Media fudging the numbers of French pro-trad family rallies

James Noel Ward, "Undercounting the Opposition: The Untold Story" (Taki's Magazine, June 4, 2013):

I estimate that a crowd of 1,400,000 gathered in Paris on May 26 for a rally in favor of traditional families and against France’s newly enacted legal extension of civil marriage to same-sex couples. The number attending the rally has been a controversial sticking point in both the French and English mainstream media.

One “official” police estimate put the crowd at 125,000, and some organizers pegged it at 400,000.

In the English-language news outlets we had estimates from FRANCE 24 of “Tens of thousands,” but oddly the same source later estimated 340,000. New York magazine put in an understated 150,000 and UPI played it safe by attributing to sources estimates of “150,000 to 1 million people….” Reuters left it at “Several hundred thousand.” The New York Times merely quoted the police estimate of 150,000.

French sources are cattier on the numbers, with Le Point putting the estimate at 100,000 but covering their nether-brains by referring to everyone’s low estimations (the police, opposition spokesheads, etc.) and then making the 1.4-million figure appear ridiculous in contrast....