Accuracy in Reporting

Here's a picture of some of the "more than 1,000 people" who showed up in Cedarburg to see McCain and Palin.

Technically, the Associated Press didn't lie when they said more than a thousand people attended. After all, 20,000 or 30,000 is more than a thousand. So, from a mathematical standpoint, they were quite correct.



The AP would be equally accurate in stating:

The typical 747 carries more than 18 passengers.

Light has to travel more than 5 million miles from the sun to reach the earth.

In these tough economic times, consumers are having to pay more than twenty cents a gallon for gas.

If elected, McCain would be President of a country of more than 15 million people.

Actor Brad Garrett is more than 4 inches tall.

From a mathematical standpoint they'd be perfectly correct.

Though from a journalistic standpoint some of us may be nit-pickers and complain about it.

ADDENDUM: Here is a picture of what the New York Times called "thousands". The Denver Post put the crowd at "more than ten thousand". The Colorado Independent put the crowd at between 10,000 and 15,000. A campaign worker said that 13,000 people were processed through security checkpoints for the event (scroll down).