Thursday, January 22, 2009

I Wonder What This Means?

According to Nielsen, Ronald Reagan's inauguration in 1981 drew three million more viewers than President Barry's inauguration on Tuesday.

That's three million more viewers with a much smaller population (1980 population: 226.5 million, versus 2008 population: approx. 305.6 million).

I'm not sure what this means, but it certainly belies some of the fantasies of the far Left.

1 comment:

Kurt said...

So, that would be 3 million more viewers on TELEVISION, James. Seems your math, not unlike the politics of so many on the far Right, perhaps has too narrow a focus sir! You really should consider that in 2008, many more people watch things on their computer (or telephone) streamed from the Internet than folks did in 1981. TV ratings do not take into account the millions that watched on Web sites. Akamai Technologies Inc., which delivers Internet video for many Web sites, said the inauguration was a record for them, with 7.7 million people watching video streams at the same time. Keynote Systems Inc., which tracks Web site performance, said the Internet's top 40 sites slowed down by as much as 60 percent when the ceremony started at 11 a.m., and many news sites saw even sharper declines in performance. As of 3:30 p.m. EST Tuesday, CNN.com said it served more than 21.3 million live streams globally since 6 a.m. Foxnews.com also had a bumper day as it delivered about 5m streams by 5pm, a record for a single day.

Plus I bet that (though I don't have the hard accurate numbers to back this up) that there were 1 million more people actually phisically present in Washington DC at Obama's as compared to Ronny's.

Oh, and did I mention the gatherings all across the US to watch it live on other than household television. From Times Square in New York to the Helzberg Auditorium of the Central Library in Kansas City to the South Bay Community Church in Fremont CA.

I'm quite sure of what this means, and it certainly belies the fantasies of the far Right!

Kurt