Restoring Sanity to Domestic Political Economy

For anyone wondering what exactly Jon Stewart’s “Rally to Restore Sanity” is going to be about and why I’m going (and you should too), “The Daily Show” anchor cleared up at least what it is not going to be about, according to Bill Carter’s Media Decoder blog.

“It is in fact not a political rally,” Stewart said on ‘Larry King Live’ last week; adding that he  presumes that 75-85% of Americans are ‘reasonable, rational people. They get along; they may not agree on things but they can do things. And the other 15% or so control it. The dialogue, the legislation, the media spin and the Tea Party fanatics who engage in rage and divisive partisan sniping. This rally is for the people that are too busy, that have jobs and lives, and are tired of the contrived reflections in the media as the nation being a divided country and a country that’s ideological and conflicted and fighting. This is for those people. Those people are going to come to Washington, D.C., on Saturday, Oct. 30^th to say, essentially: Stop the madness! Let’s restore sanity to the national political dialogue.’

What the ‘Rally to Restore Sanity’ is, however, is a promised mix of comedy, music and politics. Afterall,  how else can you turn out hundreds of thousands of engaged people to the National Mall..??  With a how to prevent foreclosure seminar..??  What’s exciting is that there will be a mass political gathering that’s promoting something besides angry extremism.  Take that, Glenn Beck! Even a hyperventilating Tea Party fanatic could learn a lesson here. What I call the ‘Lunatic Fringe,’ Wingnuts and  conservative activists have done a fine job lately of cornering the market on gratuitous criticism, and the presidential-resentment market. They’ve accused President Obama of everything from, in no particular order: a foreigner, a socialist, the Anti-Christ, a fascist, an extraterrestrial and a self-appointed messiah with a broad delusional streak. And just to be clear in our era of politically-correct public discourse, none of this is, of course, because he is Black…

During the interview Stewart also repeated many of his criticisms about the mainstream media  news channels. Speaking specifically about CNN, Stewart said, “You are terrible.” He criticized CNN for having the infrastructure to be able to cover events seriously and comprehensively but failing to do so to instead generate controversy and “spin” in order to drive viewership and ad revenues. “It is an opportunity squandered,” he said, noting that media operations like CNN, CNBC and others undermines its credibility with viewers instead of living up to the serious role  the MSM should play as the ‘Fourth Estate’ in American politics.

As for Fox News, Stewart noted the network for being tenacious, but he said they have an overt point of view that is “wrongheaded for a news organization.” He said, “I think they’ve built an incredible political organization, a really effective political organization” that gets out their political ideology, but not serious, factual news.

As for the Fox motto of being ‘fair and balanced,’ Stewart said, “That’s a complete lie.”  Couldn’t have said it better myself!

Sources: NYTs, The Daily Show