the 40 000 protesters myth I understand that some members have a politically motivated desire to make the 2010 election look as sinister and anti democratic as possible but you have to get the facts straight about these four sources on 40 000 protesters 1 This one shouldn t be considered altogether It is a UNHCR page quoting instead of a reliable news source a Washington based foundation whose purpose is to inform and educate policy makers and the broader policy community about events and trends in those societies which are strategically or tactically important to the United States and which frequently restrict access to such information It is a politically biased organization not an independent news source So out with it 2 These two are respectively the Voice of America and MSNBC not MSNBC really but a direct quote from Bloomberg here So in reality it is VoA and Bloomberg Well let me inform you that we are talking about the same guy his name is James Brooke as anyone can plainly see since 2006 he has been stationed in Moscow to report for Bloomberg and as of last summer for the VoA as well Leaving aside the fact that the VoA is more of a propaganda tool fully owned by US government rather than an independent news source let s see how Mr Brooke came about this magic number 40 000 Apparently he was there but did he count the demonstrators himself No he quotes Associated Press Within an hour the Associated Press was estimating the turnout at 40 000 Well it wasn t Anyone can see the number of AP and that number is 10 000 A little white lie Mr Brooke Or maybe I m too harsh maybe AP did broadcast that number intially but then seeing how preposterous it was quickly brought it down to what all the other major media guys were reporting In any event this 40 000 people thing doesn t hold water 3 Basically the same goes for CBC as well As I already said in one of the comments not only CBC didn t have its own staff in Minsk that night I checked this myself here in Toronto with CBC Headquarters anyone can see how heavily in that article it relied on other media Reuters reported The Associated Press reported As we know already from these quotes both Reuters and Associated Press mentioned 10 000 protesters each Given all the above I m removing the 40 000 people part from the article