False equivalence mars the ‘why can’t we all get along?’ message
I attended the entire pre-election ‘rally’ by comedians Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert today. If the health and well-being of the nation and countless future generations, including my daughter, weren’t at risk in the election Tuesday, one could revel in the entertainment.
But Stewart aspires to be more than an entertainer. While he was clearly trying to walk a fine line here and not be overtly politically, the fact is it’s long, long past time to pick sides. The political message basically equated Tea Party extremists and people like Limbaugh and Beck on one side with people on the other side who have sometimes pointed out the extremism of the Tea Party, like Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews.
Sorry, Jon, but Matthews ain’t Palin or O’Donnell. Olbermann ain’t Beck. Not even close.
It is precisely the kind of false equivalence that Jon Stewart skewers on his show. More than anything else, the rally’s whole, “why can’t we just all get along through compromise and reason” message reminded me most of Barack Obama circa 2008 or is that circa 2009 or is that circa now?
When a prestigious scientific journal talks tougher than you do, maybe you missing something (see Nature: “Scientists must now emphasize the science, while acknowledging that they are in a street fight”).
The other ‘side’ simply does not believe government has a role in solving our problems. They think government is the problem. They don’t know why we have clean air and clean water (hint: progressives and what we’d now call moderate Republicans established science-based pollution standards that EPA enforced) — and they don’t even believe human emissions of greenhouse gases are problem. And the last thing they’d spend taxpayer dollars on is clean energy.
A large part of the problem with this rally is Colbert. Fundamentally, he isn’t trying to defend and advance progressive values the way Stewart often does. Colbert mainly skewers and deflates some conservative pomposity. But since those folks are showing up on his show less and less often, he is content to skewer progressives.
Yes, the music was good, the show was funny (other than the lame opening act), with good comic camaraderie between Stewart and Colbert. It pushed back on stereotyping, especially of Muslims, and Stewart/Colbert put some classic video montage media critiques. In a different time, it might get an A, but this was a rally 3 days before election in which the most extreme slate of candidates this country has seen in a long time is poised to seize role of at least one house of Congress. It deserves a C at best, I think.
And that’s not even considering the terrible logistics. As I learned later from several other attendees, they totally misjudged the size of the crowd and where they should put the speakers, so that a great many people could barely hear anything — or simply couldn’t hear anything at all of last. As a TPM reader put it:
They were really unprepared for the size of the crowd. No secondary speakers or jumbotrons set up. My friends and i left because we couldn’t see anything.
That is inexcusable for a rally run by professional entertainers as experienced and well-heeled as these.
But it was certainly a huge crowd — bigger than the Earth Day rally, I think, and therefore probably 200,000 or more. A CBS- commissioned estimate put the number at 215,000 — compared to Beck’s 87,000, and I’m sure Stewart lost many thousands of people because of poor organization.
UPDATE: Based on some of the comments, I want to re-emphasize that I was not actually calling on Stewart to endorse candidates. I just strongly disagree with his false equivalence. Science blogger PZ Myers of Pharyngula nailed it:
But in the end, I was disappointed. It was also an afternoon of false equivalence, of civility fetishism, of nothing but a cry about the national tone, of a plea for moderation. And you can guess what I think of moderation.
A thing moderately good is not so good as it ought to be. Moderation in temper is always a virtue; but moderation in principle is always a vice. — Tom Paine
I don’t want moderation, especially when the only people who will listen to Stewart and Colbert are the people on our shared side of the political aisle. I can understand where they’re coming from; people like Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin and Andrew Breitbart are poison, Fox News is a propaganda organ without bounds working for the far right-wing, we’ve got evangelical Christians demanding the installation of a theocracy, and on and on and on. But who, exactly, do Stewart and Colbert regard as the equivalent of Beck and Limbaugh on the left? Is it Rachel Maddow? Amy Goodman? Keith Olbermann?
Once again, we have someone bravely standing up and telling the people on their own side to stop being dicks, while being vague on the names and specifics.
So I’m at a loss about what we’re supposed to do in the world according to Jon Stewart. Hey, all you people working for gay and lesbian equality, all you women asking for equal pay, all you workers trying to unionize, all you peaceniks trying to end the war in Afghanistan, all you nurses and doctors and clinic workers trying to maintain reproductive freedom and keep women alive, all you teachers trying to teach science and history without censorship, all you citizens trying to build a rational health care policy, all you scientists and doctors who want our country to progress in medical research, all you damned secularists who want to keep religion out of our schools and government, hey, hey, HEY, you! Tone it down. Quit making such a fuss. You’re too loud. Shush. You’re as crazy as the teabaggers if you think your principles are worth fighting for.
I was left cold by the fuzziness of the event. It could have been great; instead of embracing an apolitical perspective and saying nothing at all about values, it could have been a rally for moderation that emphasized the actual values that moderates hold: we believe in tolerance for people of different ethnicities and religious views and sexual preferences, we believe in building an egalitarian social and economic infrastructure, we believe in privacy and personal freedoms, etc., etc., etc., and they could have held to the theme of the rally by advocating rational argument and unified, organized activism within the system to advance those goals”¦but they didn’t. There was no purpose given other than a generic insistence that we all get along nicely. And to what end, I ask?
The question wasn’t answered. All we need is the right tone, apparently.
Hear! Hear! (shouted in a quiet, mouse-like tone)
Previous in TP Climate Progress
Language Intelligence: Lessons on persuasion from Jesus, Shakespeare, Lincoln, and Lady Gaga
what is really rocking the youth:
http://witsendnj.blogspot.com/2010/10/sanity-rally.html
Yikes
Thanks for the review and comments, Joe. Very helpful.
Yes, by the picture, it looks like a larger crowd than at Earth Day. And what does that say, I wonder?
Moving on …
The false balances, the tongue-in-cheek jabs, and indeed the whole “entertain-me-politics” framing, all diminish the real situation and the real issue. In my view, they add to the “it’s a game” feel of politics and the world these days. It’s a game! Life’s a game!! Or at least lets think that way — and leave our daughters and sons with a big huge mess.
By the way, how are the Giants doing today?
I often like Jon Stewart, but I have the impression that he really doesn’t get it either. He could — if he really wanted to — actually go out and make a REAL difference. Being courageous doesn’t mean doing what you normally do for a living (unless you are in the military or police or etc.): It means going BEYOND that. Jon Stewart has real credibility, or at least he has the potential to have it. But he seems to be playing it away and diminishing the role he could otherwise have. The college gentleman from California, in challenging Koch to a debate and going to his place, and being sincere (a rare thing these days), is about 100 times more impressive and admirable than this whole Stewart-Colbert rally thing.
I actually think that the entertainment-izing of politics and of climate change are not helpful, given the stakes. It feels like another example of entertainment and commercialism merely co-opting what should be serious movements about serious things. I’m not saying that humor isn’t important. Humor and jabs are often fun and helpful. But that’s a bit different than entertainment-izing whole movements and trying to play comedy and be serious all at the same time, without anyone being quite sure where one role ends and the other begins.
In any case, we’ll see how the election goes. But, we need more, and better, thinking. To me, in a different sort of way, Stewart and Obama have something in common: If they are actually serious about climate change and progressive politics, they BOTH have to rethink their approaches. It’s not working, and we can all (unfortunately) see evidence of that all around us.
Thanks again for the great post, Joe.
Cheers,
Jeff
Joe I think you’re taking things too seriously. Stewart has always mocked the media (especially cable news) of all stripes. And he continued to do so today. Had he gone the route you seem to have wanted — making it about “the other side” versus “our side” — I think he would have been skewered by the media. There was already this ridiculous thesis making the rounds that Stewart had crossed some line and was becoming too political. That would have just reinforced things.
But I will agree with you on the logistics. I tried several spots around the Mall and had a hard time hearing or seeing anything. There were some secondary speakers and one large screen. But not nearly enough to make things audible or visible to a large portion of the crowd. They did underestimate the turnout. I recall reading their permit application with the Park Service said they expected about 60,000. They easily got three times that. Same with Metro. I may be wrong on this, but my recollection is that they usually run trains a little more frequently on a weekend day if there is a large rally. But today they didn’t. I guess they went by the permit number. As a result, the service was a bit subpar.
But I still had a fun time, as did most people I know. We were all there for the comedy, the funny signs, the costumes and the good vibe of the crowd (it really was a very friendly crowd).
[JR: Fun, pointless fun. Always good to have, but not what was needed now. I wouldn't have minded it at all if he'd left out the false equivalence. But the fact is he had a political message -- it was just an irrelevant one that was about two years old.]
I attended the rally, and as I agree with you that it was entertaining more than political, it was exactly the message that Americans need to take to heart. I’m sorry but if you’re attending a rally put on by Colbert and Stewart you shoulnd’t expect a message of serious tone of political guidance for future generations. The whole point and liking of their shows is that they don’t take political stand points but put politics in a light that everyone can laugh at. You’re following the view they are trying to steer us away from. Obviously, at this point in politics, people have chosen sides, but it’s something that we should change to an extent. If everyone took the stand point that there will never be change, then how will it ever? Sometimes it takes humerous relief to let people understand the message in a better light than trying to follow the dsicussions of the language of law and politics. I left the rally feeling that it was a good message that they sent out to a crowd of people who were there not to be campaigned to, but just simply to try and influence the American people to be better as a country and not pay so much attention to stereotypes and the hysteria of the media. And..just to add… the fact that more people than expected showed just goes to show that more people respond to them and are there to listen to what they have to say. It doesn’t need to be cricized unless you’re really looking for a reason to be critical.
matthews is a villager who checked the clintons’ invite at the door too
Wit’s end @1, that video has simply got to get more air time. Is it posted on YourTube.
Everyone here, please watch it, and if you are OK with it, forward it as widely as possible.
Maybe Joe could feature it ? ;)
I’m afraid I have to disagree with Joe (something I don’t do a lot and I’ve been lurking while). The point is that the fundamental problem with American politics these days is that sanity and civility has gone out the window and hence the majority of the electorate is not paying attention and is basing decisions on baser instincts or not bothering to vote.
Does anyone here really believe that even the vast majority of conservatives wouldn’t favor getting off our addition to oil if we could have a real discussion? The arguments based on patriotism, self reliance and cost alone are compelling. But these are drowned out by the screaming and yelling. In a “noisy” environment it isn’t possible to establish a political consensus or will.
And do we really think that we can shout louder than the well funded misinformation campaigns? really? really? They don’t even have to make sense, they simply have to shout to drown out (or simply confuse) other voices. The louder we shout the happier they are! More animosity, more sound and fury simply means more confusion.
That was the point of this rally… to try to get people to see that the noise is the enemy of democracy. And the producers of the noise. Think of it this way… as Jeff said, this one time event was larger than the Earth Day rally. It clearly has the potential to be a powerful force in politics. And should it take hold it means clean energy and the fight against global warming is essentially won.
After all, don’t we already know the arguments are compelling? Don’t we know that even strong climate action is cheap? And that it creates jobs? and that it is good for our national security? and that it is good stewardship of our planet? (all good conservative AND liberal values) and so on?
Let’s face it. We cannot scream ourselves out of this one. The misinformation campaigns are capable of screaming much louder. Did the labor movement or the civil rights movements win by outscreaming their opponents? No, they laid down their lives until the country woke up and realized how unreasonable the “other side” was.
That’s what the Rally to Restore Sanity was about. And that is why it is so important. More noise will not convince anyone. We have to establish an expectation that people who produce noise are socially uncouth and should not be listened to. And we have to hammer out point home calmly and rationally and to as many people as will listen. Particularly to people who do not share our political viewpoint. (Have you sought out any non-progressives lately and talked (really talked) with them about common ground and what actions can be agreed on? ‘m not talking tea party, I’m talking about the vast bulk of the conservatives or independents)
But to do this the level of civility in political discussion has to be increased. This is not irrelevant. It is central, absolutely central and we are deluding ourselves if we think it isn’t. Remember, civility doesn’t mean leaders can’t be decisive or have to take into account every objection or invite every opponent “to the table”.
Hope this all makes sense… it is pretty late in the day!
[JR: It makes sense, it's just not possible. And Stewart of all people knows it. His audience is mostly left and center-left, who aren't the source of the problem you identify.]
I agree. False equivalence between reason, science and humanity, and ignorance, lies, stupidity and life-destroying and insatiable greed is ethical imbecility and moral cowardice. The denialists and the whole Rightwing juggernaut let loose by the very worst of the Rightwing plutocrats and their very vilest propagandists, are a ‘clear and present danger’ to the survival of humanity. The whiff of sulphur and the stench of swiftly encroaching fascism are mingling in the air, in the USA in particular, but also throughout the West. Personally I believe that climate change and ecological destruction are already irreversibly advanced, but pretending to fight fair and remain dedicated to civilsed ‘debate’ when attacked by a pack of rabid wolverines is simply suicidal.
My heart breaks for the attendees and the efforts made by the Stewart and Colbert teams.
These men obviously have a much bigger impact on people’s passion politically than many news reporters
would aknowledge. The Roots and Legend did above and beyond inspiring the crowd…then they turned it over
to pointless writing. On these men’s shows, a few minutes of floppy material can be tolerated because they usually
get to the point and lift our spirits while taking a stand. A rally where people travel from across the country to support
what they believe in IS serious. Whoever made the decision not to research passionate gatherings in history that brought people together and changed us for the better, is a rat bastard. These people weren’t there because they wanted to be in one big joke. Stewart and Colbert need higher self esteem and to realize they had a chance to do something powerful, but someone didn’t think these men were good enough. The numbers speak for themselves. Many of us BELIEVE in these shows. They are not a joke to us.
PZ Myers came to a similar conclusion: http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2010/10/the_rally_for_tone.php
Crowd from air
http://i.imgur.com/S1IHP.jpg
Great Sign
http://i.imgur.com/YOmIO.png
Joe wrote: “Fun, pointless fun. Always good to have, but not what was needed now.”
FWIW, Bill Press agrees with you. He’s a former staffer for Jerry Brown (with some good “war stories”), and now an aide to Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) He has a progressive radio talk show and attends White House press briefings. He’s also the author of several books on politics. The latest is Toxic Talk, about the Right-wing noise machine.
100 best signs …
http://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/the-100-best-signs-at-the-rally-to-restore-sanity
Geza Gyuk,
I’m with you.
The political climate has to change before we can tackle the real climate. Anti-science and anti-rational thought is at the heart of the Republican mindset.
We can talk until we are blue in the face — which we have — but until we return to civil discourse with an open exchange of ideas there will be no change.
Thank you Jon and Steven — your audience has been shown time and time again to be the most reality-based.
[JR: It makes sense, it's just not possible. And Stewart of all people knows it. His audience is mostly left and center-left, who aren't the source of the problem you identify.]
Maybe you are right and it isn’t possible… but then it is hopeless and we might as well go home and wait for the “Hell and High Water” to wash us away.
I still think you are missing the point. He wasn’t playing to his audience here… he knows that the people who listen to him and the people who went to the rally “get” it. But you need something like the rally, with the numbers that attended to spark political conversation. And you have to keep at it until the MSM stop thinking of it as just a gimmick and a “Democratic” effort in disguise.
Well, in any event keep up the good work and let’s all do what we can and keep redefining that upward!
Thanks,
Like many others, probably, I don’t disagree with CP posts very often but today is an exception. I think one of the reasons that there WERE so many people who showed is the very thing you’re criticizing them for: not coming down hard enough, not being political enough, not having a sharp enough edge. Erring on the side of humor and being too inclusive means being ever so careful not to say things that are exclusive. And they pulled it off gracefully! The nation is FILLED with political rallies this weekend. This was a nice change. I can fault them, however, for failing to prepare properly for the size crowd they draw. As in – “Gosh dernit, Ethyl, too many people came to our party and we ran out of those little meatballs!” — I think we can forgive Jon&Steven for underestimating their own popularity. Cant we?
[JR: Entertaining but pointless, yes. A missed opportunity, yes. But also a different message than Stewart's show, I think. The nation is not filled with massive rallies in the mall the Saturday before election. My criticism is strictly on the false equivalence.]
RE # 8
Twink, you said all that needs to be said in this part of your truth-telling comment:
“A rally where people travel from across the country to support
what they believe in IS serious. Whoever made the decision not to research passionate gatherings in history that brought people together and changed us for the better, is a rat bastard. These people weren’t there because they wanted to be in one big joke. Stewart and Colbert need higher self esteem and to realize they had a chance to do something powerful, but someone didn’t think these men were good enough. The numbers speak for themselves. Many of us BELIEVE in these shows. They are not a joke to us.”
Somewhere in the background were the ‘handlers’ who helped shape the tone and message so that Jon and Steven would: entertain, energize and endure.
Yes, Twink, had they been allowed to rip into the repugs and baggers as they probably do during happy hour, their reputations would have soared; not soured.
Laying down one’s careers and comfy lifestyle is what is needed by any who can command our attention. Walking the walk with the likes of Reverend King,and those brave and fearless civil rights activists, James Chaney, a 21-year-old black man from Meridian, Mississippi; Andrew Goodman, a 20-year-old white Jewish anthropology student from New York; and Michael Schwerner, a 24-year-old white Jewish CORE organizer and former social worker also from New York each of whom symbolized the risks of participating in the Civil Rights Movement in the South during what became known as “Freedom Summer”, dedicated to voter registration.
Where are our new millennium heroes? Were they rehearsing yesterday on the Mall and gearing up for a frontal assault on the crazies? We pray for our deliverance.
Thanks Twink!
John L. McCormick
“Jon Stewart Rally Attracts Estimated 215,000 – Political Hotsheet – CBS News”
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20021284-503544.html
Almost three times the size of Beck’s rally (estimated at 87,000). That’s got to be worth something.
Geza Gyuk says:
October 31, 2010 at 3:15 am:
Trouble is, they want to get off oil and onto coal. And America does have a great deal of coal, and most of it can be made to appear cheap.
RE # 19
Llewelly,
that is my biggest fear. Bigger than the baggers as America approaches and lashes out against diminishing gasoline supplies;
“Trouble is, they want to get off oil and onto coal” …..liquefaction
John McCormick
If you are having a problem understanding just what took place yesterday, I suggest that you watch, or read, the closing comments from the sage like Stewart. It will only take about 13 mins, but that will be moments you should remember for their clarity. For my taste he tossed in a bit too much comedy, but nonetheless the message was very strong and crystal clear. ‘When we amplify everything, we hear nothing’ which refers to our over-kill media, will be repeated many times in the days ahead.
The size of the crowd was impressive, which in my view is meaningless. Much will be made over who had the bigger crowd…Beck or Stewart?…missing the point entirely. It is not the size, but the sanity.
The relative size of the crowds at the two rallies is not the ultimate measure, but it is one indicator. If three times as many people planned to attend the Stewart rally, that to me says something hopeful about our politics.
Like some of the other posters here, I lurk here often but almost never post here. (Moderator: I have posted once or twice under the name Mark, but another person also posts under that name, so I changed my posting name. I hope that is OK. I’m not trying to violate Terms of Use, I’m just trying to avoid confusion.) Also, like some posters, I am hesitant to disagree with JR, but I have to do that now. I was at the rally. Clearly, the organizers underestimated the potential size of the crowd. The lines and wait at the DC Metro stations were very long. Still, people were good-natured and civil. We were disappointed when we arrived late and couldn’t hear very well. What we could hear was good music, some good humor, and an important message.
Like other posters, I think that JR (and PZ Myers) are missing the point. You are confusing tactics and strategy. The rally was brilliant strategically. The call for moderation and sanity clearly befuddled the news media. As I drove home from the rally, the newscasters reporting from the event were clearly perplexed by the fact that Stewart and Colbert did actually seem reasonable. They expected it to be a bashing of conservatives. By not playing into those expectations, they set themselves up for durable credibility. By attracting a much-larger-than-expected crowd, they will make people sit up and take notice.
I understand your points about false equivalences. However, if you want to read an analysis of the clowning journalism practiced by Rachel Maddow, Keith Olbermann, and Chris Matthews, read The Daily Howler. Clearly, on balance, Limbaugh and Beck are worse than Maddow and Olbermann, but Maddow and Olbermann have significant flaws. Stewart and Colbert demonstrate their intellectual honesty by calling on those from “their side” to practice upstanding journalism. You’ll never hear conservatives contradicting Limbaugh or Beck. Intellectual honesty is a progressive value, so don’t complain when “our side” practices it.
So, you can be dissatisfied with the tactics, but for reasons that Geza and Anne have pointed out, it was a strategic victory.
(A side note: PZ Myers has shown himself again and again to be a good tactician but a poor strategist. He demonstrates it again here.)
[JR: Hmm. I am glad for this comment, but I think you have tactics and strategy backwards. I have spent a lot of time studying and doing strategic planning. The rally was tactically a success, but strategically pointless since it didn't have a message of any value for getting us out of our current predicament. It has nothing for progressives to build on. "Both sides do it" ain't a rallying cry, even if it were true I have said that I am a huge fan of Stewart's media critiques. But I don't consider the false equivalence to be intellectual honesty since it is false. I consider it to be entertainment.]
I approve of Stewart & Colbert’s approach. (I am sure that this was not a decision made lightly by anyone involved.) The humorous, relaxed atmosphere of this rally is a stark contrast to the venomous rallies of the Tea Party (complete with guns and hordes of angry people carrying signs featuring Obama as Hitler.) That in itself sends a powerful message about the Tea Party and may be far more effective than the overt proselytizing that Mr. Romm advocates.
Like others have said, it is rare for me to disagree with your posts.
I was really hoping the Rally to Restore Sanity would force EPA and Congress to enforce 350ppm C02, fund all clean energy initiatives and reduce imports of foreign oil. What an “ultimately disappointing” miserable failure of a 3-hour comedy show.
I guess since scientists have failed miserably the last ten years of convincing the general public of the clear and present dangers of our wasteful, over-consumptive lifestyles, then it’s ok to just kill the jester when he dares hold up a mirror to America.
Blame a comedian for “false equivalencies” – about 20 seconds of a 3 hour show?? Really?? Did you miss Stewart’s closing statement that when everything is amplified, that no one hears anything?
Thanks to Prokaryotes #13 for posting the link for the 100 best rally signs. They made me laugh out loud. I’m thankful for fellow travelers who haven’t had their sense of humor surgically removed. Luckily, health insurance plans don’t cover that anymore…
Btw, when is your climate rally?
Let me suggest a few other thoughts on the value/use of humor:
This I conceive to be the chemical function of humor: to change the character of our thought. – Lin Yutang
He deserves Paradise who makes his companions laugh. – The Koran
Humor is a rubber sword – it allows you to make a point without drawing blood. – Mary Hirsch
A person without a sense of humor is like a wagon without springs – jolted by every pebble in the road. – Henry Ward Beecher
What soap is to the body, laughter is to the soul. – Yiddish proverb
The human race has one really effective weapon, and that is laughter. – Mark Twain
Imagination was given to man to compensate him for what he is not; a sense of humor to console him for what he is. – Sir Francis Bacon
If you don’t have a sense of humor, you probably don’t have any sense at all. – Unknown
Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of Truth and Knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the Gods. – Albert Einstein
Were it not for my little jokes, I could not bear the burdens of this office. – Abraham Lincoln
Or maybe……… a Marshall McLuhan quote: I don’t necessarily agree with everything I say.
I MUST ADMIT, this is a tough one to figure out. My initial comments — above — may well have missed at least part of the point. After I read one of The New York Times’s pieces on the rally, I realized that some or much of the message had to do with criticism of the media, and with that I agree.
Perhaps the problem isn’t so much with what this rally involved or how Stewart and Colbert handled it. Instead, the real problem is the plain, in-your-face, saddening problem that the REAL rallies, led by genuine leaders, attended by the hundreds of thousands (and millions) of folks that SHOULD be attending THOSE rallies, are not happening. So, we should not be looking at this in terms of what it says about Stewart and Colbert. Instead, we should be looking at it in terms of what it says about 350 million of us and about the absence of other leaders, the absence of ourselves at big rallies, and the absence of all the demonstrations, boycotts, and things that SHOULD be taking place by now but aren’t. This rally might have played some small or modest useful role, “for what it’s worth”, but the problem is if this is the best we can come up with, Yikes?!
Be Well,
Jeff
I agree with the problem you identify: the notion that if you criticize someone on the right side you have to also criticize someone on the left side creates a completely false equivalence that is utterly unfair. It reminds me of school yards.
That doesn’t mean that they are wrong when they say that a more civil discourse would be tremendously helpful. It’s not that I think politeness is the greatest of virtues, but two people screaming at each other are unlikely to get something useful done.
Ultimately this isn’t going to happen because the goal of public discourse is not to arrive at the truth or the best course of action. It’s about scoring points so you can get money and/or get reelected.
I was at the rally and enjoyed the show and was very impressed by the turnout. There were plenty of jumbo screens to watch, I arrived at my final position near the Air & Space museum just before 1pm when the Mythbusters were warming up the crowd. I was able to clearly view a jumbo screen of the performance and hear everything (the sound system was quite good from where I was), so I’m not sure what all the complaints are about.
Stewart and Colbert spend their talents deflating big egos and pointing out ridiculous hyperbole in the media at large. I don’t know why anyone would expect them to do any different at this rally. The primary message of the rally in my interpretation is to demonstrate how big the ‘civil middle’ really is – and that it dwarfs the fringes (both right and left). They sent that message loud and clear. If the hosts and politicized it, that primary message would have gotten lost in the partisan media coverage that would have inevitably followed.
I don’t think the false equivalence was that bad – there were clearly many more right-wing fear bits in the video montages and only a few on the left (mostly Ed Shultz). They just didn’t call it out I think because they didn’t want to give Fox or Beck any ammunition.
I would love to go to a climate hawk rally with 200,000+ people there if someone can pull that off.
An Australian article on the ABC says pretty much what you’ve said in your appraisal of the rally:
“The event was a caricature of political rallies. It had music, poems, awards and speeches but with a twist as Stewart tried to mix his reasonableness with Colbert’s representation of extremism. In the entertainment stakes, even in this crowd, it was Colbert that won out and it is perhaps this that supports Stewart’s thesis. It is the rule that disproves the exception. For while reasonableness brought in the crowd, extremism – even overtly false extremism – kept their attention for three hours. While other news organisations in the US would not be as overt, they are playing on the same things to drive demand. In fact, reasonableness only has a chance of being entertainment in an environment where extremists are taken seriously.”
http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/40598.html
Although I’m generally huge fans of Stewart and Colbert, I didn’t attend or see the event (instead biking in some serious rain to another event).
But I’ve studied both shows closely and generally like them but feel that they’re at about 10 per cent of their potential, like most human brains.
The overarching issue is that there are two general kinds of communication. The first is very rare, and I’ll call that Anthro-Earth Communication. Anthro-Earth is the idea that human influence is drastically changing the climate, environment and available resources on the planet infinitely more than we know.
This is the same idea as Bill McKibben’s “Eaarth” (and we spoke about this well over a year ago when he told me about his book) but with a name that sounds different (“Eaarth” sounds the same as “Earth” when spoken) and describes what’s happening (“Eaarth” doesn’t describe what’s happening like “Anthro-Earth” does).
Then there’s Dinosaur Communication, and that’s just traditional left-right, liberal-conservative, Democrat-Republican, he said-she said horserace communication. That is seriously out of date. It’s like debating on the beach when a tsunami is coming. Even if you’re right, well, a tsunami is coming.
Great Anthro-Earth Communicators include Joe Romm, Bill McKibben, James Hansen, Al Gore, James Lovelock, James Howard Kunstler, Richard Heinberg, and classic Climate Progress commenters like Gail Zawacki, Mike Roddy, Leif Knutsen, Richard Pauli, Colorado Bob, Jeff Huggins, Lou Grinzo and many others.
Stewart and Colbert are great entertainers who often tell truths, but relatively small truths and only very occasionally Anthro-Earth truths (and Colbert more than Stewart – Stewart was much harder on Al Gore than on the “Freakonomics” authors, getting it exactly backwards).
And so decades from now, when all cumulative Anthro-Earth problems are clearly seen, Stewart, Colbert and all those like them, unless they become Anthro-Earth Communicators, will be seen as tiny historical footnotes who really didn’t tell us very much about what we needed to know.
The same could be said for Obama, Bill Clinton and almost everyone else except those I mentioned and very few others, at least right now. I think everyone is capable of needed change, it is just very difficult and usually not something one can count on in this lifetime.
What really seems to motivate Stewart, Colbert and virtually everyone is first and foremost maintaining and growing the size of their audience and thus income and thus ego.
It is our egos that have grown and are growing to our eventual and inevitable destruction.
Time to hear from our authentic selves, including those of Stewart and Colbert, if possible.
Totally agree about false equivalance.
But the main value of the rally — in the end — was to expose the myth that Glenn Beck et al somehow represent the majority of Americans.
With months of advance publicity, and constant flogging by Fox News, Beck managed to bring about 90,000 people to DC.
With just a few weeks of advance planning, and relatively little publicity, John Steward attracted over 200,000.
What does that say about the relative size and enthusiasm of these two constituencies?
They could have hired Rodney King and saved a whole lot of time and money.
Joe,
I love the shows and loved the rally, but you are dead-on regarding the false equivalence. More to the point though, can you imagine if Jon Stewart actually took on global warming with the same level of seriousness that he has done for Islamophobia, gay rights and health care? The issue is such a rich trove of humor (as you have amply demonstrated here), and such a crystal-clear example of the two primary themes that Stewart already brings to his show every day: corporate duplicity and media ineffectiveness. Can someone get Stewart some face time with our most effective climate scientists and policy wonks?
[JR: Sadly, Stewart is irrelevant or worse on the global warming issue.]
re: #29
That Australian ABC review of the Rally was pure right-wing rubbish!
I, along with 9 other people, rode 20 hours to be there. Do you think we went for a good romp? A fun time? REALLY?
The protest was amazing. Who cares about the silly signs, costumes, or the many Internet memes references that you probably couldn’t understand…the ultimate goal of the rally was achieved. People getting together with silliness, or calmness to show that people can rally reasonably.
I, unfortunately, was in the back of the rally. I figured it would be impossible to get a good spot in the crowd. I was wrong. People shuffled around so more could join, people lowered signs so more could see the stage, and most surprisingly people were silent as soon as others complained they could not hear the loud speakers. I had never seen such an educated crowd before.
I feel that silliness aside, this rally was far from useless. It renews a hope that there is indeed people from all over the world that felt it was necessary to show up and that while the media portrays constant aggressive and often nonsensical protesting, it is not the only way left to promote views in America.
I’ll take silly signs and laughter over extreme yelling and violence. All in all, my car ride took 44 hours and I’d do it all over again just to be part of the proof that there is still sanity in our masses.