Evidently being called out on Twitter for using a photoshopped picture of a packed Halifax Mall didn’t register with Mark Jewell or NCAE.
In an email distributed this morning, NCAE sent out the same picture with a subtitle, “And we are already winning.”
Since NCAE has had a problem with bending the facts to fit their needs, they took to making their own reality.
What do I mean?
Compare the picture above with the picture below. The one below is the original image. The one on top is the one that was doctored. It is the image that Jewell tweeted and the one sent out in the NCAE morning email.
So, did yesterday’s rally fill Halifax Mall? More than a few people would like to see the pictures. Anyone who attended yesterday’s rally knows that wasn’t the case. Most of those I talked with at the event felt the crowds were down from the previous year.
Conveniently for NCAE the Downtown Raleigh Alliance was not furnishing crowd estimates this year.
When asked yesterday about the crowd size , NCAE President Mark Jewell said he thought the turnout was larger than last year. Really? NCAE said they wouldn’t have totals for several days.
Remember NCAE has also repeatedly claimed last year’s rally on May 16th attracted 30,000 educators to Raleigh. Never mind the fact that most newspapers put crowd estimates at 19,000 or 20,000. I have yet to see one over 20,0000.
The facts don’t deter NCAE. Photoshopped pictures is one way to get around some inconvenient truths — even if it magnifies NCAE’s longstanding credibility problems (see here, here and here).
But NCAE needn’t worry, they are “already winning.”
