Trend: The search for villains in the financial crisis continues with leading financial network CNBC being criticized for lack of journalistic integrity in reporting.
Jim Cramer took a verbal beating from Jon Stewart for his role in not exposing the falsehoods that has caused so much asset destruction among investors in the financial crisis. Stewart dropped his comedic facade and became deadly serious as he questioned the integrity of Cramer and CNBC.
Stewart did not question the role of CNBC's advertisers in influencing their frequent acceptable of falsehoods from key players.
Link: Jim Cramer On "Daily Show": Jon Stewart Hits Hard (VIDEO).
Stewart said he and Cramer are both snake-oil salesman, only "The Daily Show" is labeled as such. He claimed CNBC shirked its journalistic duty by believing corporate lies, rather than being an investigative "powerful tool of illumination." And he alleged CNBC was ultimately in bed with the businesses it covered - that regular people's stocks and 401Ks were "capitalizing on your adventure."
For his part, Cramer disagreed with Stewart on a few points, but mostly acknowledged that he could have done a better job foreseeing the economic collapse: "We all should have seen it more."
Cramer said CNBC was "fair game" to the criticism and acknowledged the network was perhaps overeager to believe the information it was fed from corporations.
"I, too, like you, want to have a successful show," said Cramer, defending his methods on "Mad Money." He later added: "Should we have been constantly pointing out the mistakes that were made? Absolutely. I truly wish we had done more."
Cramer insisted he was devoted to revealing corporate "shenanigans," to which Stewart retorted: "It's easy to get on this after the fact."
At one point, Cramer sounded the reformed sinner, responding to Stewart's plea for more levelheaded, honest commentary: "How about I try that?" said Cramer. "I'll do that."
By the end, the two-segment interview went far beyond its allotted time. Comedy Central said the on-air version would be cut by about eight minutes, though the entire interview would be available unedited on ComedyCentral.com on Friday.
Interview Part 1:
Interview Part 2:
Interview Part 3:
Huffington Post bloggers said:
Steve Rosenbaum: Cramer: No Longer "God" Jon Stewart has two kinds of angry. There's the "Aww Come On" anger, and his "Mad As Hell" anger. You don't want to be on the wrong side of the second one. And Jim Cramer was last night.Joe Peyronnin: The Great Eviscerator It was one of the best television interviews I have ever seen. It was journalism at its finest, with a capital "J." The outcome was informative and enlightening. Edward R. Murrow would have been proud.Daniel Sinker: "This Song Ain't About You": The Media Misses the Real Message of the Stewart/Cramer Interview When we can't compete with a comic in terms of speaking truth to power, then it's more clear than ever that journalism in the US has lost its way. Traditional news organizations have nothing to lose right now.Dan Solin: Cramer Will Be Off the Air in 60 Days: Bless You Jon Stewart For NBC and CNBC to continue to hold Cramer out as its investment guru would be a travesty that I don't believe even they will perpetuate.Mike Hegedus: Jon, You're Wrong. It is a Game, and You're a Player! Where Jon Stewart and Jim Cramer go wrong is when they both actually believe their own publicity. We've been taken by the both of them, and of course it's our own fault.Tim Berry: Who's Winning the Cramer vs. Stewart Battle? So who's winning the Cramer vs. Stewart battle? Cramer and Stewart.Dan Solin: It's CNBC That Has Not Yet Hit Bottom Watching CNBC is harmful to your financial health.Shelly Palmer: Jim Cramer vs. Jon Stewart on Daily Show Tonight: MediaBytes with Shelly Palmer March 12, 2009 Hulu will add social networking features to its streaming video site. The NBCU-Fox joint venture plans to use social networking to boost consumer loyalty,...Cenk Uygur: The Real Problem with CNBC CNBC never did any exposés about the enormous risks our financial companies took because they didn't see that as their job. Jim Cramer is the least of the network's problems.James Moore: And a Comic Shall Lead Them Jon Stewart has brought back context to journalism by making people in our drive-by culture responsible for their words and even actions.Stu Kreisman: Hitting Back The Hardest There's a line in one of my favorite movies, Billy Wilder's "Stalag 17" which might explain the howls of protest from the right. Let me...Mike Hegedus: An Hour of Nightly Nightly? Be Afraid, be Very Afraid How many cubes can you get on the screen at once with everyone talking at the same time? It looks like a goofy version of the Muppet Show.
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