Cable TV’s 24-hour news is the target of ire as disenchanted youths turn out for satirical rally in their droves
JON STEWART and Stephen Colbert, the founding fathers of fake news, drew throngs of exuberant supporters to Washington on Saturday for a joint rally that crowded streets, taxed the transit system and flooded the Mall.
With midterm elections looming and Democrats bracing for a historic thumping, the two comedians reined in their three-hour show to non-partisan bits, musical entertainment and gentle ribbing of the purported enemies of incivility. The denizens of the Capitol, visible behind the stage, escaped their usual excoriation.
However at the conclusion, Stewart changed his tone and his outfit. Having swapped a black T-shirt and blazer for a suit and tie, the comedian argued that the rally’s target was the caustic level of discourse in Washington and its nasty echoes on cable television’s 24-hour news cycle.
Stewart said that noisy debate obscured a reality that he had perceived – that everyone throughout the country had found a way to work together.
“The only place we don’t is here or on cable TV,” said Stewart, putting much of the blame on Washington. In earnest terms bordering on political rhetoric, he orated: “If we amplify everything, we hear nothing.”
Stewart and Colbert built their stage on the opposite end of the Mall from the Lincoln Memorial steps, where conservative commentator Glenn Beck led a similarly vast and homogenous crowd two months ago. That rally, with its religious theme of “Restoring Honour”, had conservative political undertones and prompted Saturday’s satirical response.
“This is my comedy channel,” read a sign emblazoned with the Fox News logo. The other side of the sign, illustrated with a Comedy Central logo, read: “This is my news channel.”
Democratic and Republican leaders argued that the comedic rally either boosted reserves of Democratic enthusiasm or exhausted them by drawing potential door-knockers away from battleground states.
Young voters have increasingly turned to Comedy Central's The Daily Showand Colbert Reportfor political news. In the days before the rally, though, observers of the political-media complex sought the larger goal of this unusual gathering: would visiting progressives of all ages actually take political marching orders from comedians?
The question turned out to be moot. In their closing remarks, neither Colbert nor Stewart was explicit in his demands.
“Your presence is what I wanted,” Stewart stated simply.
The rally began as a variety show of shtick and song. The two anchors arrived on stage on Saturday afternoon to present bits that pitted Stewart’s wry rationalism against Colbert’s warped right-wing bravado.
Stewart took the stage first and immediately needled the media metrics of the rally’s success, saying it would be judged by its “size and colour”.
In a reference to some exaggerated estimates of attendance at Beck’s rally, he said: “I can see we have over 10 million people.”
As for crowd diversity – the lack of which was the source of much criticism of Beck's event – Stewart joked it was absurd to read any motives of racism in a crowd's demographics. Despite Daily Showcorrespondents dispatched in the crowd to cheekily interview an ethnically diverse sample, the crowd appeared overwhelmingly white. Colbert appeared in a red, white and blue jumpsuit in the style of Evel Knievel, bellowing that he expected the gathered "minions" to do his "bidding". On stage, the TV personalities welcomed cross-genre musical acts that sang in harmony – Kid Rock with Sheryl Crow, Jeff Tweedy and Mavis Staples – or in mock discord, as when Yusuf Islam (formerly known as Cat Stevens) had an interruptive session with metalhead Ozzy Osbourne. Stewart bestowed "medals of reasonableness".
“I find it incredibly ironic,” said Jim Neimeier, who drove to Washington from Wisconsin, “that I had to come to a rally sponsored by a comedian to get at the truth.”
“This is the most American thing I’ve ever done!” a young man screamed into a megaphone, handed out by Comedy Central.
At a news conference after the rally, reporters asked Stewart what message he had sent to his constituency. “We don’t have a constituency,” he retorted. – (Washington Post)