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Fox News paints Stewart-Colbert rally attendees as insane potheads

by rescuetruth on October 31st, 2010

Today Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert held the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear on the National Mall. Crowd estimates range from 200,000 to 300,000 people.  At the end of the rally, Stewart made a very profound and enlightened speech, while maintaining a simple, comedic eloquence.

“If we amplify everything, we hear nothing.” -Jon Stewart


If Fox News was the sole source of news in this country, they would have you think that this rally was full of naked hippies who were smoking pot and taking mushrooms.  Fox’s front page article references marijuana a multitude of times in an article that is clearly less than a page in length.

Two paragraphs were dedicated to marijuana and Proposition 19 in California, which was not mentioned even once during the rally, followed by an additional mention of “marijuana-supporting seniors.”

Many attendees commented on this travesty of an article, and called Fox out on being misleading. One person said they only saw “ONE legalize ‘you know what’ sign,” whereas another person said he only saw “one or two among the hundreds.”  While legalizing marijuana would actually benefit America by reducing the prison population, generating revenue, and reducing accessibility to minors like with alcohol, this was merely an attempt to smear the Jon Stewart and the rally attendees.

Another person who commented on the story would have you think that this rally was part of some vast Democratic conspiracy, and cited Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals, “…it would be wise to remember rule #5 of Saul Alynsky’s Rules for Radicals: ‘Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon. It’s hard to counterattack ridicule, and it infuriates the opposition, which then reacts to your advantage.’”  Notice the misspelling? And how about the flagrant insanity and paranoia?

This isn’t the first time Fox News has attempted to make Stewart’s crowd out to be drug addicted hippies.  Bill O’Reilly has consistently referred to Stewart’s viewers as potheads.

“I would love to come, but it’ll be a contact high.  You know they’ll be smoking substance at that rally.  You know what’s going to go on there.  Come on… look.  Every dope dealer within 100 miles is going to be at that rally!  You know that.” -Bill O’Reilly[3]

I suppose we can’t blame Fox News, for as Stewart said, our country’s immune system, the media, is very, very sick.  Fox News magnifies small issues, and has crossed the line into entertainment and political campaigning for the GOP, instead of presenting facts.

Fox News is only following their age old tradition of picking a few “random” people out of the crowd, and making them representative of the entire demographic, instead of talking about the fact that there were blacks, whites, Asians, Latinos, gays, Muslims, etc., all present at this rally. This is no different than the Fox network’s encouragement of xenophobic comments simply because they get ratings.

Perhaps Fox News is just resentful of the fact that Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, two comedians, hosted a rally with more substance and honesty than recovering rodeo clown Glenn Beck could ever dream up.

“There are terrorists and racists and Stalinists and theocrats, but those are titles that must be earned. You must have the resume. Not being able to distinguish between real racists and Tea Partiers, or real bigots and Juan Williams, or Rich Sanchez is an insult not only to those people, but to the racists themselves who have put in the exhausting effort it takes to hate.” -Jon Stewart

Sources
[1] C-SPAN.  Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear
[2] Fox News.  Stewart’s Rally for ‘Sanity’ Draws Insane Crowd
[3] Fox News.  Unedited Jon Stewart Interview (O’Reilly Factor)

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  • http://www.k2incense.net K2 incense

    Surprise, Surprise. I wouldn’t expect anything less from Fox News.

  • Pingback: Vote. | Ted Brassfield

  • Guest

    It impresses me how people comment on an article without reading the source material. Fully formulate your opinion before making a statement.
    I read the source article and this comment article is a twisted hack response. Firstly they did say it drew insane crowd however it was in reference to the size of the crowd not the mental capacity of the individuals. Secondly pot wasn’t reference a multitude of times. I mean the article was a very short article with pot mentioned 3 times. Once with the comment from the guy holding the sign, once about Proposition 19, and once from the 61 seniors who said that they supported marijuana. In fact if you want to quantify the article then you would have to do it like such. Half the article was about the sheer size the “insane”ly large crowd, a bout a forth of it about the hot button issues among them pot, and the last half about the most “vehemently” picketed issue which was against the Tea Party. In fact if you go to the article, that is the one which was chosen for the photo.
    Now about the so called evidence that is was skewed. You compare the first person view of one person who said they only saw one sign in one part of a very large crowd to the view of a reporter who said they saw several in one part of a very large crowd and you say that Fox News’ report was incorrect. Who is the one whom is misleading? Granted that there are individuals on Fox as well and plenty of other places that dislike Jon Stewart. So what, that is there opinion. Listen to their opinion, listen to their opposition and formulate your own. I mean seriously, I can turn on the news and hear people degrade Fox and call it fact and yet when the tables are turned it is called hate speech and Republican propaganda. If you are to assume that the people who hate Fox News and disagrees with every thing they have to report or has some issue with the report itself are correct and it is truly Republican propaganda. You must also assume that they are spreading the counter propaganda. I mean the ‘Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon. It’s hard to counterattack ridicule, and it infuriates the opposition, which then reacts to your advantage.’ as the article most proudly stated.
    I watch Fox News, I watch CNN, ABC, MSNBC, among others and I formulate my own opinion, try it sometime it is sure to bring you some degree of pride.

  • http://twitter.com/MediaNewsNViews MediaNewsAndViews

    Fox News’ slant on Comedy Central’s Sanity/Fear rally raises questions about what is fair and balanced. But is the joke on us for even asking the question?

    MediaNewsAndViews.com: Spoiler Alert: Fox News Isn’t “Fair and Balanced”
    http://www.medianewsandviews.com/2010/11/foxnews_sanityrally/

  • http://twitter.com/rescuetruth Chris Strosser

    What I found interesting was that even conservatives who are avid Fox News viewers found Fox’s coverage to be extremely biased and even disgraceful. You can see this in the comments for the article linked in this post.

  • http://twitter.com/rescuetruth Chris Strosser

    Just like Fox, you missed the entire point. My favorite is your last sentence, “I watch CNN, ABC, and MSNBC, among others.” That’s like saying, “I have a lot of gay friends,” so I’m not a bigot.

  • Guest

    Seriously that is your argument? I try to develop a rounded opinion and you equate it to bigotry. Perhaps you understood the point of this opinion post which was to mislead because you seem to be quite mislead. The article that brought this rescue truth post about did not imply nothing close to what this post says it does and no amount of misleading conjecture you come up with will change that fact. The article was about the insane size of the crowd that included people that were picketing in favor of pot; however, it does not imply that the rally attendees were insane potheads. Try to think for yourself; try to be objective. Saying that i try to collect information from difference sources and then formulate an opinion is nothing like saying that having a lot of gay friends means that I am not a bigot. If your going to attempt to make an argument try your best to make sense.