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Horrific Reporting from the Enquirer

October 19, 2006 08:11 PM

NBS just got back from the Blackwell/Cunningham/Hannity rally in Blue Ash, where we happily observed the Enquirer's Howard Wilkinson standing in the back, taking sporadic notes, and looking unkempt and disheveled.

The next time we see him at a political event, we are going to help him with his crowd count.  We are also going to help him make sure he waits until an event actually starts, before he reports on the as-yet-unhappened news.  Howard reports over at Politics Extra that there were about 100 Blackwell supporters, and 30-40 protesters.  Something is wrong with Howard's thick, thick glasses.

There were far more than 100 Blackwell supporters.  In fact, it was almost impossible to find a place to park.  On the stage alone, there at least 30 Blackwell supporters--enough for them to spell out B-L-A-C-K-W-E-L-L in t-shirts in the front row, and there were about 4 rows of people.  That was all on stage left.  It's not counting stage right, where the dignitaries were sitting.  Or the crowd, where there were about 200-250 people.  As for the protesters, there were 2 or 3 on one side in the rear (including Ray, the protester who goes to everything).  There were 20 more at the opposite side.

We recognize that it is hard to guess how many people are in a crowd.  But getting it wrong by more than half is inexcusable.  The general consensus from the politicos talking amongst themselves (and not trying to spin gullible members of the press) was that turn-out was excellent, given the nasty weather. 

UPDATE: Viking Spirit was there too.  He also reports that Howard Wilkinson's reporting is wrong.

UPDATE No. 2: Bizzyblog summarizes what we and Viking Spirit have been saying--and has some history about Howard Wilkinson's past problems when it comes to math and counting.

UPDATE No. 3: Howard Wilkinson (and Jon Craig, who NBS knows, and who wasn't actually there) are now reporting in the online edition of the Enquirer that there were "about 200" Blackwell supporters at "a rain soaked rally" (closer to true).  They also say that there were about 50 protesters there (definitely not true).  The Enquirer's Politics Extra site still runs with Wilkinson's first report, that there were 100 Blackwell supporters, and 30-40 protesters.  So... according to the Enquirer's online edition, the pro-Blackwell count has now doubled, and the protester count is up by 25%.  Stay tuned.  The numbers in the print edition may be different still!

UPDATE No. 4: Carl Weiser, guru of the Enquirer Politics blog, picks today of all days to try to explain whether the journalist standards are lower on their blog than in the paper.  You know.  On the day when the paper is running with different facts than what is being reported in their blog.  He says,

For the blog entries written by the reporters, the standards are essentially the same - we try to get both sides, we don't opine, we don't use anonymous sources. I try to make sure everything is spelled right, that titles are correct, that everything - everything - is accurate.

This all reminds us of the kertuffle from a few months ago, when NBS (and others) prompted the Enquirer to clarify how they report on polling results.  As we pointed out then,  "[i]t's like they are saying that the information on "Politics Extra" is more dubious than what they put in the print edition."  Apparently Carl's theory is that "Politics Extra" readers eagerly consume more information, and are smart enough to see through any b.s.  Which is true.  But it is also pretty patronizing, because it suggests the print edition readers can't handle too much information, and need to be shielded from anything that might be confusing.

UPDATE No. 5.  Whiskey Tango Foxtrot was there, and estimates that there were "probably more than 300 people." WTF is much less nasty and brutish to Howard Wilkinson than we have been.  

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