9/12 March 'Tea Party' Photo: False Image Spread By Anti-Reform Activists

Tea Party protesters trying to tout the size of their march on Washington last weekend have been passing around a photo of a packed National Mall. But the picture is years old.

Politifact asked Pete Piringer, public affairs officer for the D.C. Fire and Emergency Department, if the rally was big enough to fill that space. Piringer said no -- and moreover, the picture can't be from 2009.

"It was an impressive crowd," he said. But after marching down Pennsylvania Avenue to the Capitol the crowd "only filled the Capitol grounds, maybe up to Third Street," he said.

Yet the photo showed the crowd sprawling far beyond that to the Washington Monument, which is bordered by 15th and and 17th Streets.

There's another big problem with the photograph: it doesn't include the National Museum of the American Indian, a building located at the corner of Fourth St. and Independence Ave. that opened on Sept. 14, 2004. (Looking at the photograph, the building should be in the upper right hand corner of the National Mall, next to the Air and Space Museum.) That means the picture was taken before the museum opened exactly five years ago. So clearly the photo doesn't show the "tea party" crowd from the Sept. 12 protest.

"I've seen bigger crowds at Montreal Expos games, but I still wouldn't fake a photo just to justify your predictions of millions descending on Washington," said one gleeful Democratic media strategist. "This is grade-A stupid and just plays into the argument that these were astroturf protests to begin with. They've always brought the noise, but the question that was supposed to be answered this weekend was, could they bring the numbers? In that respect this was an unmitigated disaster."

The photo had been circulated on blogs and Twitter. A number of conservative blogs have since taken the photo down. Some have corrected their posts. Others say the circulation of the picture was a left-wing conspiracy to discredit the event. However, many of them are still claiming that at least a million people attended the march. Nate Silver estimates about 70,000 protesters showed up.

It isn't the first failed attempt by the protesters to inflate the size of the event. On Saturday, organizer Matt Kibbe announced on stage that ABC News had estimated a crowd of 1 to 1.5 million. ABC News had reported no such thing.

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Comments

[jrodcleezy]

What a blatant misrepresentation on the part of this website! Look, I was there. These pictures are before the march even started. My group met at the Washington Monument before the rally. Then it went to Freedom Plaza. Then we marched to the Capitol. I was lucky enough to make it to the west lawn and all of the lawn was shoulder to shoulder. If you notice this picture shows the front lawn empty. This picture is taken around 9:00am maybe 10:00am. The march didn't even start until 11:00 am. The streets were filled and DC was shut down. Many of the police officers I spoke with explained that this crowd was bigger than Obama's inauguration. By the way. The place was left cleaner than we found it and 0 arrests. I REPEAT. ZERO ARRESTS. To bad you can't say that about the G20 summit. OVER 100 arrested and over $100,000 dollars of damage. Stick to the truth and be skeptics of EVERYONE in Washington on both sides. Bush raped our wallets and Obama is doing it worse. Wake up people! Its your money that they are spending. Well no more! This re-establishment of the Constitution can not be stopped. We are taking our country back and looking for absolute freedom. Get the Government out of the along with the corruption that is in it.

[research]

There were Zero arrests for you because you were pro corporatist, and lots of arrests at the G20 because they were Anti-corporatist.

[scothsft]

This makes you feel good to say, but you're wrong.

9-12ers are about freedom and the Free Enterprise system. I don't think they are all about corporations.

The G20 protesters were breaking the law. That's why they were arrested.

[scothsft]

BTW, there were ZERO arrests because they obeyed the law.

[Infringed]

Of course the picture is not from the tea party. Whizbang posted it for comparison purposes on September 14. http://wizbangblog.com/content/2009/09/14/how-many-people-attended-saturdays-tea-party-march-in-dc.php It is the 1997 Promise Keepers march according to Whizbang. You liberals whine all you want about the Tea Party folks but you know, they vote. Look at them. They're a bunch of regular people, your parents, mostly 50 and over. They know they are about to get screwed with this health care mess. Don't ever think you are going to get something for nothing. Someone is gonna pay. With government health care the old and disabled are going to get the shaft and everyone else is going to be waiting for an appointment or treatment, I should say. If doctors are restricted in their pay and restricted in the way they make decisions about half (the older more experienced half) is going to resign. And you are gonna pay.

[ChrisJones]

A conservative blog that linked to the photograph from "Say Anything", another conservative Web site.He started off by saying this was the true photo for 9/12 ???!!!!

http://sayanythingblog.com/entry/for_what_its_worth_the_best_aerial_picture_of_the_dc_tea_party_ive_seen_yet/

I do not know about Whizbang but this is where the story started.

[ChrisJones]

From a reader that was there, so much for 9/12 tea baggers.

+ skystone I'm a Fan of skystone I'm a fan of this user permalink

I have a copy of this picture. It was taken at the he March for Women's Lives in 2004. I was there at the March, and the following day this picture was in the Washington Post and many other papers across the country.

[ChrisJones]

It was also thought that this photo was apparently was taken in 1997 at a Promise Keepers rally, not 9/12 Tea baggers.

[Catherine Diller]

What this rally was about was many different things, not one main thing. As Americans, it is our RIGHT to "peaceably assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances." And on 9/12, that was what we Americans were doing.
The government has to much power. WE THE PEOPLE need to take it back. The government serves us, WE do not serve the government.

[research]

Where were you during the BushCo years??? Wearing the wrong t-shirt got you arrested. "protest Zones" were created by Bush to coral citizens.

No, on 9/12 Americans were in shock. Susceptible to suggestion by a corrupt conservative administration. You Served them just fine.

The USA spends more on war and weapons, than the rest of the world combined. All to line the pockets of war profiteers, yet NOTHING for the general Welfare, like health insurance. You know to serve the people.

Wake up!

[scothsft]

Little do you know... the 9/12 movement started during the Bush Administration. Obama's election just fueled its growth.

[okila]

If you let a teagagger sleep at your house dont be surprised if you wake up with a mushroom stamp.

[research]

Conservatives lie all the time. We know this. Why do we keep giving them the benefit of the doubt?????

[scothsft]

You really need to be more accurate. You mean Conservative Politicians, don’t you. Don’t you realize that the Liberal Politicians lie even more? Aren’t you watching what is happening in Washington right now?

[Pyronaught]

I've never seen this fake picture except on LIBERAL websites. I've seen another fake picture being passed around by protest deniers that shows a completly empty mall however. Perhaps if the news networks actually covered this story then everyone would know exactly what it looked like! All it would have taken is one aerial shot from a helicopter. But of course actual reporting of events only happens when it supports their political agenda, which is why it didn't happen here. Now we've got this head-count war that is giving birth to a new class of morons that could come to be called "9-12 deniers."

[Texian]

I thought about this, but then I wondered: is any aircraft allowed over DC? I've never been there. Are there ever any aerial shots on the news?

[ChrisJones]

"Pyronaught" this is a Republican sight showing the photo...and there are plenty more of them http://sayanythingblog.com/entry/for_what_its_worth_the_best_aerial_picture_of_the_dc_tea_party_ive_seen_yet/

[ChrisJones]

From a reader that was there, so much for 9/12 tea baggers.

+ skystone I'm a Fan of skystone I'm a fan of this user permalink

I have a copy of this picture. It was taken at the he March for Women's Lives in 2004. I was there at the March, and the following day this picture was in the Washington Post and many other papers across the country.

[Zia]

When i passed by the place, as I work nearby, I saw 5 people! They were elderly people definitely enjoying Medicare benefits and came to resist any "Government" intervention to their medicare benefits.

[GrandmaBEE]

Fair and Balanced BS

[JuanEmilio]

EPIC FAIL.

[sjpatejak]

On a related matter,the Sept. 18 issue of the Post has an ad on page A9 from Fox News. It's labeled "How did ABC, CBS, NBC, MSNBC and CNN miss this story?" It includes two photographs. One is an aerial view of a large demonstration that seems to have been taken from above the Canadian embassy. You can plainly see the Air & Space Museum However, it doesn't show the Museum of the American Indian, which means it wasn't taken in 2009. Either Fox News is very careless, or it's dishonest (but you already new that).

[wagthedog1001]

Look at pictures of some of Obama's speeches last fall during the height of the campaign in St. Louis and Portland, OR.

TWICE as many people, easily.

Teabaggers: Stop lying about everything.

[superlive]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=6535381&mesg_id=6535948

That photo at issue was actually depicting the 1997 Promise Keepers March.

[imsscott]

I guess there are more promise keepers than teabaggers.

[zeke67]

This is the repub equivalent of a roll of quarters shoved in their jockey shorts.

[LeftRight]

I thought that was George Bush's codpiece on the Lincoln....

[DivergentMary]

They lie!