Saturday was to be a nationwide turnout for the Occupy Wall Street movement, with large protests across the land. From media coverage which portrays the movement as growing, one would have expected a large turnout, at least as large as the April 15, 2009 Tax Day Tea Parties.
In Ithaca, I noted that the crowd for the “mass peaceful demonstration” was about 12 people.
Apparently nationwide the protests did not fair much better, according to Nate Silver of The New York Times:
This exercise is meant, in part, to provide a comparison to the crowds that gathered for the first widespread Tea Party protests on April 15, 2009, for which I adopted a similar approach and came up with an estimate of at least 300,000 protesters across the country.
Saturday’s Occupy protests were probably smaller than that. Over all, I was able to find estimates of crowd sizes in about 150 American cities, ranging from the thousands of the protesters that turned out in New York to the roughly 10 who turned out in Juneau, Alaska — or the one protester who represented the movement in Myrtle Beach, S.C.
Nevertheless, based on the median estimates for the cities, I arrived at an overall total of about 70,000 protesters who were documented as having been active on Saturday throughout the United States.
This reminds me of the supposedly huge national protests in support of Wisconsin protestsers, which was a complete flop as documented in my post 50-State Union Protest Falls Far Short Of Predicted Turnout.
Yet the media coverage made the rallies seem much larger than they were. As Silver points out, only in Europe were the crowds truly large; which should make one wonder why Democrats want a European-style economy.
The Occupy Wall Street movement momentum is a media creation. As Walter Shapiro wrote a few days ago, the reality of relatively small crowds does not justify the “whole world is watching” coverage.
Yes even small crowds can generate the impression of momentum, particularly when the President of the United States finds it convenient to use them for his own political purposes.
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Ulsterman has a new interview with his contact, Wall Street Insider.
WALL STREET INSIDER: The Obama White House Wants Us Gone. All of Us.
“Ulsterman: When we spoke last time you sounded so confident. You said you were going to pick up a broom – I believe that’s how you put it. Pick up a broom and sweep the protesters out of the park. Why the change in tone? And so quickly.
WSI: To my credit, that is exactly what was about to happen within days of my telling you that, correct? The protesters were given notice. The park was in fact scheduled to be cleaned. I knew of that intention. Then…the cleaning was delayed. That was followed by an immediate response from protesters toward more violent actions. Do you know there was an employee – a person working for one of the firms, injured by a group of protesters a short time ago? They were accosted. Made the mistake of trying to intellectually challenge the protesters – ask them why they were doing what they were doing. They were pushed, shoved down, scraped up. The firm…the firm decided to not make the altercation public for fear of reprisal by the mob. No charges. No media reporting on the incident. No consequences to those who attacked the individual. The space between that event and all out chaos is a very-very narrow one indeed. The message is going out to these people – these so called protesters…go ahead and attack. There will be no consequence. Attack.”
http://theulstermanreport.com/2011/10/17/wall-street-insider-the-obama-white-house-wants-us-gone-all-of-us/
I don’t know about Ulsterman. Seems too good to be true.
Newsbusters had an analyses on the major Tv coverage (non cable ) which was rated as highly favourable . However the numbers of viewers was down 1.6-3% . Conclusion viewers did not want to look /listen .
It also had the numbers up over the last 12 months. Could be that people can not afford cable + internet & cables has been ditched.
[…] enjoy it fully and immediately, because soon the bill will come due and already a Hill poll shows the majority of Americans blame Washington, not Wall Street, for the […]
This Ulsterman story reads like a CIA ghost story. I’ll consider it when he puts a name to such a story. As of right now, it’s turning some majors corners without a shred of proof.
Occupy Wall Street Movement? More like Occupy Wall Street [and Media] tantrum!
Forgive if this has been pointed out already, but Howard Stern’s interviewing of the OWM’ers is great: http://sharpelbowsstl.blogspot.com/2011/10/howard-stern-exposes-occupy-wall-st.html
Here’s an antidote: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQ29wKMekoE
I live a block from Wall Street. I have actually not seen ANY OWS’ers except for two walking up Wall Street toward Zuccotti Park about a week ago. My wife demanded that we go see the freak show, so she dragged me to Zuccotti Park and we stood around and looked at the useful idiots for about a half hour, then we left. I’d estimate their numbers at about 200 or so. About twenty of them were sitting in a group banging on some kind of drums and singing a weird song. And I would say at least 20 of them were Paulians handing out Ron Paul literature and chatting people up.
I’ve followed Nate Silver for a long time. He’s an exceptional liberal for this day and age. I often disagree, but his opinion is always worth considering, especially on quantitative topics.
The OccupySanAntonio was pretty lame. For every “occupier” there were at least 5 people just there to take cell phone images of them.
As they congregated in front of The Alamo they were not even bolstered by the people staggering away from the Beer Festival at Hemisphare Park two blocks away.
When you can’t attract belligerent drunks what good are you?
Sure, there were the “bad boys”. One covering up half his face with a black turtle neck gone wrong and the other in a Guy Fawkes mask. Good thing we have movies to tell our outlaws how to dress.
It was a freak show, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.
You have to listen to the Stern show send their “reporters” down to ask questions. It is hilarious.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tsJPKMvWDmY
And boy are they pissed their wealth was redistributed
Thieves preying on fellow protesters
By LARRY CELONA, LAURA ITALIANO REBECCA HARSHBARGER, FRANK ROSARIO and JAMIE SCHRAM
Last Updated: 8:28 AM, October 18, 2011
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manhattan/criminal_occupation_oh3CnKANUqYHrGPCaZaLRK
200? Really? Thats amusing.
There were more people at the GMU Patriot Center on Saturday for our family weekend event (where the Pep Band and athletic department danced to Party Rock Anthem for the amusement of Mason Patriots and their families there) than there was in two or three Occupy events at one time.
In short: Entertainment to kick off our Basketball Season > Anger and being a useful tool
[…] NO-MENTUM: OWS’s nationwide push on Saturday a major fail.NO-MENTUM: OWS’s nationwide push on Saturday a major fail. […]
[…] Professor Jacobson (linked by The Other McCain’s “Live at Five“) wrote: In Ithaca, I noted that the crowd for the “mass peaceful demonstration” was about 12 people. […]