"WE LIVE now in hard times, not end times", declared Jon Stewart to an overflowing crowd of some 200,000 ironic-sign-toting fans on the National Mall in Washington, DC. "We can have animus and not be enemies." Mr Stewart, the smart and popular host of "The Daily Show", a satirical news programme, was addressing the many who had come for his October 30th "Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear", which he co-hosted with Stephen Colbert, the star of the faux conservative spin-off show, "The Colbert Report". But despite such a grand assembly ahead of Tuesday's midterm elections, the event was surprisingly apolitical. After hours of entertainingly neglecting the concerns held by most voters, Mr Stewart finally turned serious. His target? The media.

"The country's 24-hour political pundit perpetual panic conflictinator did not cause our problems. But its existence makes solving them that much harder," he announced.

Amid Mr Stewart's scorn for punditry, he managed to squander an opportunity to address the problems he claims the media spin-cycle distorts. The result was a "Rally to Shift the Blame", laments David Carr of the New York Times, who went on to write that "media bias and hyperbole seem like pretty small targets when unemployment is near 10 percent, vast amounts of unregulated cash are being spent in the election's closing days, and no American governing institution—not the Senate, not the House of Representatives, not even the Supreme Court—seems to be above petty partisan bickering." In a rally dedicated to restoring sanity, Mr Stewart let himself be distracted by a symptom instead of a root cause of America's current bout of manic depression.

As someone hosting a rally of hundreds of thousands of people in the nation's capital, Mr Stewart had the platform and even the obligation to say more than he did. Instead, he and Colbert playfully argued about which song best embodied the spirit of the rally: "Peace Train", "Crazy Train" or, as they finally agreed, "Love Train." They also sang an off-key number about how America is the "greatest, strongest country in the world".

But what is the source of America's strength? With elections now a day away, the answer seemed obvious to all but the rally's organisers: participatory democracy. Yet the simple act of voting did not merit so much as a single mention.

Wide-eyed rally-goers were left wondering what Mr Stewart's message was. What outcome did he want? For people to change the television channel? To change their tone? Concentrating solely on the media's coverage of politicians rather than addressing the implications of their policies seems self-defeating. My colleague argues that rally's failure to address the issues put forth by the presumably insane, fearsome right reaffirms the left's ideological incohesion these days. As Thomas Paine, one of the country's hallowed Founding Fathers, once warned, "moderation in temper is always a virtue; but moderation in principle is always a vice".

At a press conference following the rally, a member of the much-maligned media gave Mr Stewart and Colbert an opportunity to remedy their rally's lack of purpose. When asked whether the two men would call on people to vote on Tuesday, Mr Stewart reportedly said, "I think people should do what moves them."

That's a bad joke. America would be a saner and less frightened place if its leaders—political, comedic or otherwise—encouraged the public to become as informed as possible about political choices and then vote their conscience.

To watch the rally in its entirety, click here.

Picture credit: MissChatter (via Flickr)