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Miguel Medina / AFP - Getty Images
Anywhere from 100,000 to 2 million people gathered in Cairo's Tahrir Square, depending on whom you believe.
Update 1:10 p.m. ET: Al-Jazeera has now cut its estimate in half. Earlier: "up to two million." Now: "more than a million."
Wired, meanwhile, offers a way to guesstimate a big crowd.
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Estimating crowds is a notoriously inexact science, so much so that the National Park Service stopped doing it for protests in Washington many years ago. That leaves it up to news organizations to make their best guesses.
So it's no surprise that estimates of the crowd that gathered today in Cairo's Tahrir Square are very imprecise and wide-ranging:
• Washington Post: "Tens of thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands."
• New York Times: "Hundreds of thousands."
• Wall Street Journal: "Hundreds of thousands."
• Associated Press: "more than a quarter of a million people."
• Reuters: "At least one million people."
• Al-Jazeera: "Up to two million."
• BBC: "More than 100,000."
• Guardian (U.K.): "An estimated one million people."
• Telegraph (U.K.): "Estimated crowd of more than 1 million."
In January 2009, shortly before Barack Obama's inauguration as president, Steve Doig, a journalism professor at Arizona State University specializing in data analysis, wrote this explanation of why crowd-counting is a mug's game.
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My Dr. Evil estimation is one billion protesters.
Hahahaha, this is the new millenium Dr Evil, there aren't that many protesters in the whole world!
A better article would be: "Why do people gauge their level of interest/caring about a story by the size of the crowd"... like if its ONLY hundreds of thousands of people... then its not that big a deal. If its a million, then I care a bit more.
The article should gather interest based on the facts and the situation, not on estimates of people (alot of whom are not even protesting).
The opposition leaders kind of brought that on themselves by saying they wanted a million people to march. That just dared people discuss whether they really got a million people or not. That's a bad way to play the expectations game (especially if you're wrong). If they had just called for as many people as possible, the narrative might have been different.
My country tis a thief, sweet land of lynching, of thee I sing. Land where the father's lied, land of racial divide from every mountain side, let freedom ring, let freedom ring. Thank God Almighty. Let freedom ring.
Think about the diversion of counting numbers as a way of obscuring or de-legitimizing the validity of the movement or demonstration. If anyone can name a "news" organization anywhere that doesn't have a political or social agenda, name them now.
I live an a country where a few protesters, outside of the mainstream have co-opted a political party by calling into play the legitimacy of our president's birthright...have labeled him in every disparaging way to include his terrorist, fist bumping family...who have labeled him a socialist without looking up the history of the party that indicted him as such and how they voted on social programs like Medicare and Social Security. Thank you news media. The same media that gave them over-played air time, the same way they chase down every fart that Sarah Palin makes...reload and repeat, kill Grandma, target our opposition, blood libel etc.
We had no problem with the former President, with a favorability rating of 23% when he left office, applying the Patriot Act, two wars unwon, gas prices spiking to $4.50 per gallon, no energy policy, a slew of corporate scandals, an attack on New York City...who began borrowing crap loads of money from China and escalated our exports from that same company store, who embarrassed us in front of the entire world, but apparently gave great back rubs...who was so bad of a president that a Black man was voted in to lead this racist state! We now want to shift blame for our economic woes on the guy who had to come in to repair a corrupt and bankrupt system, forgiving the people who put us into this situation to begin with. Now we want to blame him for our situation!!!?
Our values are wonting and suspect. We are short term thinkers. Lazy mentally and corrupt morally and yes we cling to our guns and practice faithless religion while our children are flunking every test put in front of them, accept for knowing the names of every American Idol winner.
Egypt is important to us and we pay them as allies to protect Israel. And now the dictator of that AFRICAN country is in jeopardy of being ousted and the stability of the region is being threatened. Read Israel's stability.
We the people in order to form a perfect union should not throw stones.
The real question is...
How many Porta-Potties do they have?
BTW, I noticed how the Terrorist Network, Al Jazeera, is BS'ing the numbers way beyond everyone else.
Agenda much?
Al Jizz has no credibility, any idiot knows that.
Actually, unless you live in some kind of weird bubble and you're completely incapable of thinking for yourself, you should realize that Al Jazeera has more credibility than any mainstream news network in the US. They actually make an attempt to conduct themselves in a manner that resembles JOURNALISM.
But yeah, kind of makes sense that you're curious about the Porta Pottie numbers. You need somewhere to spew your "Terrorist" nonsense.
Western media only broadcasts the news their sponsors determine is fit to be consumed by the wider masses, and the wider masses consume it.
Or rather, any ignorant FOX viewer believes that.
When you're the news network all the dictators hate, you know you're doing something right. There's a reason Al-Jazeera has the highest credibility of any network in the region.
FYI, western media has been getting most of its news feed about what's going on in Egypt from al-Jazeera. They've been doing a phenomenal job in very difficult circumstances.
Louis Farrakan thinks there must be a lot and if you disagree he will sue you.
I have to admire a people that strongly unite for their best interests. Seeing the immensity of the crowd does make us say "WOW". And to think this is being done with basically no communications other than a common need to be free from autocracy. Here in the US we seem to vent our frustrations over the internet, facebook, tweets, etc. Have we become so lazy with regard to our best interests? This new Republican/Tea party group will test our mettle. How far will we go to protect our best interests?
I can't beleive you people are that stupid take a apple computer create a 3D photo (5 feet 9 inch 170 pounds) multiply that photo x 1 million and thats what a million people look like now take that same photo empty everything in tahrir square and multiply that photo x 1 million and thats what a million people look like in tahrir square now is that simple.....yes it is if you want to know the truth...try it
Egyptian Protests: Day Seven, and Growing
Thousands of protesters have taken to the streets of Cairo for a 7th straight day of anti-government demonstrations demanding that President Hosni Mubarak step down by Friday. Meanwhile, Egypt's military has pledged not to fire on protesters .
Wow! Terrorist Network? You must be a fox news watcher. Al Jazeera is about the only network showing real news. Notice the USA news groups are the only ones underestimating what is going on. Agenda much?
yes of course matt, only muslims and muslim media tell the truth the western infidels and their media are all liars ….all muslims are pure and all infidels are evil
All I am saying is that we need to stay informed. Look for the best info out there and don't just trust domestic news. We have an agenda just as much as any other country. This very thing can and probably will happen in America. The ideas they are protesting on are happening in the USA as well. We are not immune. We need to know that and be informed so we can change so it does not happen.
I like getting news from Al Jazeera but you have to understand you are getting their slant on things to. You are seeing only what they want you to see .
Since when is Al Jazeera Muslim media? sickandtired, you must be very sick and tired.
Oh I'm sorry it is over a million
yeah yeah rosieklpm we know we know…. we americans are fat, stupid and lazy...all people in all other countries in the world are 10 times better people then we moronic disgusting americans
Suddenly, instead of one Iran, we've got three.
with more on the way
Only Iran's citizens are less likely to fly a plane into the world trade center because their torture isn't promoted by the USA.
Between 100,000 and 2 million???? Thats like saying there are between 1 million - 1 zillion stars in the universe.
Well, I know it is OVER 9000!!!
Sorry...had to.
I was looking at some of the pitchers of the people protesting and it is wierd how many of the signs they are holding up are in english wonder if any one else has noticed it .
English is a common language in Egypt because of colonization. Also, when speaking to a world audience, English is a common world language.
"pitchers"? "wierd"? Looks like some of us need to go back and brush up on our *own* English! :-)
Who cares how many are marching? It won't do them any good anyway!
246 total
World Blog - How many people are in Tahrir Square? - It is imperative that this be non violent, and that the change is made so a vacumn is not created - or that will move backwards not forward
The Square holds 2million people total so this morning when it was peak time before curfew the entire square was full so that is the source for the 2million estimate reported on Al Jazeera. Massive crowds also in Alexandria. People are vowing to spend the night in the Tahrir Square. There apparently are food vendors there too now in the square.
hey, theres Waldo!!!
Watching how the Egyptian people are peacefully and respectfully demonstrating should be an example to our own citizens who are moved to protest. The Egyptian crowd policed itself with volunteers to be sure that no weapons were brought in by anyone trying to incite violence. It was announced that anyone trying to make trouble would be removed. This is what a grass roots movement should look like. Conversely, the elements of American society that glorify guns and incite violence in the name of a grass roots freedom movement should be ashamed of themselves when confronted with this beautiful example given to us by the Egyptian people.