Sept 16 was the day the statement came that dueling rallies were planned out by Comedy Central’s Jon Steward and Stephen Colbert. The activities will be dueling Oct 30 in the National Mall to make fun of the rally in from of Lincoln Memorial called “Restoring Honor” that was done by Glenn Beck. Stewart went on the Daily Show in order to make his announcement. That is when everybody first heard of the “Rally to Restore Sanity.” In Response, Colbert used the Colbert Report to announce the “March to Keep Fear Alive”.
This is the way Stewart and Colbert respond to radical fringe
The Stewart/Colbert rally announcements were made about three weeks after Fox Television personality Beck hosted his cleverly hyped “Restoring Honor” rally at the Lincoln Memorial. As outlined by CNN, many were upset by the timing of Beck’s event. He had his rally in the same place as Martin Luther King Jr.’s speech on the 47th anniversary of the day. Website logos and icons created for the Colbert/Stewart rallies mock Beck’s with the same type fonts and stylized images. According to the National Park Service, Stewart and Colbert have a permit to get on the Washington Monument grounds Oct. 30.
” Take it down a notch for America” according to Stewart
”The 70 to 80 percenters” that do not have extreme political views are being appealed to by the Rally to Restore Sanity. He wanted for making fun slogans for the get together. He hoped they’d say things like, “I disagree with you, however I’m quite sure you are not Hitler” and “I am not scared of Muslims/Tea Partiers/Socialists/Immigrants/Gun Owners/Gay…however I am scared of Spiders.” The Comedy Central host concluded by unfurling a sheet bearing the rally’s tagline: “Take it down a notch for The United States.”
Colbert claims ” … freak out for freedom!”Then there’s Colbert saying, ” … freak out for freedom!”
A rally meant to compliment Stewarts known as “The March to Keep Fear Alive” was announced by Colbert. Colbert had a different idea. He said we should “not take it down a notch.” He declared “Now is the time for all good men to freak out for freedom!” According to Time, Reddit.com was where all the talk about Colbert satirizing Beck began. A website was developed by Reddit users for the event. This site is named after a Colbert catchphrase, “Restoring Truthiness”. In a single day the Restoring Truthiness movement raised more than $100,000 and donated it to charities via DonorsChoose.org, an organization of which Colbert is a board member.
Midterms rallying getting a good turnout
By staging the rallies and entering the political debate, Stewart and Colbert just might influence the November midterm elections. The Atlantic reports through Marc Ambeinder that conservatives won’t like the timing and message of these rallies. Glen Beck does not seem to have as many viewers on Fox News as the Daily Show and the Colbert Report seem to have. This is because there are more young liberals around that like to fight than there are old conservatives. Ambeinder explained that many young people may become interested in politics with Stewart and Colbert striking a bit of enthusiasm. Numerous young individuals have just ignored politics as a result of the Tea Party and extremists on TV.
Further reading
CNN
cnn.com/2010/SHOWBIZ/TV/09/17/stewart.colbert.rallies/index.html
TIME
newsfeed.time.com/2010/09/14/reddit-campaign-for-colbert-rally-breaks-charity-records/
The Atlantic
theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2010/09/stewart-colbert-to-hold-10-30-rallies/63142/
