Has Sanity Become a Partisanship Issue?

[evildevil.livejournal.com]

There are some on the left that are not happy with some of the content on the rally:

1. Why Didnt Jon told us to vote on Tuesday?

Because that's not his message, do what you want coming this Tuesday. Why do you need a command from him to tell you what to do? I do not understand why this needs to be pointed out and why some people are even making an argument of this.

Dude, the rally was a moment for people to chill out, not an event to await orders to "energize Jon's minions" to take over. Jon said that people should do what moves them, that is not a choice for him to make. Stewart wont support the democrats or the republicans, he will stay out of it:

"Our currency is not this town's currency," said Stewart. "We're not running for anything. We don't have a constituency. We do television shows for people who like them. And we just hope that people continue to like them so that Comedy Central can continue to sell beer to young people. As long as they do that, we're allowed to do our shows.

"I understand you guys have, it's all about who's winning and who's losing and the strategy of this and the players in that, but we have TV shows and we wanted to do a really good show for people that took the time to come out and see us. And I feel like we accomplished it. And I'm really happy with the hard work that both of our shows put in. And the musicians who took the time to come and see us and the crowd that was so wonderfully supportive of everything that happened." 

-- Jon Stewart, post-rally press conference.

2. Why is he attacking the left on the media?

There is a difference between attacking the left and criticizing the left. Jon is not there to criticize the right and pander the left. He is there to criticize both of them, that is Jon's way of doing things.


3. Why should we be reasonable when the right is the loudest?

Because then it comes down as a race to be the loudest. Of course if the left tones it down, there is a fear the that right will just keep being louder (but you wont know until you try. We should be better than that). The noise wont end until one side decides that enough is enough. When asked how they can restore sanity, Colbert said this: “How about talking? You don’t have to shout.”

The media is creating this divisive atmosphere that creates the idea that we cannot talk to each other anymore. A sense that we are a divided people by ideology or factions. But to Stewart and Colbert they dont see it that way. They truly believe that Americans have a lot more in common that unites us than divide us. They believe that we should not let fear, propaganda, and the media to undermine that.

If shouting is the only form of conversation we have left, then we have reached to the point that there is no civil society anymore.


4. He uses the "I am a Comedian" as an excuse, he should stop that.

Stewart is not running away from anything or using "I am a comedian" card as an excuse, he takes pride on being a comedian:

"When people say, 'I'm a comedian,' for me that's not, 'I'm just a comedian,'" he said. "I'm really proud that I'm a comedian. I think it's hard. I think it's hard to distill your most valued thoughts into comedy and to let things that you feel strongly about be the subtext for what you create. But that's not a way of dismissing what you're saying. We stand by the subtext that is everything. I'll defend what we do on the show. And if it turns out to be something that we're wrong about, I'll correct it and say, we screwed up. But that's not a dodge. That's pride."

The real shame here is that a "Comedian" is doing a better job than the media. Stewart is an entertainer, not a journalist and yet he is becoming the main source of actual news to many people, whether that's sad or not, it's the truth. The fact remains that the standards of journalism has changed and that is disturbing...

Again, if you think Stewart didnt do enough for the left, or that he was wrong, or whatever... ask yourself this. Do you think it should be the norm for a Comedian to become the sole authority on Journalism and truth? And what does that tell us about the state of our media when he is our last hope for Truth and Journalism? Rather than criticizing Jon about his failures we should be criticizing the media and hold them accountable for their disservice to the public.

Jon Stewart is a comedian and he is proud of doing his job, but he is not a journalist and he shouldn't be responsible for a job that is not his responsibility.

I will leave this from an article that I read, I think it just shows what a lot of the majority feels:

Quote: While the remarks were sometimes pointed and stinging, the rally was notable for its lack of partisanship. No one noted from the stage that midterm elections will be held on Tuesday.

The tone struck an important chord with many in the audience. Pat Reynolds, 76, said she came from Florida for the opportunity to "get some reasonableness."

"I was tired of the yelling and the screaming. I believe sanity is reality," Reynolds said.

From: freep.com

Watch it: Post-Rally Press Release Video

Comments

[sealwhiskers.livejournal.com]

oh, I'm sure Stewart can take the criticism, he's fine.
Personally I don't think media (not even FOX news) is the real and big problem here, it's corporate money, on both sides of the forum.

[box-in-the-box.livejournal.com]

Condemning corporate money is both accurate and pointless. It's like saying that oxygen causes fires, so the solution to firefighting is to remove the oxygen from the atmosphere. At the rate we're going, we'll succeed in THAT goal before we ever succeed in removing corporate money from the process, because without it, there IS no process, good or bad.

[sealwhiskers.livejournal.com]

We totally disagree in that there is nothing to do about it. There are ways of tracking corporate money even in a free market system way (you support the companies you like and that support what you like), there is actually a whole lot that could be done, without abolishing the money, which is what you probably thought I meant.

[box-in-the-box.livejournal.com]

I agree with holding companies accountable with one's purchasing dollars, but the fact of the matter is that a grand total of FIVE global corporations control the mainstream American media, and all of them tend to fail in the same ways. If you want cable TV news, there's the faux-progressive pro-corporate MSNBC, the faux-populist pro-corporate Fox News and the faux-moderate pro-corporate CNN. Granted, this is why I consume more and more media online for free, but the problem with that is, once you STOP buying, you're worth LESS than nothing to them.

[sealwhiskers.livejournal.com]

I agree that it wouldn't be an easy task, but nevertheless, I do believe that there are things that could be done about it, not on a consumer level however.

[reality-hammer.livejournal.com]

Why is "corporate" money more dangerous than money from (say) Soros or unions?

[sealwhiskers.livejournal.com]

Any money that's openly sourced and not filtered through various secondary organs is okay.

no one else is doing what they do

[evildevil.livejournal.com]

It is still not their responsibility. It should be the journalists responsibility to do a better job than them. It is not that Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert has raised the bar, it is that Journalism as a whole has lowered it to the point that they have stop being the Fourth Estate. If no one in the media will take their place then that is discouraging.

The point is, if they are gone tomorrow, who can replace them? We need a media institution that can take their place when they are gone but we have none.

[mrsilence.livejournal.com]

I disagree with the premise that the media "isn't doing it's job" and that is why this sort of event is necessary.

This sort of thing is always going to be necessary.

The assumption that the media is a thing which we "should" be able to rely on for enlightened discourse is both flawed and remarkably naive.

While we have been fortunate that it has indeed often served that role historically, we should always be prepared to examine it closely, to critique and where necessary, to bypass it, or simply put our foot down and tell it to shut up.

All entities of society, including individuals, government, the judiciary and media are capable of self-interested exploitation, contrary to the public interest.

Responsibility for maintaining civil and constructive public discourse rests with each and everyone of us; it is not something we can shirk responsibility for onto some supposed independent and reliable 3rd party. There are no independent 3rd parties, only those who are being independent and reliable right now, because that is in their interest to be. Such as Colbert and Stewart and those they have gathered together, by and large, although again, we cannot expect that to always be the case.

[reality-hammer.livejournal.com]

the rally was notable for its lack of partisanship

Notable in what sense? Beck's rally wasn't partisan, either.

[nevermind6794.livejournal.com]

Except for Sarah Palin as a prominent keynote speaker. And everything about Glenn Beck.