What The Daily Show With Jon Stewart billed as “the week-long feud of the century” almost ended in a very funny fizzle: Instead of being his usual feisty self, financial advisor Jim Cramer could not apologize fast enough to Stewart for what he repeatedly called his “shenanigans” as host of CNBC’s Mad Money.
Note I said “almost,” because something pretty amazing happened. Things got dead-serious as Stewart played 2006 clips of Cramer talking about how to manipulate stocks and create Wall Street rumors during the time he was a hedge-fund manager. You could almost see the blood drain from Cramer’s face every time the camera returned to him in the studio with Stewart. Talking about the present-day crisis, Stewart tore into Cramer, saying for doing things like urging his viewers to buy Bear Stearns stock shortly before that investment bank collapsed. “It’s not a f—— game,” said Stewart, asserting that what Cramer and other financial reporters did could be considered “criminal at worst.”
Yes, the half-hour (embedded below, in three parts) was frequently hilarious. Showing a clip of Cramer using a rolling-pin on some pie crust with Martha Stewart on her TV show earlier in the day, the Daily Show host said, “Don’t you destroy enough dough on your own show?”
Stewart allowed as how he and Cramer are, as TV entertainers, “both snake-oil salesmen to a certain extent.” He said that in all the joking and sniping that had been done over the past few weeks about financial news reporting on TV, Cramer had “become the face of this, and that’s incredibly unfortunate.” Cramer said meekly, “I’ll try” to do better by the public in the future.
But the dismantling of Cramer’s reputation had been done. The audience kept interrupting with applause and cheers, and for once it didn’t come across as a matter of hey-our-guy-just-pounded-a-jerk. It sounded like a small explosion of relief that finally, someone on TV was making sense about what has happened to money in America, and it wasn’t Jim Cramer.
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Stewart deserves the Edward R. Murrow award.
Its unfortunate Cramer is the one being roasted in public when he was the one that did those vidz @ thestreet.com to expose wall street shenanigans. Cramer is the ONLY talking head that sticks his neck out to recommend what he thinks of a stock. To use him as a scapegoat isn’t fair.
It was breathtaking. A Peabody Award is not enough for the “Daily Show” team… I just can’t get over how the most powerful pure reporting I’ve seen in ages comes from the furthest thing from an actual news channel.
I second that Jeff. Unbelievable. I never thought I would see real journalism again on TV. Imagine that the only TV journalist left would be a comedian who’s show follows puppets that make crank calls.
What a great show, I felt bad for Cramer. He did not even prepare for the interview.
I STILL can’t believe my eyes that Cramer never even bothered to defend himself. He took it like a man, and appears to have deserved it. That’s enough of him. Next, all the OTHER talking head BS con-artists. Stewart, there isn’t enough praise to be bestowed upon you for doing that interview. The REAL news networks should be ashamed of themselves for not doing this first. How embarassed they should be to watch this.
So, is Stewart a comedian or a social commentator? Did he need to go after Cramer the way he did? He came off as kind of a do*che if you ask me. Like Cramer said, he wasn’t doing anything illegal. Does it make it right? Probably not, but I hope Stewart goes back to being funny, because it got to the point where I thought I was watching a Dateline special or something.
What really came through in this “interview” is that neither of these two are journalists, and yet they’re the ones we follow. The only difference between them is that Stewart’s willing to admit he’s our dancing monkey.
So uncomfortable to watch, and yet I knew it was crucial and my eyes stayed glued to the screen. I applaud Stewart for really being insanely intelligent and not budging at all, for going forward, full steam ahead, because it’s the right thing to do! Sure, it’s unfortunate that Cramer took the brunt of it, because at first it was “Eff CNBC.” But that doesn’t make Cramer the scapegoat by any means. I view this interview as the culmination of Stewart’s frustration with mainstream media and their power over the American people. The media has the ability to control what information we receive and how we view it, and that controls what we think and how we act and how we vote. It seeps into and effects politics and Wall Street, and Jon Stewart has been telling us all this for years. For him to get a chance to do this and to voice the same frustrations so many others are feeling right now is just incredible. And he did it in such an unbelievably intelligent and thorough way — bravo!
Nice one Nate so you think he was being mean to a crook? In fact he was actually too kind, I guess it bothers you to hear someone actually tell the truth on tv for change? maybe you work for Wall Street? that might explain the pathetic attempt to defend Cramer with ” he wasn’t doing anything illegal” How about immoral? a bit too complex? I certainly hope you don’t run your day to day relationships that way. Stewart spoke for millions of us and for that he is awesome!
Nice one Nate so you think he was being mean to a crook? In fact he was actually too kind, I guess it bothers you to hear someone actually tell the truth on tv for change? maybe you work for Wall Street? that might explain the pathetic attempt to defend Cramer with ” he wasn’t doing anything illegal” How about immoral? a bit too complex? I certainly hope you don’t run your day to day relationships that way. Stewart spoke for millions of us and for that he is awesome!
Video link that flies in the face of Cramer claiming to represent the average investor…
Thank you Jon Stewart . Actual TV journalism was witnessed this evening
and it did expose Jim Cramer to be the shill for Wall Street he is. To defend a company that has a 35 to 1 balance sheet says all you need to know about Jim Cramer.
I thought Stewart was a little too arrogant and self-righteous, and I was mystified that Cramer was so quick to agree with him. But this is what we deserve when we no longer support the written word or good, solid news reporting. We prefer the entertainers and that’s what we get–journalism is dying with the newspapers.
Someone needs to knock Stewart off his high horse too. He should look in a mirror.
Stewart is deflating the populist antagonism that should be directed at the people that really committed the crime. We’ve just seen the court jester appease the court with antics, when the court should be up in arms.
That makes the jester just as guilty. Love watching the Daily Show, but Stewart has forgotten that he is part of the problem too.
As he said, they both sell snake oil. Doesn’t make it any better that John Stewart is transparent about it and Jim Cramer is not, because the American people are drinking that snake oil with two fists.
Thank GOD for Jon Stewart. The last honest man. Stewart is without a doubt a smartest man on tv. Thank GOD.
It amazes me that, in a day and age where there are so many TV news outlets to choose from, Jon Stewart and David Letterman are this generation’s versions of Cronkite and Murrow (Google them, kids!).
@brettbum – hey, when you put a warning on the package, people can smoke all they want.
Did he ask him about Sirius which he bragged about and Mel Karmazin who he also bragged about? I bought Sirius a few years ago at $7.00 a share. It was in the toilet last year at 13 cents. Where were the stockholders? Why didn’t they complain when Stern got all the cash upfront and bankrupted the company?
Oh Mikhail, first, I’m a 25 year old college graduate looking for another job in Michigan (try having a good time with that one), so no, I don’t work on Wall Street. So don’t play the assumption game, it makes us all look stupid. If you notice, I did say that what Cramer did probably wasn’t right, more on the side of immoral if you want to get specific. But I want Stewart to go after people who actually caused this thing….call out the CEO’s, interview some of them…I give Cramer credit for coming on that show and taking Stewarts comments like a man.
And no, I don’t run my day to day relationships like that. Who runs relationships? Sounds like I’m running a company for my friends or something…
OMG, SHUT UP JON STEWART! Your are as bas as Oprah…maybe worse, if that is even possible, since she doesn’t bill herself as a comedian. Spare me the self-righteous indignity…it makes me want to puke. Not only Cramer but the entire world missed the boat on the crash, as usual. And where were you, Mr. Oh-So-Clever/Know-It-All? That’s right, stumping for Obama non-stop on your completely obvious and played out show. Anyways, enjoy your hard-earned millions you disingenuous ass.
A commenter asked, “So, is Stewart a comedian or a social commentator?”
The answer is yes – he is both. Comedians usually are commenting on society, bringing its highlights and recesses to bare.
Come on Folks….open up your eyes. Are the majority of American citizens really this dumb? Most of Wall Street is like the bookies in Vegas…it’s all innuendo and hype!
I have more admiration for Cramer, for facing the music, than I ever have. But my admiration for Jon Stewart increases exponentially. If the real journalists would do these interviews, show these clips, and ask these questions, then the comediens woudn’t have to. Now, if only Santelli would come on “The Daily Show” and try to defend his “losers” comment, my joy could continue.
Jim Crammer is not an elected official he doesn’t have to do what he does he could retire at any time.
The guy gives his opinions on TV and I guess Stewart didn’t like it. So that’s what makes great journalism?; attacking someone because you don’t like his opinion.
Nothing Crammer did 20 years ago as a hedge fund manager caused people to default on their home loans now. Yes, he got the Bear Sterns call wrong, but so did a lot of people, so what? Is his crime having the wrong opinion about a company? I guess Stewart thinks so.
That was amazing. Stewart had his Edward R. Murrow/David Frost moment. You can always tell Stweart is a bright guy but tonight his intelligence was just burning up the screen. He should win an Emmy, a Peabody and the Murrow award.
There is a vast difference between these two “snake oil salesmen”. John Stewart is a comedian. He may make inciteful political commentary, but nobody makes investment decisions using his information. Cramer can not use that excuse. He is entertaining, but he is not just an “entertainer”. He has a rep as a trader and a serious investor. People had a right to expect at least fair, responsible advice on his show.
Sorry, the nod goes to Stewart on this one. Cramer is a rat.
WOULD THIS POOR EXCUSE FOR A MAN HAVE REPEATEDLY SAID “F–K SARAH PALIN” IF HER HUSBAND HAD BEEN STANDING THERE?
I THINK NOT! WHERE DOES THIS TRASH COME FROM?
There are people that watch Jon Stewart? I mean, I had to double check to see how to spell his name, and I’m a decent speller. I’m surprised this guy has 3 viewers that aren’t crew members.