Monday, August 30, 2010

Pants on Fire.

Roger Clemens pleaded not guilty to federal charges that he lied to Congress about using steroids. Can a guy be convicted of lying about not lying? Isn't that some kind of double-jeopardy or double-indemnity - or double-something? I wonder if his accuser, Brian McNamee would go to court and admit that he lied about Clemens' using steroids? Probably not. One of them is lying. Which do you believe? The guy who doesn't have a potential Hall of Fame election looming and a national presence or the guy who, two years ago, we didn't know from Adam?
Three guesses.
Meanwhile, another big-time media figure was in deep denial. Pictured above is the crowd at the Glenn Beck "Restoring Honor" rally last week. Never one to allow facts to stand in the way of a good story, Beck said that "the media" was reporting the crowd as being between 300,000 and 500,000." As a frame of reference, your standard professional football or big college stadium holds 100,000. That means that Beck thought there were 5 times that many people at the rally. Next time, maybe he should hold a rally at a stadium so that, as they say, tickets are available.
How ironic is it that at a rally called "Restoring Honor," the host would lie about the attendance? Pretty ironic. Seriously, does it look like there are a half million people in that photo? The National Mall is a popular place during the summer. Chances are, many of those people were tourists, wondering, "Who the f**k is up on the Memorial steps screaming?"
CBS News hired AirPhotosLive, a company who uses aerial photography to estimate crowds. They say they do it with an accuracy of plus or minus 9,000. They estimated the crowd at 87,000; which is significantly less than a half-million, plus of minus 9,000.
Whom do we think is lying here? An independent contractor using a photograph and technology or a conservative talk show host who might be looking to enhance his popularity by inflating crowd figures at a rally that may not have been as popular as once thought?
Fellow liar and Republican United States Representative Michele Bachmann told supporters at the rally that "we're not going to let anyone get away with saying that there were less than a million here today - because we were witnesses." Can she be indicted like Clemens, or does being a member of Congress grant one immunity to lying? Probably.
Separately, when asked, Beck said that "my penis is three feet long."

1 comment:

Handsome B. Wonderful said...

The Beck rally had nothing to do with restoring America's honor and had everything to do with promoting Beck's career as a political commentator/religious cult leader.

He claims "the spirit" talks to him--that's all I need to know. I hear spirits talking to me too but that's because I have a form of schizophrenia. Glenn, you're supposed to take medications for that--not listen to them!!