Texas President Lyndon Johnson Still Holds Record For Largest Inaugural Crowd

[darrels joy]

Texas President Lyndon Johnson Still Holds Record For Largest Inaugural Crowd

January 21st, 2009 Posted By Pat Dollard.

The Swamp:

Sattelite analysis says crowd was around a million, not two.

More than 1 million spectators convened on the National Mall to watch Barack Obama take the oath of office Tuesday, but it was unclear if the crowd surpassed the record thought to have been set at Lyndon B. Johnson’s 1965 inauguration. Until a number is released later this week, he still holds the record, and may in fact keep it.

Though early estimates ranged as high as 2 million people, satellite images of Obama’s swearing-in suggested the crowd was probably about half that, said Clark McPhail, who has been analyzing crowds on the National Mall since the 1960s.

“It was sparser than I thought,” said McPhail, a professor emeritus of sociology at the University of Illinois. “There were lots of open spaces.”


The National Park Service, which calculates crowds for large Washington events, is expected to provide an estimate this week, a spokesman said.
Johnson’s inaugural crowd was estimated at 1.2 million.

“A million rolls off the tongue very easily, but most people have no idea what it really looks like,” McPhail said.

On Tuesday morning, the Washington Post initially cited security sources who put the crowd at 1.8 million.

The Associated Press, which did its own analysis, estimated “more than 1 million.”

The park service has not done official estimates in more than a decade, complying with a congressional order to stop after a controversy over how many people attended the Million Man March in 1995. Estimates then varied from 400,000 to more than 1 million.

Park service spokesman David Barna said the agency probably would produce a number this year because of the historic nature of the event and public demand for an estimate.

“We don’t think anyone in Congress will be really upset,” he said.
McPhail pointed to relatively uncrowded sections of the mall between the Capitol and the Washington Monument and to thin crowds along the parade route to explain his estimate.

http://patdollard.com/2009/01/texas-...augural-crowd/

[darrels joy]

Aerial photos and scientific studies show McClatchy's estimate of "about 2 million" at the inauguration is a crock



The excitable Obama Boosters at McClatchy estimated the crowd at Obama's inauguration at "about 2 million." However, aerial photos and scientific studies peg the actual number at closer to 800,000.

Shortly after the inauguration different organizations provided these estimates:

The Washington Post: 1.8 million
IHS Jane's: 1.271 million to 1.651 million
CNN: 1.5 million
The Associated Press: "more than 1 million"
McClatchy: "about 2 million"

But aerial photos show the crowd was nowhere near McClatchy's grossly inflated estimate, or even the smaller estimates provided by other media. One scientific study by an Arizona State University professor calculated the crowd size at 800,000. (Another photo here.) Of course, 800,000 is a large crowd but I'm not sure it's "historic" or any of the other superlatives used by the media.

It should be embarrassing that McClatchy's estimate was off by over one million. Any reason to believe this isn't part of McClatchy's campaign to hype Barack Obama?

http://cancelthebee.blogspot.com/200...c-studies.html

[darrels joy]

Obama Inaugural Ratings Fall Short of Reagan’s

Thursday, January 22, 2009 1:30 PM By: Rick Pedraza

Although the number of viewers watching the presidential inauguration coverage of Barack Obama was impressive, they fall short of those who saw Ronald Reagan take the oath of office for his first term in 1981. According to Nielsen Media Research, 37.8 million television viewers tuned in Tuesday to watch the swearing-in ceremony, which was the largest inaugural audience in 28 years. Reagan's first inauguration in 1981 drew a whopping 41.8 million. Obama's viewership was, however, 27 percent higher than Bill Clinton's in 1993, and 30 percent higher than George W. Bush's in 2001. Bush’s swearing-in for his second term in 2005 was the lowest viewing audience (15.5 million) for a presidential inauguration. Obama's figures include telecasts on 17 broadcast and cable networks, while Reagan’s swearing-in ceremony nearly three decades ago could only be seen on ABC, CBS and NBC. NBC’s coverage of the Obama inauguration festivities beat all competitors with 11.5 million viewers, followed by ABC (11 million) and CBS (7.2 million). CNN topped the cable networks with 8.5 million viewers, followed by Fox News Channel (5.5 million), and MSNBC (3.1 million). The ratings do not, however, include the huge online viewing audience, with CNN.com, FoxNews.com and MSNBC.com all reporting record-breaking streaming video traffic. Google reports that searches were down during the event. Among U.S. cities, Raleigh-Durham had the largest TV audience (51 percent of the television audience), while host city Washington, D.C. came in second (48 percent). Seattle-Tacoma had the lowest television rating at 18.8 percent, and the West Coast, in general, had the lowest numbers, possibly due to the fact that the swearing-in ceremony there was televised at 9 a.m. Overseas numbers show Germany with 11 million viewers, followed by France (7 million) and Great Britain (5.1 million). Presidential Inauguration Ratings (from highest to lowest): 1981 – Ronald Reagan – 41.8 million 2009 - Barak Obama - 37.8 million 1977 – Jimmy Carter – 34.1 million 1973 – Richard Nixon – 33.0 million 1993 – Bill Clinton – 29.7 million 2001 – George W. Bush – 29.0 million 1985 – Ronald Reagan – 25.1 million 1989 – George Bush – 23.3 million 1997 – Bill Clinton – 21.6 million 2005 – George W. Bush – 15.5 million © 2009 Newsmax. All rights reserved.

http://www.newsmax.com/insidecover/o...mo_code=785C-1