Oh my. I'm still reeling from tonight's The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Jon hammered Jim Cramer and CNBC for putting entertainment above journalism in what was billed as the "the weeklong feud of the century."
This was no funny-face/fart joke show. Jon was as serious as a financial meltdown. "I understand that you want to make finance entertaining, but it's not a fucking game," Jon told Cramer. The line drew applause, not so much, I think, from "oooo, our guy won a point" but from relief that finally someone was saying what we've all been thinking.
It was clear Jon is pissed off at CNBC and unfortunately for Jim Cramer, he had to bare the brunt of it. At least Cramer had the testies to come on the show. But Jon let him have it. He said Cramer was "disingenuous at best and criminal at worst" -- in a giant fraud that had been played on investors.
For his part, Cramer looked nervous and contrite. I thought he was going to break down and cry. It was uncomfortable and mesmerizing.
Now why can't real journalists be this tough and prepared? Why does it have to be a comedian to show them how it should be done?
The full episode will be on
The Daily Show website soon. I can't wait to watch the whole interview.
UPDATE: Andrew Sullivan has written a great article about the show on The Daily Dish. You can read it
here.
