Glenn Beck 8/28 Rally - Restoring Honor Rally

The Glenn Beck - 8/28 Rally - Restoring Honor Rally was billed and promoted as a non-political event to address Mr. Beck's premise that many of our country's problems stem directly from our diversion from the principles of faith in God, and personal honor, the twin principles that Glen Beck believes were the guiding beliefs of our founding fathers, and the foundation for the structure of our nation.

He believes that the United States is on the road to decline and that many of our most important political problems stem from the lack of these principles in our elected representatives, and that if we. as Americans, would once more embrace faith and honor in our personal lives first, then we, as citizens, would also demand those principles of our elected representatives and leaders.

Glenn Beck explains his reasoning in the video below.

Glenn Beck's 8/28 - Restoring Honor Rally was held on the National Mall, in front of the Lincoln Memorial, (and around the Reflecting Pool), in Washington D.C., on Saturday, August 28th, 2010 - from 10am to 1pm.

Together with the purpose of bringing Americans together to speak of the Judeo-Christian beliefs of our Founding Fathers, and their importance in the health and might of our nation, another purpose of the rally was to raise funds for the Special Operations Warrior Foundation, which supports the families and children of the fallen Special Forces warriors of our Armed Services. You can see more details at the Special Operations Warrior Foundation website.

Although the Restoring Honor Rally would very definitely have political ramifications, Glenn Beck repeatedly stated that it would be staged as a non-political event. There would be no political message signs, no sloganeering, and most importantly, no political speeches or jabs at politicians of any party.

Mr. Beck was true to his word. The entire rally was about returning to the faith of our forefathers, and the need to live and demonstrate personal honor - traits that formed the foundation for our Constitution and the birth of our nation.

The event agenda focused on Mr. Beck's main points, supported with video compilations and appearances from spiritual leaders, servicemen, and multiple ethnic group representatives.

The video below is a long one - over 12 minutes - but it does show the event's non-political visual staging, a sampling of the types of agenda speakers, and a demographic over-view of the rally attendees.

• Opening - Boy Scout led U.S. Pledge of Allegiance
• Opening statement - Glenn Beck
• Opening Prayer - Pastor Paul Jehle
• John Carney - Pres. Special Operations Warrior Foundation
• Debbie Argil-Bastian - Fallen serviceman's mother
• Sarah Palin - speech
  
• Dr. Chief Nigel Bigpond - medal presenter
• Pastor C.L. Jackson - medal winner
  
• Tony Larussa - medal presenter
• Albert Poujous - medal winner
• Justice Raol Gonzalas - medal presenter
• Emma Houston - medal winner proxy
• Alveda King - speech
• Singer Angelica Tucker - song
• Pastor Rick Alfonse (? audio pronunciation unclear) - Bible reading
• Singer Bernessa Michell - song
• Un-introduced speaker - scripture reading
• Dave Reever - servicman - closing prayer
  

Glenn Beck ended the rally's agenda with closing remarks, but that wasn't the end of the day, song and musical entertainment from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial continued to entertain the attendees long after the rally program finished.

The Restoring Honor 8/28 Rally attendance almost certainly surpassed even Glenn Beck's most optimistic expectations. Most commentators are using 300,000, (a more realistic conservative number), as a safe estimate, but there is quite a bit of controversy around the attendance numbers the "Mainstream Network" news outlets reported. ( as low as "tens of thousands")

The National Park Service estimates that the grounds of the National Mall, around the Reflecting Pool and up to the steps of the Lincoln Memorial have a capacity of approximately 200,000 people.

They also estimate that the adjacent National Mall "field" area has a capacity of 250,000 to 300,000 people.

The photos on the right show both of these areas are filled, with still more attendees over-flowing onto the grounds of the Washington Monument.

Here is another source that discusses Restoring Honor Rally Media Bias with regards to major Network news crowd estimates in the "tens of thousands."

The media coverage of the 8/28 Restoring Honor Rally could be described as "the usual." No major media outlet, (except C-Span), covered the rally live. Not even Fox news. Although all the major outlets did have reporters there.

*Glenn Beck's rally organizers did have multiple cameras recording the event for later video productions that can be seen all over the Net.

The news media estimates of rally attendance are a fair indication of their perspectives in their reporting.

• CBS News estimated 87,000
• NBC News said "tens, perhaps, hundreds of thousands"
• ABC News - "more than a hundred thousand"
• NPR News - "tens of thousands"

On the high end:

• A National Park Service representative compared Beck's crowd to that of Pres. Obama's inauguration, which was touted as 1.8 million
• Minn. Rep. Michelle Bachmann estimated one million.

Even using the conservative number of 300,000, that's a long way from the major news media coverage that called it "tens of thousands".

Print media coverage:

• The Washington Post - page 1 story, but the review was dismissive.
• The New York Times - Page 15! and included a very negative political cartoon of a "scheming Glen Beck", in conjunction with the story.

The Real Story of the Restoring Honor Rally is undeniably political, but in a grassroots way that is so indisputable that it did not have to be evoked! The rally itself did remain non-political through-out, and many participants and news commentators used descriptive phrases like: "it was almost like a church social or picnic" to describe the event atmosphere.

Another quip used to describe the event and its attendees was a description of the Mall area after everyone left. It was noted that unlike other events held there that left mounds of trash, when the Restoring Honor rally crowd left, "you had to hunt around for a piece of trash, they took their trash with them."

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