Scientific estimate: ‘Sanity’ rally more than twice the size of Beck’s August tea party

Saturday's massive gathering in Washington, DC, put on by Comedy Central hosts Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, was by all accounts a rousing success.

But it's difficult to gauge how many people attended and event like "The Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear." Even The Wall Street Journal hesitated in placing the number, but they noted that about 229,000 Facebook users sent RSVPs for the event.

Turns out that number is pretty close to accurate, according to an estimate commissioned by CBS News which cites AirPhotosLive.com for the data. CBS paid the same company to apply the same counting methodology to Glenn Beck's rally in August, placing attendance at 87,000.

For Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, both whom thrive on satirizing the more absurd elements of cable news media and especially the controversial and dramatic Fox News opinion host, their rally was more than twice as large, at an estimated 215,000.

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