Editor: There simply were not "thousands," or "five thousand" people at Francis Field for the Tea Party rally on Saturday, as reported in The Record. I was there throughout the day, and I have pictures of the field from the top of the parking garage at the rally's peak between the keynote speakers Marco Rubio and Rick Scott (I would be happy to share these photos with anyone who is interested). There were, liberally, 800 or 900 people there, which might be a respectable showing, if it were not for the exaggerations of The Record and the Tea Party organizers.

Why the Record continues to echo these exaggerations is a puzzle. And why these numbers are exaggerated to begin with is an even deeper mystery, given the Tea Party's professed trust in the market place. Why not trust in the market place of ideas, and simply see who buys them, rather than inflate their value and tax our credulity?