Logo

Press Goes Crazy for Covering Jon Stewart’s ‘Rally to Restore Sanity’; Plus Obama’s Appearance on Stewart’s Show Was a Ratings Winner

Oct 29, 2010  •  Post A Comment

More than 1,000 people applied for press credentials to cover Jon Stewart’s "Rally to Restore Sanity" in Washington on Saturday, with some press outlets requesting as many as 40 press passes, reports The New York Times’ Media Decoder blog.

Comedy Central eventually narrowed down the list to 400 press credentials, the story notes. Television news outlets from Japan, Russia and Switzerland requested and were granted press passes. “I think were more fascinated than overwhelmed by the number and variety of media requests,” says Craig Minassian, who as a consultant to Comedy Central is helping produce the rally and was a former Clinton administration press aide.

Since the deadline for applications closed on Oct. 20, President Barack Obama’s appearance on Jon Stewart’s "The Daily Show" didn’t have an influence on the number of requests, the story notes.

Separately, the Media Decoder reports that 2.8 million people watched that Stewart interview of Obama on Wednesday night, Oct 27, 2010. That was far more than the typical audience for the program, which normally averages about 1.9 million viewers. It also marked the third-highest rated episode of the program, following a previous appearance by Obama when he was a candidate and another show the same month when Michelle Obama visited the program, the article notes.

4 Comments

  1. Let’s see if Stewart can come anywhere close to Glenn Beck’s 300,000+ attendance, of which none got free food or free bus rides (and certainly no free trip from Oprah, as will be the case for some of Stewart’s attendees). Beck strongly encouraged his attendees to NOT carry any signs or misbehave, and very, very few did.

  2. Obviously, Doug, you won’t be among them. It would not suprise me at all if the number of people to show up would be the same or even smaller. Most sane people have jobs and other commitments. As with most things, you seem to miss the point. Jon, agree with him or not, is trying to point toward solutions to the nations problems. Unlike the demagouges, Beck and Palin, who are only interested in tearing down whatever they disagree with to advance a party or personal agenda. They offer no real solutions and are not willing to compromise for the good of the country. You know, the sane way to approach anything.

  3. Great article!

  4. I am extremely impressed with your writing skills and also with the layout on your blog. Is this a paid theme or did you customize it yourself? Either way keep up the nice quality writing, it’s rare to see a nice blog like this one these days.. 🙂

Leave a Reply to Buy Backlinks Cancel Reply

Email (will not be published)