The Wisconsin protests

Yesterday, there were more pro-union protests in madison Wisconsin as well as counter protests in support of the plan of the governor to make public employees pay some of the costs of their health care and pensions. I have now scanned a great many articles about the "dueling" protests and have noticed one curious fact: none of the main stream media has reported on how big the two protests were. Even CBS radio reported that there were 70,000 people in the crowd, but it did not try to break down the numbers into the two camps. Since the two rallies were on opposite sides of the Capitol building, onc would normally assume that the media would be able to provide an estimate. To me, that means only one thing: the rally in support of the bill must have been bigger than expected by the liberal media. Such a crowd would not fit with the current media paradigm that what is at stake is an evil attack on the basic human rights of the unions. Somehow, the media has bought into the hype from the unions that by making them more like private sector workers who pay part of the health and pension benefits, it is the end of democracy and the beginning of fascism. Indeed, even the so-called attack on the union's right to collective bargaining only pertains to benefits. The governor wants to make sure that in the future no union of public employees can take advantage of a weak local government to force benefits back to the unsupportable levels that they are at currently. Such benefit changes would require the consent of the people of the state acting through the legislature.