I skimmed the article and soon began to feel manipulated. I feel the entire plan was to make the people of Washington look like philistines in order to get free publicity for Joshua Bell.

What sensible person would busk at 8 am on a January day in the Northern hemisphere? Who would choose an audience of people hurrying to work?

Zhenya was right when she said it should have been tried on a Sunday afternoon.

What kind of musician pre-arranges with a reporter to write up his discouraging performance?

In my opinion, it's 90% media hooey, and it was way too long.