{"id":7758,"date":"2010-10-30T18:09:53","date_gmt":"2010-10-31T01:09:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/blog\/?p=7758"},"modified":"2012-08-18T21:22:54","modified_gmt":"2012-08-19T04:22:54","slug":"signs-in-washington","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/blog\/?p=7758","title":{"rendered":"Signs in Washington"},"content":{"rendered":"

The coverage of Jon Stewart’s sanity rally in Washington, D.C., has been decidedly spotty thus far. Thinking they were only providing some journalistic color, USA Today<\/em> managed to touch on the real reason<\/a> any of us reads coverage about such rallies: “The audience came prepared to play along. Many brought signs to underscore the message of reasonableness, or just to be funny.” And then USA Today actually quoted three signs:<\/p>\n

I’m somewhat irritated about extreme outrage.
\nThe only thing we have to fear is fear itself — and spiders.
\nStand united against signs.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The New York Times<\/em>, in order to prove they are more serious than USA Today<\/a>, deigned to report on only two signs:<\/p>\n

Shrinks for sanity.
\nI can see the real America from my house.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Washington Post<\/em>, trying to be just as serious as the New York Times<\/em><\/a>, reported just two signs, except one of the signs was two-sided so they actually reported on three signs, proving they are not as serious as the Times<\/em>: <\/p>\n

Decaf Party.
\nThis is my comedy channel. (with the Fox News logo)<\/em>
\n    The reverse of the same sign:
\nThis is my news channel. (with the Comedy Central logo)<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Fox News tried to be twice as serious<\/a> as the New York Times, by reporting on only one sign — which, coincidentally, also allowed them to report on none of the signs mocking Fox News. The one sign they reported on:<\/p>\n

Tea Party rallies need more tea.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Fortunately, the Brits understand what’s truly of interest. The BBC reported lots of signs<\/a>, thus proving they are far less serious than their American counterparts. No wonder the BBC is now my preferred source of news coverage. Here are the signs they reported:<\/p>\n

We’re Moms — Life is Insane Enough Without Fox News.
\nGod hates rallies.
\nGod Hates Flags.
\nI’m a little annoyed, but I’ll get over it.
\nPalin\/Voldemort 2012.
\nRuly Mob.
\nI’m here from the internet to put captions on your rally.
\nHyperbole is the antichrist.
\nObama — re-open NY subway toilets now.
\nLook at my ironic hipster sign.
\nOne nation under Aqua Buddha.
\nBirthers for Hawaii statehood.
\nSigns are an impractical medium for civil discourse.
\nI leave binary thinking to computers.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And the following signs were visible on BBC’s video coverage:<\/p>\n

Stop yelling at me! That’s why I moved out of my parents’ house.
\nHug it out: Kindergarten taught me well.
\nMuggles for sanity.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Canadians get the humor, too. The National Post<\/em> has lots of photos of signs<\/a>, including:<\/p>\n

Blame Canada — Kyle’s mom.
\nWhat do we want?!
\n  Respectful discourse.
\nWhen do we want it?!
\n  Now would be agreeable to me, but I am interested in your opinion.
\nIf you don’t believe in government, perhaps you shouldn’t run for it.
\nI like tea, and you’re kind of ruining it.
\nI may not agree with U, but I’m sure U R not Hitler!
\nA wrap is not a sandwich.
\nI was told there would be Justin Bieber.
\nGod Hates (or at least is totally unimpressed by) Ideologues.
\nI have no problem paying taxes because I’m an adult and that’s part of the deal.
\nI’m even-tempered as Hell.
\nI like protesting.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But it’s not just the Brits and Canadians. Left Coast coverage did the signs, too. The L.A. Times<\/em> has lots of photos of text- and non-text-based signs<\/a>. One of the signs with a visual punchline read “I’m with stupid”, and had an arrow pointing to heaven. The text-based signs included:<\/p>\n

Millennials [sic]: You’d better be “nice” to us — We’ll be on your death panel!!
\nStop this bickering — Partisanship is hurting us!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Thank you, L.A. Times<\/em>. And thank God I live on the Left Coast, where people still have a sense of humor.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The coverage of Jon Stewart’s sanity rally in Washington, D.C., has been decidedly spotty thus far. Thinking they were only providing some journalistic color, USA Today managed to touch on the real reason any of us reads coverage about such rallies: “The audience came prepared to play along. Many brought signs to underscore the message […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[242],"class_list":["post-7758","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pop-culture","tag-washington-dc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7758","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7758"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7758\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8179,"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7758\/revisions\/8179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}