesty, a claim leveled against me for not mentioning that some Conservatives wrote nasty stuff about Kennedy’s illness when I pointed out how the left acts when Conservatives fall ill.
Sources:
Oregon.com
News Busters
Tags: crowd, dishonesty, Obama, portland, rock band