Jon Stewart/Jim Cramer brouhaha

[Neal Masri]

Anyone been following this? Had led to some hsyterical bits on The Daily Show. Just in case you missed it, here are a couple of highlights here and here. Cramer will be on The Daily Show tonight...

Regardless of where you stand on this ginourmous financial mess, Stewart and his writers (and video researchers) are just effing brilliant.

[cdouglas]

As a long-time Daily Show fan, I've been following this with some enthusiasm. Very interesting stuff. It still remains a news item, too... channel-surfing last night, I noticed Bill O'Reilly doing a big piece on it. Looking forward to the showdown tonight.

[HGervais]

More power to Stewart. I have seen some of the wah wah wahing on Cramer's part but honestly, The Daily Show has him and indeed CNBC dead to rights. I only wish actual news organizations would do the same thing when interviewing guests. When you are in the "news" business what people say should be important and holding them accountable should be job one.

[Gobear]

That was . . . . AWESOME! It's sad that the most trenchant and insightful news analysis on television is done on a comedy show. Cramer and CNBC were complicit with Wall Street in defrauding their audience, and kudos to Jon for exposing that business reporting is nothing more than cheerleading for crooks.

[Steve T Power]

"Hauer my Stocks" with Rutger Hauer had me shooting milk through my nose. Stewart, i tip my hat to you sir!

[Neal Masri]

Is this my misperception or was Cramer on the verge of tears for most of that interview?

[J.M. Vargas]

^^^ You'd be on the verge of tears too if you saw your reputation and credibility vanish before your very eyes. It wasn't fake, Cramer was supposed to be on MSNBC this morning and canceled by not showing up.

[molly1216]

oddly i have never seen Cramer before but i am sorry to say i found him kinda likable.
i mean he got an honest drubbing from Stewart, but he went along with it and took his licks
but i'd give him a really high TV Q rating.
a lot of the dickheads Stewart takes apart are all arrogant and self centered pols and pundits
who get all seriously insulted and would have thought it beneath them even to appear.
even when told by their handlers that it would be good exposure.
this guy 'got it' and played along well i wouldn't mind seeing him on Stewarts show again.

[Gobear]

oddly i have never seen Cramer before but i am sorry to say i found him kinda likable.
i mean he got an honest drubbing from Stewart, but he went along with it and took his licks
but i'd give him a really high TV Q rating.
a lot of the dickheads Stewart takes apart are all arrogant and self centered pols and pundits
who get all seriously insulted and would have thought it beneath them even to appear.
even when told by their handlers that it would be good exposure.
this guy 'got it' and played along well i wouldn't mind seeing him on Stewarts show again.

Well, you are watching the interview without having seen Cramer before. He hosts (or "hosted" by now) a show on CNBC where he used his reputation as a hedge fund manager to peddle bad information to his audience with a manic arrogance.

Cramer richly deserved his ass-kicking, but he is only one man. The problem lies with media that have abandoned their role as reporters to become PR flacks and stenographers for the venal, corrupt oligarchy that rules our country.

[HGervais]

Alex Koppelman at Slate says what we saw last night was something we have never seen before and after watching the whole thing, I kind of agree.

[molly1216]

oddly i have never seen Cramer before but i am sorry to say i found him kinda likable.
i mean he got an honest drubbing from Stewart, but he went along with it and took his licks
but i'd give him a really high TV Q rating.
a lot of the dickheads Stewart takes apart are all arrogant and self centered pols and pundits
who get all seriously insulted and would have thought it beneath them even to appear.
even when told by their handlers that it would be good exposure.
this guy 'got it' and played along well i wouldn't mind seeing him on Stewarts show again.

Well, you are watching the interview without having seen Cramer before. He hosts (or "hosted" by now) a show on CNBC where he used his reputation as a hedge fund manager to peddle bad information to his audience with a manic arrogance.

Cramer richly deserved his ass-kicking, but he is only one man. The problem lies with media that have abandoned their role as reporters to become PR flacks and stenographers for the venal, corrupt oligarchy that rules our country.

i didn't say he wasn't 8 kinds of evil and 9 kinds of stupid, i just think he played well with others.
i see clips of his show and it reminds me a cross between Gallagher and Home Shopping network.

[Dimwitted]

Cramer's in Iron Man. Once you see that you'll get his act. As Stewart said though, it wasn't about him but all the Financial Press out there that have been cheerleading. Cramer was warned but did have the balls to appear, unlike Santorelli (sp?), which I have to give kudos for.

One of the big trouble spots on this whole deal is the fact that regular media has been muzzled so effectively. MSNBC, CNBC, FNN are watched by both the FCC and the SEC as well any corporate lawyers. Any bad news that tanks a stock and they're hauled into court so fast and it doesn't matter that they may be right. After the lawyers are done the network fires you anyway. Stewart can get away with it because he's "just a comedian". It's why in olden times that there was the court jester. Not to amuse the King but to put to him the unpleasant things in a funny way that would get anyone else's head chopped off.

[cdouglas]

Cramer's in Iron Man. Once you see that you'll get his act.

Not to deflate your argument or anything, but I felt I should mention that Christiane Amanpour was in The Pink Panther 2.

[HGervais]

I think the thing which most media critics have missed is with his dissection of CNBC & Jim Cramer, Stewart is basically reviving the theme of his appearance on Crossfire a few years ago. He is saying that as a society we are not being served well by our media and instead of being watchdogs for the benefit of everyone they are instead lapdogs for big business and the government. I can't say that I disagree with that.

[cdouglas]

I think the thing which most media critics have missed is with his dissection of CNBC & Jim Cramer, Stewart is basically reviving the theme of his appearance on Crossfire a few years ago. He is saying that as a society we are not being served well by our media and instead of being watchdogs for the benefit of everyone they are instead lapdogs for big business and the government. I can't say that I disagree with that.

I was actually thinking of the CNBC appearance when I watched the interview... yeah, very similar thematically, and Stewart makes a very persuasive point. Of course, considering that the mainstream media is the primary target of his attack, how many media critics would you expect to interpret Stewart's argument correctly?