It's Not Funny: Jon Stewart Vs. Jim Cramer
posted by ST Frequency | March 15, 2009
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IcerocketOn last Thursday's edition of The Daily Show, host Jon Stewart gave voice to a boiling frustration felt by thousands of beleaguered Americans as he mercilessly grilled CNBC commentator Jim Cramer.
The thrust of Stewart's argument was directed at the cable business network's punditry at large for being in the pockets of Wall Street interests, while purporting to give sound investment advice to middle-income Americans – resulting in financial ruin for many when the markets began to talispin late last year.
Cramer's much-hyped guest appearance came after a week of back-and-forth sniping from Stewart and the talking heads of various NBC networks. The hubbub originated on March 4th with a scathing and hilarious critique of CNBC delivered in classic form via the Daily Show hallmark, a videoclip montage, highlighting the network's truly terrible advice leading up to the crash.
"If I'd only followed CNBC's advice, I'd have a million dollars today," quipped Stewart, "provided I'd started with a hundred million dollars."
Though Jim Cramer and his inane Mad Money program were merely a sidebar in Stewart's attack, the manic moneyman quickly found himself in the center ring of a media circus that promised its grand finale Thursday night on Comedy Central.
For a spoof news show hosted by a comedian, the interview was nothing to laugh at.
"I understand you want to make finance entertaining, but it's not a fucking game," Stewart chided.
Much like his devastating dressing-down of CNN's Crossfire program in 2004 (a critique which led to the long-running show's cancellation a few months later), Jon Stewart's mano a mano with Jim Cramer is an incisive and well-deserved assault on the mainstream news media's most obscene failings. It has also been a grand slam with bloggers and media critics, earning kudos from the likes of Time, The Huffington Post, and The Atlantic's James Fallows, who compared Stewart to Edward R. Murrow.
In online discussions of the cable TV feud, many commenters lament that it takes ersatz newsmen like Jon Stewart and Comedy Central co-conspirator Stephen Colbert to do the real work of journalism. I say, let's embrace the paradox. Laughter is a healing force in itself, and sometimes the unvarnished truth is easier to digest when its disguised as a punchline. When properly delivered, the gravity is not lost for levity.
Besides, as Stewart so skillfully displayed last Thursday, the comedy is secondary to the message – and sometimes it's just not funny.
Watch the unedited, uncensored interview here.
(And in case you missed it, check out Stephen Colbert's face-to-face send-up of George W. Bush at the 2006 White House Correspondents Dinner – a legendary moment in satirical history.)
Comments
Thanks for
— Mar 15, 2009
Thanks for this!
"You have tasted death now," said the Old Man. "Is it good?"
"It is good," Mossy replied. "It is better than life."
"No... only more life."
Kudos
— Mar 15, 2009
Kudos to bringing attention to that Stephen.
Stewart and Colbert are my main source of news because they will disect away the bullshit and call it for what it is! And yes, Colbert's roast of Bush at the Whitehouse Correspondent Dinner is truly beautiful. It's a mastery of eloquence, passion and balls. Balls to the fucking wall! Love it!!!!
I'm not sure I've ever seen
— Mar 16, 2009
something quite like this on TV before.
ST
Thanks for bringing more light to this unique interview. I'm still grappling with the emotional fallout of Stewart's drubbing of Cramer. I've lost nearly half of my 403 dumb fucking (b) investments that my school's county presented as a 'priveledge' to have. I'm fortunate in that these investments may recover in time. My other side says "PULL IT ALL OUT," if you earnestly belive that there will be a paradigm shift in the way that economics operates in the future....
Last thing ---Is it just me, or where some of the clips of Cramer intimating his financial malfeasance enough to indict him?
Haven't read enough media responses about the interview to know what the ramifications of this unveiling may be for Cramer and others...
Rafael Lopez
Snake oil salesmen...
— Mar 16, 2009
Stewart's point was that they are, but he labels his show as such, so he's off the hook for producing pseudo news - but Cramer isn't?
Cramer is a mouthpiece for the financial elites, Stewart one for the political elities. What's the difference.
The distinction between a comedy show that presents news and a news show, is what? Is it that the former doesn't have the pretense of seeking the truth that the latter claims? It's all the same if people believe it. When you consider their "reporting" of issues like 9/11, it's clear no one is genuinely questioning anything, and that they all have agendas.
Whenever I watch Colbert and Stewart, I think, how sad that this is where lots of people get their outlook on the world. I remember when Stewart had the handpuppet "Gitmo" and made the most inane, skit about Guantanamo.
In my mind, Stewart has done a much greater disservice than Cramer, by trivializing so many serious issues. He makes it easy for people to sweep these issues under the rug and forget about them. It may be funny, but people take it as real news, just like they take Cramer's financial advice as real. Thousands dying in 9/11 or Iraq or tortured in Cuba isn't funny, but somehow he makes reality magically disappear. It's like the fluoride. It pacifies people and they stop questioning. I say never trust anything on the tube. Create your own roadshow.
seems like a jaded way of looking at this issue...
— Mar 17, 2009
"Cramer is a mouthpiece for the financial elites, Stewart one for the political elities. What's the difference"
I'm not too sure there is much of a difference between financial elites and political elites.
I would challenge though, your assertion that Stewart is simply a mouthpiece for political anythings, whether it be elites or whatever else. My personal experience has been one of observing Colbert and Stewart's influence on various cultural groups. I have heard different people express how they experience the Daily Show and The Colbert Report as work of significant parodic unveiling of the profound mistakes caused by government in the last ten years. Mistakes mind you, that the mainstream media has refused to cover in an accurate and responsible way.
The Cramer interview/fiasco is a point in case of where parodic news shows have had to do the REAL work when mainstream journalism fails to.
"It may be funny, but people take it as real news, just like they take Cramer's financial advice as real."
I'm not sure your giving Colbert and Stewart viewers and particularly fans enough credit...
While I agree with you that inevitably we must "create our own road-show," I don't think this should entail forgetting about what happens to the rest of the world.
"I say never trust anything on the tube"
Maybe...but the concept behind trust is the same as the one for faith as it is for optimism...
credit to Elenbaas for that last riff
peace Jedi
Rafael Lopez
Hmmm...
— Mar 18, 2009
"Significant parodic unveiling of the profound mistakes caused by government in the last ten years." eh?
I'm aguing that they have done the exact opposite - parodic covering up of the mistakes of government.
I certainly wouldn't call them mistakes either. More like highly calculated maneuvers. They might be mistakes from your perspective, if you think the people pulling the levers in government have your or the "country's" best interests at heart, but nothing could be further from the truth, at least on the surface (ultimately everything is perfect and the way it should be).
"Mistakes" that the MSM has refused to cover in an accurate and responsible way? And Stewart using a stuffed puppet to explain prisoner abuse is what? REAL work? I know, it's comedy, but it seems like he's mocking people who think things like these are serious matters.
Stewart has done nothing to uncover the misdeeds of government, he just makes them funny so people don't take them seriously. Comedy Central is owned by who? Viacom. One of what six news conglomerates? He couldn't seriously question or uncover finance or politics, even if he wanted to.
Cramer may have lost people's money, but through Stewart's encouragement of apathy and trivializing things like torture and war, he's got blood on his hands.
I believe that humor is a
— Mar 31, 2009
I believe that humor is a useful tool in dissecting the news. Apathy appears to be inherent in some people's behavior and I don't think that the point of Jon Stewart is to distract from the truth by making fun of it. None of us can be sure, but I actually tend to get a laugh from Jon Stewart and I can become aware of what's going on in government in short soundbyte's that instead of taking the politicians seriously are making fun of them. I think humor is great, on the other hand if someone wants a more serious take on the various misconducts of our government I recommend checking out or tuning into Democracy Now! and watching Amy Goodman's headlines. I prefer to mix and match those with SubMedia.Tv and my local Indymedia.org. But coming from a radical journalists perspective I think that Jon Stewart probably increases awareness vs. apathy, but that's just my opinion. I think that any of the newsources I've listed are healthier for one's mind than the various fear-based conspiracy theory orientated news-sources that float around the web, but that's also an internal bias I have. It'll be interesting to see how evolver.net evolves, I think that Reality Sandwich has done a pretty rad job of promoting awareness of interesting perspectives and ideas up to this point and Evolver has a nice more interactive feel.
jon stewart stood up and stood out when so many others don't
— Apr 01, 2009
i wish more people (i.e. celebrities) would stand up and speak out against the appalling lack of social conscience, civic duty, and journalistic integrity. imagine if Oprah eschewed her monumental corporate sponsorships in favor of illuminating REALLY important issues like this??? and it’s only of late that Chris Hansen of Dateline NBC has BEGUN to scratch the surface of the Wall Street debacle… where the hell is the rest of the mainstream media? almost all of them corporate dupes - as we all know. so it comes as no surprise that the real news HAS to come from satire in our mainstream media, in our country, in this time – it certainly won’t be coming from anywhere else since we live in a world of “infotainment” rather than intelligent, accountable journalism.
Kudos to John Stewart, to ST Frequency, and to Daniel Pinchbeck…
