Sen. John McCain was in New Hampshire for a rally this morning - but this is not about McCain, or really even about the upcoming election.

However, it is about politics and real or perceived bias.

Staff photo by Bob Hammerstrom

Here is the story from the Telegraph’s political reporter, Kevin Landrigan:
McCain predicts NH victory
MANCHESTER – A defiant, Republican presidential nominee John McCain said today he’s confident he’ll confound the pollsters and pundits and win New Hampshire’s four electoral votes. McCain gave a localized version of his stump speech at the St. Anselm College ice arena that had more than 1,000 people in attendance, but was half full.

Not much controversial there - except for that very last line “more than 1,000 people…half full (arena).” Well not controversial - except to at least one commenter on the above story:

From Uncle Sam: Absolutely not true. I was there, the arena was FULL. Aside from the media stand set up 2/3 of the way on the floor, the bleacher areas (that were not obstructed) and the floor surface was packed.

Now - that is the same complaint newspapers get every day. “You over-reported the number, you under-reported the number, you didn’t report the number, you can’t count!”

Since Kevin filed shortly after the event, and the comment followed quickly, I decided to see what other media outlets had to say. I assumed they would all be pretty close - but I was surprised:

Boston Herald
McCain told the roughly 3,000 supporters in an early morning rally at St. Anselm College that he’s always had a soft spot for the Granite State.

MSNBC
“Does anyone seriously believe that these trillions of dollars are going to come from only the very highest income earners?” McCain asked the crowd of over 2,000 gathered at St. Anselm College.

Wall Street Journal
McCain pleaded with the crowd—even though there were only about 2,000 of them there listening.

LA Times
Speaking to a cheering crowd that filled half a hockey rink at St. Anselm College,

Fox News
McCain told about 1,000 supporters at a hockey arena on the campus of St. Anselm’s College.

Union Leader
John McCain returned to familiar territory today, urging a crowd of more than 1,000 at Saint Anselm

You can do your own political math there, aligning those outlets on your own personal political spectrum, but I don’t see any correlation between political positioning and crowd size report. In fact, I see almost the opposite.

Full disclosure - I did not ask Kevin where he got his number, and I did not check closely to see which of the other reporters were actually in attendance. But I will hazard a guess that the Telegraph’s “more than 1,000″ looks like a safe estimate based on the grading curve involved.

If I can draw a completely unsubstantiated conclusion it is that most of what gets highlighted as “media bias” is nothing more than human beings doing their job the best they can. OK - I have NO idea how the Boston Herald can count to 3,000 when the Union Leader saw 1,000 - but I doubt it was due to politics.

P.S. - Sullivan Arena which hosted the event has a capacity of 2,700 for non-hockey events. So, half-full would be about 1,300 people.

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More references as I find them:

Slate.com: McCain in the Mountains
The crowd of a few thousand filled only about half the arena, some standing on the part of the rink that had been covered.

Concord Monitor: Body paint and pompoms
I know I can count on you again,” McCain told the crowd of more than 1,000 at St. Anselm’s Ice Arena.

From Barbara LeBlanc the Director of News and Information at Saint Anselm College
For what it’s worth, the manager of Sullivan Arena estimates that the McCain rally drew a crowd of just over 2,000.

Tags: crowd, Landrigan, McCain, politics