Jon Stewart of Comedy Central's "The Daily Show", pictured, hosted "Rally to Restore Sanity".
An estimated quarter of a million people gathered at the National Mall over the weekend to hear comedian Jon Stewart declare that “reasonableness” must be the standard for American discourse and to call out cable news networks for promoting fear and political division.
“The country’s 24-hour politico-pundit-perpetual-panic conflictinator did not cause our problems, but its existence makes solving them that much harder,” Stewart said in a speech at the end of the three-hour rally.
The “Rally to Restore Sanity and Fear” was a mix of jokes and music that did not support certain candidates or political parties, but asked American to use their better judgment when examining issues of the day.
Comedy Central, which airs Stewart’s “The Daily Show”, estimated the crowd at 250,000.
Stewart stood on a stage with the Capitol to his back to drive in the message that many people are reasonable when it comes to handling the everyday problems of life.
“The truth is, we work together to get things done every damn day,” he said. “The only place we don’t is here, or on cable TV – but Americans don’t live here or on cable TV.”
Stewart acknowledged that as a comedian he might be breaking some of the understood rules of political punditry.
“I’m sure I’ll find out tomorrow how I violated them,” he said.
Speaking to reporters after the rally, he said. “Our currency is not this town currency. “We’re not running for anything. We don’t have a constituency. We do television shows for people who like them.”