Steve Safran has a marvelous takedown of all the hand-wringing over Jon Stewart’s Rally to Restore Sanity:
Within minutes of the conclusion of the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear, the articles were flying. Most simply reported on the event. Others decided the way to go was to focus on the numbers in attendance, the audience being too liberal, or how the rally “won’t really change anything at all.” In any case, we get some excellent examples of the usual ways critics go about their jobs. After a rally that criticized the media for creating fear and artifice, some journalists apparently decided to help Jon Stewart prove his point. So there are lots of attempts at trying to pigeonhole the show. And if there’s one thing some journalists can’t stand, it’s ambiguity.