Today Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert held the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear on the National Mall. Crowd estimates range from 200,000 to 300,000 people. At the end of the rally, Stewart made a very profound and enlightened speech, while maintaining a simple, comedic eloquence.

“If we amplify everything, we hear nothing.” -Jon Stewart



If Fox News was the sole source of news in this country, they would have you think that this rally was full of naked hippies who were smoking pot and taking mushrooms. Fox’s front page article references marijuana a multitude of times in an article that is clearly less than a page in length.

Two paragraphs were dedicated to marijuana and Proposition 19 in California, which was not mentioned even once during the rally, followed by an additional mention of “marijuana-supporting seniors.”

Many attendees commented on this travesty of an article, and called Fox out on being misleading. One person said they only saw “ONE legalize ‘you know what’ sign,” whereas another person said he only saw “one or two among the hundreds.” While legalizing marijuana would actually benefit America by reducing the prison population, generating revenue, and reducing accessibility to minors like with alcohol, this was merely an attempt to smear the Jon Stewart and the rally attendees.

Another person who commented on the story would have you think that this rally was part of some vast Democratic conspiracy, and cited Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals, “…it would be wise to remember rule #5 of Saul Alynsky’s Rules for Radicals: ‘Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon. It’s hard to counterattack ridicule, and it infuriates the opposition, which then reacts to your advantage.’” Notice the misspelling? And how about the flagrant insanity and paranoia?

This isn’t the first time Fox News has attempted to make Stewart’s crowd out to be drug addicted hippies. Bill O’Reilly has consistently referred to Stewart’s viewers as potheads.

“I would love to come, but it’ll be a contact high. You know they’ll be smoking substance at that rally. You know what’s going to go on there. Come on… look. Every dope dealer within 100 miles is going to be at that rally! You know that.” -Bill O’Reilly[3]

I suppose we can’t blame Fox News, for as Stewart said, our country’s immune system, the media, is very, very sick. Fox News magnifies small issues, and has crossed the line into entertainment and political campaigning for the GOP, instead of presenting facts.

Fox News is only following their age old tradition of picking a few “random” people out of the crowd, and making them representative of the entire demographic, instead of talking about the fact that there were blacks, whites, Asians, Latinos, gays, Muslims, etc., all present at this rally. This is no different than the Fox network’s encouragement of xenophobic comments simply because they get ratings.

Perhaps Fox News is just resentful of the fact that Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, two comedians, hosted a rally with more substance and honesty than recovering rodeo clown Glenn Beck could ever dream up.

“There are terrorists and racists and Stalinists and theocrats, but those are titles that must be earned. You must have the resume. Not being able to distinguish between real racists and Tea Partiers, or real bigots and Juan Williams, or Rich Sanchez is an insult not only to those people, but to the racists themselves who have put in the exhausting effort it takes to hate.” -Jon Stewart

Sources

[1] C-SPAN. Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear

[2] Fox News. Stewart’s Rally for ‘Sanity’ Draws Insane Crowd

[3] Fox News. Unedited Jon Stewart Interview (O’Reilly Factor)