Big hat tip to JJP community member Piepiepie (great name, btw. it includes three of my favorite things) for linking us to this post by Max Fisher at The Atlantic

In it, Fisher explains what a little research on the part of many reporters might have cleared up a lot sooner.

What no one has noted is that two-thirds of the National Mall was filled by an entirely separate event on Saturday that had nothing to do with protesting the president. September 12 just happened to be the24th-annual Black Family Reunion, which ran from 7th Street all the way to the Washington Monument.

<snip>

Not even the most biased observer could have mistaken these people for anti-Obama protesters. So why did so many pundits conflate the cheery Black Family Reunion with the angry tea-party protesters? The answer, I think, is that they either weren’t there or didn’t bother to leave the protest’s zenith on the Capitol steps. It’s an institutional hazard of covering protests that reporters seek out the center of the action and don’t budge, giving them great anecdotes from individual attendees but little sense of the event’s overall scope. Similarly, it’s easy for bloggers to just read after-action reports or browse a few photos before drawing conclusions. But these are both risky strategies for covering big events, and it’s easy to see why people are so confused about Saturday’s attendance figures.

I’m not trying to get into a precise tit-for-tat on crowd size. Fisher says “2/3 of the mall was Black Family Reunion” where as The Washington Post describes the BFR as “a much smaller event” than the 9/12 protests. My point is that Fisher’s is the first report to offer some palatable explanation for confusion over the crowd size. Also it’s just hilarious to think of Black Family Reunion attendees being all riled up and anti-Obama.
And now, your moment of Zen. This brother is clearly a libertarian, “real” American upset that socialist Obama has made his America unrecognizable. It’s so clear!

BTW, if anyone was at the Black Family Reunion this year, share your comments and stories of what it was like. I haven’t been since I lived in DC a long time ago, like last millenium.
Not even the most biased observer could have mistaken these people for anti-Obama protesters. So why did so many pundits conflate the cheery Black Family Reunion with the angry tea-party protesters? The answer, I think, is that they either weren’t there or didn’t bother to leave the protest’s zenith on the Capitol steps. It’s an institutional hazard of covering protests that reporters seek out the center of the action and don’t budge, giving them great anecdotes from individual attendees but little sense of the event’s overall scope. Similarly, it’s easy for bloggers to just read after-action reports or browse a few photos before drawing conclusions. But these are both risky strategies for covering big events, and it’s easy to see why people are so confused about Saturday’s attendance figures