The New York Times said that there were thousands of protesters in Washington DC on Saturday. There were at least 100,000. Does "thousands" accurately describe over 100,000?

This is simply false:

"Fewer people attended than organizers had said they hoped for, even though after days of cold, wet weather, the sun came out this morning. Participants said the shootings in and around the city in the last three weeks had kept people from planning to visit Washington."

That is, the part about people being scared to come and the turnout being less than expected is false. The part about the sun coming out is true. It was a gorgeous day.

Everyone that I talked to and heard talking was absolutely amazed and delighted at the turnout. And not only was there a huge presence in Washington, but 100,000 in San Francisco, 4,000 in Chicago, 2-3,000 in the pouring rain in Augusta Maine, 2500 in Taos, NM, 2,000 in Kingston, NY, 3-5,000 in Seattle, and 10,000 in St.Paul. The turnout there was particularly large there as a reaction to the death of Senator Paul Wellstone. There were protests in many other cities in the United States and throughout the world. Seeing such a dismissive article in the New York Times on page 7 really made an impression on me about the power of the media. We are given the message that war is inevitable and that Americans support it, when the fact is that there is a huge anti-war movement already. The Times article said Americans were scared. It's not true. As a sign at the protest said, Bushit.

Some other signs I got a kick out of:
God Bless Hysteria
(on a stroller) Hannah says NoNoNo to Bush's War
(worn by a girl) Smart Students, not Smart Bombs

There were so many more, I can't remember them. I heard about Wellstone's death on WBAI on the way down to Long Island. I can't help thinking it is mighty suspicious and I cried in the car stuck in traffic on the Major Deegan Expressway.

We caught the bus in Plainview in the rain at 5:30 in the morning. Aidan was amazing and thought that the bus ride was terrific. We were so grateful for the beautiful weather and amazed at how many people were going from Long Island. There were four busses that left from different parts of the island and there were two families on our bus from the neighborhood in Freeport where I lived through high school. The bus let us off right at the rally and Aidan immediately said he wanted to go home, despite hapily chattering on the bus that he was going to a march for peace. We resolved this by sort of kid hopping - just continually finding a kid that Aidan could play with. The problem was that the rally went on for three hours, by the time the march happened, we were exhausted. I now have a protocol for bringing small children to a protest: go with other kids, bring a stroller, and do something particapatory with them. I am really happy though that we made it through the day so smoothly. Aidan slept the entire ride home.

Oh, and one last thing, I felt incredibly safe. There was almost NO police presence. I honestly didn't see a uniformed officer the entire time. It was actually strange, but it made me very glad.

Update:
FAIR (Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting) has an action alert on their website regarding this and asks people to e-mail or call the New York Times and NPR.