10/30/10 Stewart/Cobert Washington, D. C. Rally thread

[Craig234]

Bolded below.

I didn't know what Stewart was referring to with the analyst comment. The only 'hired analyst' in the news I recall lately is Juan Williams.

 

[Throckmorton]

He was talking about the pundits

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

A young lady I work with went to this. I'll be interested on her take.

 

[her209]

asplain for those of us not in attendance?

Stewart started off showing clips of cars, superimposing fictious drivers with different views and beliefs. He then showed the cars all merging from multiple lanes into two lanes. He made the analogy that people did not enjoy the experience but they had to do it in order for them and everyone else to get through to the other side. Along the way, each car making concessions to let each other get in front, regardless of the other drivers beliefs or views or what's bumper stickers the other drivers have on their cars. But you'll always have the occasional inconsiderate prick that will just cheat, but those people are rare.

 

[Farang]

Obviously the performers had a hard time translating their TV talent to a live stage in front of tens of thousands of people. The musical performances were oddly chosen, and I was disappointed they wasted Jeffy Tweedy's appearance by drowning out his voice.

But even with its hiccups, I enjoyed what I saw of it and thought the speech at the end was a great way of tying it all together. Wish I could've been there.

 

[dawp]

reports are saying around 200k were there, not a bad turnout.

 

[manimal]

Barbara Bachman called me up and said there were 4 million people there-but they were all immigrants.....

 

[nyker96]

Is the restore sanity and/or fear gathering going to return balance to the universe? ... I wonder ...

 

[her209]

Stewart/Colbert rally broadcast draws 2 million to Comedy Central
http://content.usatoday.com/communi...broadcast-draws-2-million-to-comedy-central/1

The Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear drew tens of thousands to the National Mall in DC — and 2 million viewers to Comedy Central from noon to 3 p.m. ET, according to Nielsen figures.

There were 570,000 live video streams of the event served up on the web and mobile devices, the network says, as well as 120,000 Tweets, 50,000 Foursquare check-ins and 35,000 rally photos posted via Flickr. Oh, and the network says there was an audience of 250,000 at the event itself, although the National Park Service no longer offers official crowd counts. Washington Transit officials said Metro ridership broke a 19-year-old Saturday record.

 

[SP33Demon]

It was fun (aside from the metro ride over), wish they could do something like that every year.

 

[Vette73]

It was fun (aside from the metro ride over), wish they could do something like that every year.

Yea Metro is getting beat up now for not running more trains. Even with regular trains serice and many turning away the Metro still broke their record for riders for that day.

 

[RearAdmiral]

It was fun (aside from the metro ride over), wish they could do something like that every year.

Yea screw that metro ride.

 

[Udgnim]

good speech by Jon Stewart imo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXmbzLI3pnk&feature=player_embedded

pictures of size of rally

http://ddis.smugmug.com/Clients-zone/RallySanityandRallyHonor/13530515_gguiC#1071838386_RvAg9

 

[DisgruntledVirus]

As others have said, I wish this could be a semi-regular thing. Hell, I'd be fine with just every 2 years around election time.

Stewarts closing speech was very enjoyable and I hope that people actually take the time to listen to it.

 

[GTaudiophile]

I live about 12 blocks north of the Mall, so I went with my GF and a few other friends.

It took us while to get down to the Mall and find a good spot but we eventually found one.

I have attended two other big rallies: The Rally to “Restore America” in September 2009 and the “Glenn Beck” rally earlier this year. This “Comedy Central” Rally was by far the biggest of the three in terms of attendance.

While the participants were nice, happy, and civil, they were mostly white...with enough disposable income to travel to DC and have a fun weekend. I would put the average age of attendees between 30-35. Definitely younger than the average "Tea Party" rally but no more diverse.

In the end, I felt as if we all took part in a 3-hour-long, live version of the Daily Show. Nothing more, nothing less. Comedy Central certainly profited from it. The brief political message by Stewart consisted of accusing the big media outlets (CNN, Fox News, CBS, NBC, ABC, etc.) of fanning the flames of political division and discord. Then again, I personally find quite a bit of hypocrisy in such a message as Stewart and Colbert profit each and every day from similar antics by different means and could just as well be associated with the likes of Rush Limbaugh or Glenn Beck as anybody else in the media industry.

I also have a problem with people who can travel great distances to such an event, get sucked in, and have so much of their focus on center stage that they fail to notice the big white elephant in the room, otherwise known as the US Capitol Building, looming in the distance. Here is a building that represents all of the fraud, waste, and abuse that occurs in this country and yet for three hours it goes virtually unnoticed. Almost like a diversion of sorts.

And while a lot of the “political” posters were quite humorous, quite a few of them had statements like, “Cancel all Student Loan Debt = Improve the Economy” while others asked for, “free” this and “free” that; all the while I am asking myself, how do they think we’ll pay for all this free stuff? I guess it makes sense that MoveOn.org decided to park recruitment vans at the event; they knew a receptive audience would be there.

In summary: the weather was perfect, we had a few laughs, and we enjoyed the entertainment. But reshaping political landscape this rally did not.