Wash Post Falsely Claims Only ‘Few Dozen’ People Show Up In Defense Of Traditional Marriage

March 27th, 2013 5:26 PM

One of the more interesting things regarding the coverage of the Supreme Court hearing two cases regarding gay marriage has been the lack of reporting on the thousands of individuals who marched on Tuesday in support of traditional marriage.

If you only got your news from the Washington Post, you'd have no clue that the march happened at all, as in two separate pieces both authors ignore the significance of the march, which attracted thousands of traditional marriage supporters.

First there’s liberal Post columnist Dana Milbank, who in his March 27 piece claimed that:

You needed only to stand in the plaza in front of the court and gaze upon the sea of rainbow flags and the signs demanding marriage equality.  A thousand or more demonstrators were in this festival, chanting and cheering the gay-rights speakers-crowding out the few dozen opponents of gay marriage who stood, sullen and surrounded, on the other side of First Street NE.

Accompanying Milbank’s bleak description of a “few dozen” opponents of gay marriage was an article by reporter Carol Morello who had similar sentiments.  In her article, Morello claimed that:

Judging by the signs they carried, the crowd was overwhelmingly composed of people and groups that support marriage equality.  Some had conversations, mostly civil, with people supporting the traditional definition of marriage.

The Post’s coverage of the bleak attendance by traditional marriage supporters is in stark contrast from how the liberal website Think Progress reported the attendees.  According to the National Organization for Marriage’s Thomas Peters, there were an estimated 15,000 individuals in attendance.  In contrast, the liberal Washington Blade and RightWingWatch said there were only “several thousand” in attendance.

The Blade’s estimate of only 2,000 is still significantly higher than Milbank’s ridiculous claim that only a “few dozen” opponents of same-sex marriage attended.  What’s more ridiculous than Milbank’s claim of a few dozen people is his claim that they, “stood, sullen and surrounded, on the other side of First Street NE.

One wonders whether or not the Post would call the few dozen pro-abortion activists out in front of the Supreme Court as “sullen and surrounded” during the March for Life event, where tens of thousands of pro-life activists take to the streets of Washington D.C. I wouldn't bet on it.