This crazy statistic comes from the Wall Street Journal's Amy Chozick and Cecile Rohwedder, who discovered, as proof of the media madness that will be Prince William and Kate Middleton's wedding, "CNN alone will have a team of roughly 400 reporters, cameramen and crew assigned to the wedding." To compare: A group of just 50 CNN employees, one-eighth the size of the anticipated wedding fleet, are currently on the ground in Japan covering the aftermath of the earthquake and the continuing nuclear containment problem.  

CNN isn't the only network with such disproportionately big plans for the royal wedding. On the day of the earthquake, Technolayer reported that NBC News sent four anchors and correspondents to join the staff at its Tokyo Bureau. The same day, the Associated Press wrote that NBC was planning to send "an army of people--in the hundreds" to cover William and Kate's nuptuals. ABC's senior vice president wouldn't confirm to the AP how much manpower it would have in London on the wedding day, but did say "it's a major event that takes resources and people." ABC sent three anchors and corespondents to Japan the day of the earthquake.

Update: According to The Cutline, CNN claims the Wall Street Journal's report was in error and says that only 50 "reporters, cameramen and crew" will be assigned to the royal wedding. The Wall Street Journal has not altered their story as of 3:30pm. We are contacting CNN for clarification.

Further update: The reason The Wall Street Journal hasn't issued a correction is because they don't see reason to. A spokesperson emails: "We stand by the story."

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Caitlin Dickson