Yesterday I got cranky about the outsize attention lavished on tea parties. I should have waited a day, so that I could include the New London Day, which has spent much time and energy trying to placate the local right. It has done the Day no good, since it is still constantly attacked as a bastion of liberal thought.
Today, the Day does yeoman’s service, covering a tea party “rally” in Norwich. I work in Norwich, and I can attest that there is a small, faithful contingent that shows up on a regular basis to picket outside of Joe Courtney’s office. But this was a rally-attendance must have been immense considering the fact that this is a mass movement, right?
Well, maybe it was. But you would never know from the Day’s article, which makes no mention of crowd size. But take a look at this picture from the article. If ever a picture was taken to try to make a small crowd look big, it is this picture:
There are some hints that turnout might have been rather anemic:
“You’re not alone – there’s a lot more people than you think,” said Mike Hannan, a local tea party organizer who served as the event’s emcee.
Or this quote, from Bud Fay, who obviously thinks only males count in this world:
So I think, personally, for every one of us that’s active, that’s showing a sign or just attending a function, there has to be 10 to 15 people sitting at home, talking to their wives and kids with the same concerns that we have. “
Sure enough, if you go to the website, the video, which itself attempts to maximize the minimal crowd size, nonetheless reveals what the Day dares not say: the “rally” was a small gathering of cranks. We’ve had crowds almost as big at our Drinking Liberally events.
Where, you might ask, did the Day choose to place the story about these idiots? The front page, of course.
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