Jon Stewart rally to raise money for Mall maintenance

[This post has been updated.]



Jon Stewart unveiled more plans for his upcoming rally on the Mall in Washington, scheduled for Oct. 30.

The Comedy Central late-night host announced Wednesday night he's designated the Trust for the National Mall as the official non-profit of his Rally to Restore Sanity.

The Trust is the official non-profit partner of the National Park Service dedicated to restoring and improving the National Mall.

"The National Mall is an incredible gathering place for All Americans," Stewart intoned on "The Daily Show."

"It's in desperate need of upkeep and repair, especially after all of us rally on it. It's the reasonable thing to do," he told his studio audience and, we presume, his audience of 2 million-ish who tend to watch him on Comedy Central.

"Get ready to rally, and remember, this is the People's space, so treat the Mall with respect, which means don't take any pictures of yourselves pretending the Washington monument is your penis. It's funny -- but disrespectful."

"We are grateful to Jon Stewart, Comedy Central, and everyone involved with the Rally to Restore Sanity for choosing the Trust as the beneficiary of this rally," Trust president Caroline Cunningham gushed the next morning.

"We are thrilled that they are bringing awareness to the disgraceful condition of this iconic space," she continued in a statement given to the press.



Stewart also announced the exact location of the rally, which has been moved from the original permit request to the east end of the Mall, next to the Reflecting Pool, in front of the Capitol.

Stewart called the settled-upon location "useful, accessible and, at the same time synonymous with nothing else that's ever been done down there.

"It's not the Lincoln Memorial where the historic Martin Luther King spoke, or the hysteric Glenn Beck spoke, or where Forrest [Gump] found Jenny...It's not the steps of the Capitol building where the Million Man March was held, or the Washington Monument where Giant Bizarro and Giant Superman once dueled for supremacy," Stewart noted.



This strategy is in marked contrast to the Mall rally held in August by Fox News Channel talking head Beck, who decided to stage his rally for "Restoring Honor" at the feet of Abraham Lincoln's Memorial on the National Mall, only to discover, much to his surprise, after making the announcement (that was his story at the time, anyway) that his rally would fall on the anniversary of, and in virtually the same location as, Martin Luther King Jr. had delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech 47 years earlier.

Stewart's Rally to Restore Sanity, a.k.a. Million Moderate March, is billed as "a rally for the people who've been too busy to go to rallies, who actually have lives, and families, and jobs (or are looking for jobs). Not so much the Silent Majority as the Busy Majority."

His Comedy Central colleague, Stephen Colbert, has staged a March to Keep Fear Alive for the same day and place because, he said in making his announcement, "America cannot afford a rally to restore sanity in the middle of a recession."

"As far as we know, no huge, iconic event has ever taken place there," Stewart said Wednesday of the settled upon location. "And it's far enough away from Ground Zero, 206 miles, for us to have Aasif [Mandvi, "Daily Show" correspondent] at the event. That's right. As long as he stays on the southernmost part of the stage."

See full coverage of the Stewart/Colbert rallies in DC.

And here's Jon Stewart discussing the rally site, etc. on his show: