Rally to restore Irony

Erik Kain

Erik writes about video games at Forbes and politics at Mother Jones. He's the contributor of The League though he hasn't written much here lately. He can be found occasionally composing 140 character cultural analysis on Twitter.

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12 Responses

  1. TKOEd says:

    ” I think the main focus of Stewart’s animus was, as usual, the media itself rather than any grassroots conservatives.”

    #BINGO!!!

    I don’t understand how so many bright people have missed this. This was an anti-msm rally more than anything. I watched the last hour & a half. It basically was saying that journos & pundits on the whole aren’t doing their jobs (reporting IN DEPTH on important stories, providing insightful analysis, etc) but are just stoking fear & resentment.Report

    • RTod in reply to TKOEd says:

      @TKOEd,

      Agreed.

      “I don’t understand how so many bright people have missed this.”

      I suspect many people who have a strong political opinion about The Daily Show have never really watched much of it, and I’m sure that the opinions of the rally are much the same.

      I love the satire of the show, and watch it on TIVO a few times a week. It’s odd to watch 2 or 3 episodes in a row that bang on the Dems, or the administration, and then read conservatives bemoan how Jon Stewart and crew are just a DNC lackey… or liberals cheer his anti-Fox bits, not apparently noticing that he spent more time skewering them.Report

    • 62across in reply to TKOEd says:

      @TKOEd,

      “I don’t understand how so many bright people have missed this.”

      I think you’ll find those “bright people” are almost all members of the “country’s 24-hour-politico-pundit-perpetual-panic-confictinator” that Stewart spoke of in his closing remarks. They miss his point, because to understand his point would be self-incriminating.

      Actually, the degree to which a particular pundit misses his point seems to roughly correlate with how far out on the conflictinator scale they fall. Exhibit A: Glenn Beck stating today on his program that the Sanity rally had “the same message I gave on 8/28”. Exhibit B: Keith Olbermann didn’t like it either.Report

      • RTod in reply to 62across says:

        @62across,

        One last point, riffing on what you just noted:

        I have noticed that whenever Stewart is on a pundit’s show (with the obvious exception of the now famous Tucker Carlson beat down), the host is always trying to walk that fine line between Genuine Concern and Pursed Lipped Total Dismissiveness about Stewart’s inability to stay in the pre-scripted pundit talking point box as he makes jokes about them and their network.

        But in the background, you can ALWAYS here the pundit’s staff and crew cracking up whenever Stewart makes his funniest digs.Report

  2. gregiank says:

    Yeah I’ll second what TKOEd said. Neither Colbert or Stewart seem to be trying to equal or be a balance to the TP’s. They are against the stupifcation of the MSM and the overheated rhetoric we have fallen into. It’s really not all that subtle a point. To many people like hyperbole, i’m not referring to you Eric, so they just can’t see the clear message. Stewart obviously has preferences but tends towards being respectful with people who will honestly engage in ideas.Report

  3. Kyle Cupp says:

    They could have called it The Rally to Restore Liberty and Tyranny.

    Yeah, but then Mark Levin would have become enraged, accused them of stealing his words, and dubbed them “backbenchers.”Report

  4. T. Greer says:

    I could be wrong, but I think the main focus of Stewart’s animus was, as usual, the media itself rather than any grassroots conservatives.

    But what about the rally’s attendees?

    Personally I think Chris Hedges has the best take on the rally I’ve come across on the web. I would suggest that readers of this sight also read it.Report

    • TKOEd in reply to T. Greer says:

      @T. Greer,

      I like Hedges, but he totally misses the point. this statement for instance:

      “The celebrities from Comedy Central and the trash talk show hosts on Fox are in the same business. They are entertainers”

      Really Chris? Stewart & Colbert are entertainers? Who knew? I mean come on. They don’t try to be anything but that. Hedges was looking for something at that rally he was never going to get.

      This kind of analysis proves RTod right. I don’t think most of the critics of the rally have ever watched Stewart or Colbert’s shows regularly. If they did, they would not have expected more than what they got.Report

      • TKOEd in reply to TKOEd says:

        @TKOEd,

        I would also add the ridiculous false equivalency here. We all know Stewart & Colbert are entertainers. The folks on Fox pretend they are providing serious, unbiased analysis, and news. BIG DIFFERENCE.Report

    • 62across in reply to T. Greer says:

      @T. Greer, thank you for providing, courtesy of the folks at Reason, Exhibit C in the correlation between complicity in the dysfunction and missing the point of the rally.Report