User:CreedShandor/Truthiness

The Stewart–Colbert rallies are two competing events planned to occur on October 30, 2010 on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.: the "Rally to Restore Sanity", hosted by Jon Stewart, and the "March to Keep Fear Alive", led by Stephen Colbert. The rallies are planned as a satirical response to radical political trends in the United States, in particular, those which have been initiated by the Tea Party in the run-up to the 2010 midterm elections but also, if in lesser part, to satirize rhetoric of extremism expressed against the previous U.S. presidential administration of George W. Bush. The Rally to Restore Sanity website says that it is "a rally for the people who've been too busy to go to rallies"; a chance to be heard above what Stewart describes as the more vocal 15 to 20 percent of Americans who "control the conversation" of United States politics.

Origins
On August 28, 2010, Fox News's Glenn Beck held a Restoring Honor rally at the Lincoln Memorial. According to New York Magazine, discussion for a Stewart–Colbert public event in satirical response to Beck took place behind-the-scenes at Stewart's The Daily Show as far back as the August 12, 2010 episode. Prior to any public discussion from either Stewart or Colbert's parties, Reddit members independently began to discuss the possibility of a Stewart or Colbert-led rally. News articles on the "Rally to Restore Sanity" / "March to Keep Fear Alive" have stated they were announced "thanks to an online campaign started on Reddit.com."

Inception "vision" statement
On August 31, reddit user Joseph Laughlin ("MrSamMercer") posted a message calling for a Colbert-led Rally:

thumb|250px|Stephen Colbert telling jokes at the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner In that message, Laughlin cited Colbert's 2006 performance at the White House Correspondent's Dinner. Standing a few feet from U.S. President George W. Bush, in front of an audience of celebrities, politicians, and members of the White House Press Corps, Colbert had delivered a controversial, searing routine targeting the president and the media. Laughlin also wrote that such a Colbert-led rally would be "the high water mark of American satire".

On Reddit, Laughlin's proposal quickly attracted strong support. In response to it, Reddit users began to organize an attempt to make Laughlin's vision a reality. The campaign quickly spread to facebook and twitter. As a result of this campaign, on Sept 7, the phrase "Restoring Truthiness" appeared on "Google Trends"--  a fact that was later reported on The Colbert Report.

Charity Drive
Supporters of the movement began a drive to raise money for educational charities through DonorsChoose.org, an organization of which Colbert is a board member. In the first 24 hours, supporters raised over $100,000. In the days that followed, that total increased to over $250,000. In doing so, they broke the site's previous record of $30,000 established by supporters of Hillary Clinton.

Response and formal announcement by Stewart and Colbert
Starting on Sept 7, the two shows began making reference to a "future announcement". Ultimately, on the Sept 16,2010 episodes of their respective shows, Stewart and Colbert announced the "Rally to Restore Sanity" and "March to Keep Fear Alive".

"We live in troubled times," Stewart began, "with real people facing real problems, problems that have real if imperfect solutions that I believe 70 to 80 percent of our population could agree to try and could ultimately live with. Unfortunately, the conversation and process is controlled by the other 15 to 20 percent. " Stewart went on to describe the rally as a "A Clarion call for Rationality."

Stewart also displayed several potential signs for the rally:
 * "I disagree with you, but I'm pretty sure you're not Hitler"
 * "Got Competence?"
 * "9/11 was an outside job"
 * "Legalize pot"
 * "I'm not afraid of Muslims/Tea Partiers/Socialists/Immigrants/Gun Owners/Gays, but I am scared of spiders"

On the subsequent episode of The Colbert Report, Colbert satirically 'responded' to Stewart's announcement: "Jon Stewart is holding a rally in Washington, D.C., to promote reasonableness? Need I point out that reason is just one letter away from treason?  And if we had taken it down a notch when the British passed their tea tax, today we'd all be speaking English.  So shame on you Jon Stewart!  America cannot afford a rally to restore sanity in the middle of a recession.  Did you even consider how many panic-related jobs that might cost those of us in the Fear Industrial Complex?"

Media Response
The Wall Street Journal characterized the Rally as a "send-up" of the recent Washington Restoring Honor rally led by Glenn Beck and the "Reclaim the Dream" commemorative march led by Al Sharpton on August 28, 2010. Canada's Globe and Mail called the Stewart/Colbert rallies a "not-so-gentle" swipe at Glenn Beck's "Restoring Honor" rally.

Pre-event public response
Within hours of the announcement, 34,000 people pledged to attend the rally through its Facebook fanpage. Other rallies were planned overnight in American cities and cities outside the United States while the pledged number of attendees to the official Facebook event reached 69,000. 12 hours after the announcement there were "tens of thousands" of respondents. Although organizers said in their application for a permit from the National Park Service that they hoped for an attendance at the combined event of about 25,000 people, as of 14:30 EST September 20th, the Facebook pages for the dual rallies had over 100,000 people indicating they planned to attend, comparable to some estimates of the attendance at Beck's "Restoring Honor" rally. On Sep 22, it was reported that the permit filed with the National Parks Service had been amended, increasing the expected crowd size from an earlier estimate of 25,000 to a new estimate of 60,000.

On Sept 21, Oprah lent her support to the rally, tweeting "I think Jon Stewart's on to something. Rally to Restore Sanity. Would you consider going? Oct 30, 2010?"

Timeline

 * August 28 - Beck's Restoring Honor rally
 * August 31 - 'Vision' posted on reddit
 * Sept 7 - 'Restoring Truthiness' on Google Trends due to Operation Strike of Truthiness
 * Sept 16 - Formal announcements made on The Daily Show / Colbert Report
 * Sept 21 - Oprah endorsement
 * October 30 - Rally Date
 * November 2 - US Elections

Rally to Restore Sanity links

 * Rally to Restore Sanity (Official Website)
 * Rally to Restore Sanity announcement on the hosted on DailyShow.com (requires Flash)
 * Official Rally to Restore Sanity Facebook Event page

March to Keep Fear Alive links

 * March to Keep Fear Alive (Official Website)
 * March to Keep Fear Alive announcement hosted on the ColbertNation.com (requires Flash)
 * Official March to Keep Fear Alive Facebook Event page

Other links

 * Reddit Thread Credited by the Washington Post as starting it