Celeste Headlee, The Takeaway
Celeste Headlee, is a former co-host of The Takeaway.
What struck me most about Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert's "Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear?" The attendees were not the people that Washington thinks they are. Yes, there were plenty of college students, pot smokers, and 20-somethings who rarely vote. But of the 20 people that I spoke to as they passed by me on the National Mall, not one of them fit that description. In fact, only two were younger than 40.
Many politicians (on both sides of the aisle) are comfortable dismissing the Daily Show and Colbert crowd as not serious, and non-voting. I think that's a mistake. The majority of the people I saw were middle-aged or retired, politically active, and fed up with politics.
For a career politician, what makes them dangerous is that many have reached the end of their patience and seem ready to hold people accountable for voting records and their platforms, without being swayed by ads. That's balanced, though, with the fact that they all have different priorities. I asked every person I spoke to the same question: "What should be the first priority of Congress?" I got different answers from almost everyone. Two people said jobs, but one said she didn't think Congress could really do anything about unemployment. So this so-called "middle" group – the "sane and reasonable" center – are issues voters who are frequently split on the issues. They likely won't vote as a bloc, which means they can't be courted as easily as the extreme right or left.
I talked to people who had driven down from Pennsylvania, flown in from Colorado and taken buses from New York. I even talked to a woman in her 50s who had bought a round-trip ticket from Honolulu the day after Jon Stewart announced his rally. Were they all Democrats? No. Were they all minorities? Absolutely not. Were they all middle class? Nope. And were they there to see a comedian? Not really. These people drove, flew, and rode from all points of the country because they wanted to be part of a historic moment, and they wanted to send a message to their elected representatitves. It would be smart for Capitol Hill to pay attention, and stop thinking that the sanity movement is at heart a big group of kids that like jokes.
That only applies to that group of college students that were sitting on the porta-potties.
(below, a slideshow of signs from the Rally, as shot by Takeaway associate producer, Mythili Rao.)
Celeste Headlee, is a former co-host of The Takeaway.
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Comments [7]
I am disappointed. John Hockenberry asked the question--a question I have been wondering--"Why did we send 2 reporters to the Jon Stewart Rally and none to the Glenn Beck rally?" Then, the question wasn't answered. At all. Why, if you are a legitimate, objective source of news, would you not cover both events equally? It seems the very things you are talking about--polarization, people not understanding each other in our country--are things that you are promoting through your lack of objective journalism. This rally was filled with people who said they are tired of bickering yet the ironic thing is they seem to only think THEIR point of view is valid. When are we going to listen to one another? When are we going to come up with solutions? We need journalists to help our country see both points of view.
I flew in from Colorado and was happy to be here for something, rather than against (Jan. 20 1973). The crowd was huge, overflowing onto Constitution and Pennsylvania avenues. The Metro subway was overwhelmed for hours. All were civil. We are tired of the constant trench warfare going on in Congress and the media. Does anyone there care about citizens???
I'm impressed -- in all those pictures of signs I only caught one misspelling and one missing apostrophe! That's a start.
But I'm a weensy bit confused. Weren't NPR employees forbidden to go to the rally (thought I heard that last week on the Daily Show) -- and you could go because you're PRI, or maybe just representing yourself?
Greetings, CG
We were there.
We were there to see for ourselves.
The people were what the whole event really was about, Jon and Stephen provided the setting.
I find it interesting that some felt that Jon was going to provide "marching orders" to his supposed minions. We're not minions. We enjoy the humor. We enjoy the rational discussion. We enjoy the sanity.
Since the TV news organizations have changed to big business (many years ago), "reporting" has died in my opinion. It just doesn't seem to draw the advertising revenue.
I recall the days of Cronkite, Huntley/Brinkley, John Chancellor and others who really were "fair and balanced" when reporting the news. These days it's about ratings and revenue.
It was a great day, with great people from all walks of life, a real cross section of our diverse country. We all managed to get along and have fun, even if we didn't agree...
Regarding the question John Hockenberry raised, why did The Take-Away send 2 reporters to John Stewart’s Rally, and not a single reporter to Glenn Beck’s rally earlier this year, I don’t give you any credit for raising the question, when you provided no answer. If a journalist is being stonewalled, raising the question is sometimes all he or she can do. But does Hockenberry have no sources at The Takeway who were privy to the editorial discussions that took place about whether and how to cover each of the rallies? Good question, John. Some answers please.
To weigh in on the decision, I arranged my Saturday to catch all of Stewart’s rally live on TV. I covered that story myself, for myself. I made no such arrangements for Glenn Beck’s rally. This regular listener would have been much more interested in you covering Beck’s rally and providing me with of the sort of excellent recap you gave to this weekend’s event.
In any case, John, don’t give up on the story. Think Woodward and Bernstein. Persevere, and I think you can crack Assignmentgate wide open.
Listening to Michelle and John all I kept hearing was the word 'media' mentioned over and over. Maybe that's the problem- putting themselves into a corporate category that includes all other forms of entertainment. Shouldn't the news behave like "the news" and not as part of popular entertainment? How does NPR's work get grouped up with The O'Reilly Factor comedy routine? The former is news, I hope, and the latter is entertainment. Maybe news reporting should go back to behaving like The News and stop trying to sell what everyone else is selling.
Oh Steve Colbert is speaking their language is he: "I'm stupid, I don't have a clue. Maybe I'll wake up when I realize I'm paying a 75% tax rate to pay for all these entitlement and socialist programs and have no retirement." Yes by all means, get your Politics-Lite from a left wing multi-millionaire comic.
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