In today’s topsy-turvy, convoluted, and just plain confused society, it only seems appropriate that a “Rally to Restore Sanity” is being led by a comedian. Yes. Really.

Jon Stewart, host of the hilarious fake news show “The Daily Show”, will be hosting the aforementioned rally at the Washington Mall, which in forty years has seen a slight dip in speaker quality from the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., leader of the civil rights movement, to, uh, Glenn Beck. It is the people who would not be inclined to go to the latter’s rallies that Stewart is targeting; his stated purpose for the rally is to “give voice to the 70-80% of people” who, unlike Beck rally attendees, “have s*** to do.”

While the mainstream media would laugh at the silly little comedian and humorously ask if he was serious, I, the small-time commentator who is supposed to be humorous, will instead take the serious angle and examine the significance of a major news network personality trying to “restore honor” and a comedian trying to “restore sanity.” Role reversal seems to be all the rage these days anyway.

I don’t know whether Stewart the person is doing this as a genuine sentiment or as part of his TV personality, but there is no doubt this shines a spotlight on the Yellow Journalism 2.0 media of our times. Thirty to forty years ago, “news” was just that: the daily paper and the TV networks would update you with the facts on what’s new; there was a clear boundary between the facts of the news and entertainment. Now… let’s just say that if the word “infotainment” is a part of our daily lexicon, the news networks are probably not doing such a good job on it.

It’s really sad. Not too long ago, it would have been unimaginable if newsmen hosted antigovernment rallies or said that certain politicians “sent a thrill up my leg”. They were supposed to be objective, delivering what’s going on without opinion and letting people decide whether it’s good or bad.

However, the primary objective of news media companies is to make a profit. As entertainment options such as video games and, later, the Internet exploded, news media needed something to recapture their viewers’ attention. How?

Make the news entertaining. Add in special effects and toys, sprinkle in some controversial but entertaining news personalities, and you have a much more consumer-friendly news system! People think facts are boring? Why not offer five minutes of punditry and opinion for every half-verified development that takes 10 seconds to announce? Instead of being where you get your facts, TV news has become part of America’s nightly entertainment lineup on the tube.

The most egregious example I found of this news-entertainment-industrial complex was Glenn Beck’s “9/12 rally”. No matter their role, employees of a news company should never try to make news happen, yet Beck’s goal was clearly to showcase Obama’s opposition in a newsworthy manner. The numerous misspelled signs and room-temperature IQ of some of the protesters was a fitting symbol of how far TV news media has fallen from its former place as a distributor of information.

This did not escape the attention of those that, at first glance, would be more inclined to put on such a humorous display of American ineptitude: the producers of Comedy Central show the Daily Show. If you watch the show, you’ll notice as one constant theme their lampooning of poor media coverage or sensationalism. They took advantage of this prime example to stage their own rally “to restore sanity.” The irony? It seems to be the more serious, needed rally.

Whereas Beck’s rally is what’d you expect of a British comedy show lampooning the Ugly American, one can argue that a “Million Moderate March” is actually necessary. At a period of highly charged, partisanship where voters’ voices are often weighed and given importance by decibel level, the march has the potential to remind America and the rest of the world that the majority of us still haven’t completely lost it. It can remind us that rational discussion of political matters is still possible, that facts still matter more that shouting. The Comedy Central host can, in other words, remind us of what TV news shows are supposed to remind us of. Instead, the news shows are too busy trying to outdo Comedy Central at being comedic.