Sept 16 was the day that the announcement came that dueling rallies were prepared out by Comedy Central’s Jon Steward and Colbert. The events could be dueling Oct 30 within the National Mall to make fun of the rally in from of Lincoln Memorial called “Restoring Honor” which was done by Glenn Beck. The “Rally to Restore Sanity” was announced on the Daily Show by Stewart. The “March to Keep Fear Alive” was then announced by Stephen Colbert. The Colbert Report is what he used to make the announcement.
This is the way Stewart and Colbert respond to radical fringe
The Stewart/Colbert rally announcements were made about three weeks after Fox TV personality Beck hosted his cleverly hyped “Restoring Honor” rally in front of the Lincoln Memorial. As outlined by CNN, numerous were upset by the timing of Beck’s event. He had his rally within the very same place as Martin Luther King Jr.’s speech on the 47th anniversary of the day. Beck is being made fun of with the exact same fonts and style of images being put on Colbert and Stewart’s rally logos and icons. The National Park Service explains Stewart and Colbert got a permit. This permit enables them to gather on Oct 30 on the Washington Monument grounds.
According to Stewart, they’ll “Take it down a notch for America”
Announcing the Rally to Restore Sanity, Stewart appealed to the majority of Americans he called “the 70 to 80 percenters” who do not have extreme political views. Using visual aids, he suggested signs for the event with slogans such as “I disagree with you, however I’m pretty sure you are not Hitler” and “I am not scared of Muslims/Tea Partiers/Socialists/Immigrants/Gun Owners/Gay…but I’m scared of Spiders.” Comedy Central ended by showing the tagline. The rally’s tagline will say, “Take it down a notch for America.”
Colbert states ” … 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 vowed “not take it down a notch.” He declared “Now is the time for all good men to freak out for freedom!” As outlined by Time, Reddit.com was where all the talk about Colbert satirizing Beck began. Reddit users intended a website for an event dubbed “Restoring Truthiness,” a Colbert catch phrase. In a single day the Restoring Truthiness movement raised more than $100,000 and donated it to charities through DonorsChoose.org, an organization of which Colbert is a board member.
Midterms rallying getting a good turnout
The November midterm elections may be influenced a bit by the rallies and political debate Stewart and Colbert are becoming a part of. The Atlantic reports via Marc Ambeinder that conservatives will not like the timing and message of these rallies. There are a lot more liberal young individuals watching the Daily show and also the Colbert Report than there are of old conservatives watching Fox News for Glen Beck. Ambeinder said Stewart and Colbert could stoke enthusiasm among moderate voters who have tuned out politics as a result of the noise made by the Tea Party and conservative media extremists.
Additional 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/
