How many candlelight vigils?

August 19th, 2005 1:36 PM
Candlelight vigils showing support for antiwar protester Cindy Sheehan were held on Wednesday evening. On his Thursday night Countdown program, MSNBC's Keith Olbermann reported: "Americans in all corners of the country gathering by candlelight, a massive show of support for the Gold Star mothers‘ cause, Orange County, California, South Carolina, Las Vegas, and more, not exactly hotbeds of political activism, many of them, the suburbs and exurbs, deemed crucial to President Bush‘s reelection, 1,600 candlelight vigils estimated by the Associated Press. . ."
But the Associated Press didn't estimate that number. What it did do, in an article by Todd Richmond, is report that liberal organizations Move On, True Majority and Democracy for America claimed that they had organized about 1,600 similar vigils.
That's not the same thing and he mainstream media knows it. But why bog down a good antiwar story with facts?