Sept. 24 march 1

Sept. 24 march 1
Originally uploaded by Mantooth.

It was a big march, a little disorganized (took us 2 hours from the time it was supposed to start until we actually started 'marching'), co-opted excessively by ANSWER, whom I think are somewhat duplicitous about their real ideology (good article about this here, and too much all over the place, but it was great to see so many people out.


The media coverage of the march was predictably vague. Nobody is willing to run estimates of attendance at a Washington march anymore (after the Million Man March in 1995, when the organizers HAD to have a million men there and the parks authorities estimated 400,000 and were then vilified as racist, nobody will do this). The TIMES wouldn't give a figure, saying only "vast numbers," and WASHINGTON POST quoted the D.C. police chief as saying that it seemed to him at least 150,000; the organizing groups were talking 300,000. The TV news, cowed into meaninglessness by their paralyzing fear of being called liberal, gave equal coverage to the march and to the "counter-protest," which drew 200 people. Fox News said "thousands" were there. At least CNN noted that only 400 were at the pro-war rally held today on the mall.