Did we all hear the message?

So, was it entertainment or politics?
Or was it simply a publicity stunt?
C-SPAN asked the first question in the wake of the Jon Stewart/Stephen Colbert Rally to Restore Sanity And/Or Fear at the National Mall in Washington on Saturday afternoon.
The answer, of course, is that it was all three.
The somewhat wacky event was plenty entertaining, with music from everyone from the O’Jays to Ozzie Ozbourne and lots of laughs from satirists Stewart and Colbert.
And there’s no doubt the rally was a publicity stunt. After all, that’s what demonstrations and rallies are. They’re attempts to gain media attention by manufacturing a kind of news.
But it’s the politics of the event that deserve attention, because that’s where things got serious and that’s where it struck a chord worth listening to.
After all the laughs and all the music, after the intentionally silly “protest” signs carried by those in attendance, Stewart had some important points to make.
Consider these three from his concluding remarks:
•Stewart noted that disagreement need not polarize. It’s possible, as he said, to have animus without becoming enemies. Americans disagree all the time, on school boards, on city councils, and at the dinner table. But they still find a way to work through their differences to find common solutions to shared problems.
•While the 24/7 media overload — particularly from cable TV news and the blogosphere — did not create the country’s current problems, that constant, divisive noise is making it more difficult to address those problems. When everything is amplified, said Stewart, nothing is heard clearly.
•We get nowhere by name-calling. When a broadcaster like Rick Sanchez or Juan Williams makes an impolitic remark, to cry racism is overkill. And when the president proposes legislation that had been backed by previous Republican administrations, to scream fascism or communism is ridiculous.
In both cases, the real evils of racism and fascism and communism are under-estimated when the labels are tossed around so freely.
Entertaining? You bet.
A publicity stunt? Of course.
But thought-provoking? Yes. It wasn’t all fun and games on the Mall on Saturday.
Let’s just hope some folks were listening. — J.R.[[In-content Ad]]