So it was a jolt when Comedy Central’s political satirists Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert announced a few weeks ago that they would instead use this Saturday for a pair of competing rallies at the National Mall in Washington – events that were soon combined, Voltron-style, into a single super-gathering called the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear.
– Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert have wrapped up their big DC rally, a mix of their usual political shtick and eclectic musical acts (Ozzy, Tony Bennett, and the former Cat Stevens, for instance) performed in front of tens of thousands on the National Mall. "I can't control what people think this was," said Stewart. "I can only tell you my intentions: this was not a rally to ridicule people...or look down at the or to suggest times are not difficult and we have nothing to fear. They are and we do. We live now in hard times but these are not End Times. We can have animus and not be enemies." A sampling of the material: Stewart handed out a "Medal of Reasonableness" award to Detroit Tigers pitcher Armando Galarraga for accepting, with grace, a blown call that cost him a perfect game. Colbert gave a "Fear Award" to various news organizations for not allowing employees attend the rally. Coverage at AP, the New York Times, the Washington Post, and MSNBC.