On Oct. 30. 2010, approximately 217,000 fans descended on Washington DC to show their support for Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert.

Labeled, “The Rally for Sanity And/Or Fear”, It was one of the first days in United States history that the American people have come together to protest one of our most neglected checks and balances; The American Media Industry.

During the rally, two views of contrasted beliefs were argued. Stewart propagated a more moderate perspective with his rally cry, “Sanity”, hosting flowery guitar music by Cat Stevens, and a bi-polar Colbert generating anger, hatred and unbridled emotion under his banner, “Fear” at one point, unleashing a swarm of peanut-butter covered bees on the unsuspecting audience, which turned out just to be a scare tactic.

Stewart explained in front of the thousands of people how major news organizations are engaged in loud obnoxious back and forth name calling day in and day out.

His message being that polarized media has been driving Americans apart at a time when we need to stand together. And his data is sound.

According to a PEW center research report, independent voters are the biggest selective constituency in America. Those numbers represent the millions of frustrated citizens who are fed up with the top two political parties inability to meet in the center on countless critical issues ending in Washington gridlock.

“If we amplify everything, we hear nothing,” said Stewart.

The Republican sweep of the November elections clearly illustrated how angry voters are about how things are operating in the States. The immense amount of participants in the Comedy Central rally is just one example, and the subject wasn’t left by the wayside at all.

Stewart spoke of the need for constituency to not just reach across the isle, but to actually believe in the other side and bridge the hateful gap propelled by biased media.

With the Supreme Court decision of Citizens United v. FEC (allowed corporations to donate money directly from their bank accounts into campaign efforts), voters saw a dramatic increase in attack ads in the run up to the recent elections.

Endless character bashing utilizing petty over-exaggerated material has been seen on almost every major news channel, and rather than spend that time listening to corporate financed propaganda strewn all about the web, cable and facts.

The recent practice of slashing jobs for objective journalists, since our prized check and balance is left to private industry to fend for itself, and with increasing reliance of newspapers on centralized reporting agencies such as the AP to get their stories, the need for transparency in government that comes from the watchdog is skyrocketing.

Jon Stewart’s rally represents the end of that banter, and he’s getting hit from both parties for his courage. Unbiased profiles are getting muffled out by the yelling from the left and the right.

Just as Margaret Thatcher once said, “When you stand in the middle of the road, you get hit by traffic from both sides.”

Stewart and Colbert and millions of Americans are concerned with the policies and motives the extreme polarization of media represents and have reason for concern. A breakdown of the most extreme display of polarization our nation has seen in decades paints a clear picture of what is to be feared about lack of moderation.

On Aug. 28 in front of approximately 87,000 fans controversial talk-show host and Fox News commentator Glenn Lee Beck held a rally entitled “Restoring Honor”.

Beck, right-wing republican and Tea Party pundit, stirred up a fervent following since his debut in 2000 and has since become one of the world’s most controversial political figures in less than a decade.

His movement represents an extreme view that a large part of the American voting block represents. 60-year-old Russ Imrie, a blogger and Beck rally attendee explained the religious polarization.

“Half of it is entertainment,” said Imrie, referring to Beck’s programs, “But they were holding prayer meetings in front of the whole car on the subway. On the way to the rally. In front of everybody.”

Many of those attending Beck’s rally were wearing shirts and holding signs displaying quotations and slogans chanting about policies implemented by President Obama, many of them extreme and anti-government.

One sign, posted online read, “OBAMA’S PLAN – WHITE SLAVERY”.

This outrageous display of ignorance and hatred is the result of a long process of isolationism that American’s are very familiar with. It’s Becks rally that feeds the fire, and it’s left up to his viewers to take action.

American legal scholar Cass Sunstein says this practice of cutting yourself off and drifting to the fringes of society is a dangerous activity called “enclave extremism”. It’s the idea that opinions get amplified when people only hear the voices of like-minded individuals. In other words, initially flawed ideas that are propagated to an isolated group get amplified, and make an already bad situation become potentially disastrous.

Sunstein’s term characterizes the recent extreme right wing movement, fueled by heaps of inaccurate and outright anarchistic information that Beck feeds to his audiences.

Beck’s rally drove right wing republicans even further to the right than they already were, and with the current Republican sway in Washington, Jon Stewarts famous rally marks an important checkpoint in American history.

The day a quarter of a million Americans tried to pull two parties back together on a chilly day on the Washington Mall.