Pat Dollard

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Politico:

Jon Stewart’s planned rally to “restore sanity” just got a big endorsement – from President Obama.

Speaking to families in Richmond, Va., Obama scolded the media for rewarding commentators who espouse extreme beliefs on the right and the left.

“I was amused – Jon Stewart, you know, the host of The Daily Show, apparently he’s going to host a rally,” Obama said. Not quite getting the name right – he called it “Americans in Favor of a Return to Sanity, or something like that” – Obama said, “70 percent of the folks are just like you.”

“They don’t go around calling people names. They don’t make stuff up. They may not be following every single issue,” he said. “They are just expecting some common sense. … Having those voices lifted up is really important.”

The news media, Obama said, has “gotten very splintered,” and its players have figured out that the more controversial they are, the more air time they’ll get.

“If I’m going out there and calling Obama this name or that name and saying Obama was born in this country, that will get me attention,” Obama said, imitating commentators. “They get rewarded in the way our media’s set up right now. … So part of the challenge is figuring out how to create a space for people saying, you know, ‘We’re all Americans, and we’re going to try and solve our problems.’ ”