Wichita Tea Party
Yesterday, I had the opportunity to head on down to the local stop of the Tea Party Express II: Countdown to Judgment Day (sounds ominous enough) at Lawrence Dumont Stadium in Wichita. The astroturf movement is paid for by David Koch of Wichita-based Koch Industries to the tune of $20 million $12,906,712 of his own treasure. The event was about as I expected: a few hundred people, lots of pictures of aborted fetuses, scores of misspelled signs, and some not-so-awesome assaults by Tea Party folks on Peace Center activists.
I was at the event for its duration, had the chance to catch some film and pictures, and ask around about how many people were in attendance. According to one local conservative blogger I spoke with, “they’re saying there’s a thousand folks here, but I don’t see that.” Yeah, I didn’t either.
After having some time to do some perimeter sweeps and some head counting, I figured there were around 400 to 600 people in attendance. At any rate, not too shabby for a Wednesday afternoon, even if most of them were retirees. But I was astonished to read, on my first stop of morning reading each morning, that the Wichita Eagle was reporting 1,500 to 2,000 people were at the event. I again spoke with a couple of Peace Center activists to see what their impression was for attendees. Again, they were judging 400 to 600 attendees were there — who failed to fill the parking lot of the stadium. We have seen these distortions of the truth before, and expected it yesterday.
Some have called the Wichita Eagle a liberal press.
I don’t see that: I think they report things pretty well down the middle, which, to the wingnuts, may mean they’re “liberal press.” But, to normal Kansans, they are one of the most respected newspaper institutions in the state: it’s the fair reporting that most in Kansas have come to appreciate about the Wichita Eagle. It’s a trusted paper not only in South Central Kansas, but in Topeka and Kansas City as well. So, for the Eagle to pump the numbers seemed, well, like they were pandering. That impression became even more solidified in the story when Tea Party Express organizer, Tiffiny Ruegner, was quoted in the story as saying:
“One voice does make a difference, and when you have several hundred or 2,000, it’s going to be heard.”
So, what was it? Several hundred or 2,000? Fred Mann, the writer of this story, was contacted by a member of our team in order to give him an opportunity to straighten this out. Nearly a day later, the misrepresentation remains.
Take a look at our Flickr page and take a gander for yourself.
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