The way the media covered Glenn Beck's 8/28 Restoring Honor rally at the Lincoln Memorial is shameful, but not unexpected. That said, as clueless as Geraldo Rivera is, I'll give him credit for covering the event extensively.
But never underestimate Geraldo's ability to come up with absurdities. In this case, the absurdity was to have Al Sharpton as a guest on his show Saturday night – for the full hour! – to comment on the Beck rally and compare it to his own "Reclaim the Dream" rally on the same day.
I found it highly insulting to have the format of the show be a comparison between Beck's historic gathering and Sharpton's anemic attempt to recreate a 1960s-style civil-rights march. What made it even more pathetic was that every time Sharpton spoke on Geraldo's show, he had something negative to say about Beck or the Restoring Honor event. He came across as an angry, unknowledgeable child desperately in search of a scapegoat for his own lack of accomplishments.
Quite obviously, I was not at the Sharpton rally, but numerous reports from creditable sources place attendance in the 2,000-3,000 range. By contrast, the Beck event – which I did attend – drew a minimum of 500,000 people. (Trust me, minimum.) What is sad is that the only people who will ever know just how historic the event was are those who were in attendance, because, as I said at the outset, the media coverage was shameful.
The entire three hours of the Restoring Honor rally was filled with a spirit of goodwill and inclusiveness, with a focus on God as the answer to restoring the greatness that once signified America. By contrast, Sharpton's pitiful attempt to counter the Beck rally was (according to news reports) filled with the same old angry rhetoric that smacks of black liberation theology. (You know, "You must give back that which you have taken.")
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