Jon Stewart v. Jim Cramer last night

[Anonymous]

Whoa... I have never seen such a smackdown. I wouldn't call it a good interview, per se, since Stewart only let Cramer open his mouth enough to get some more foot in, but... whoa. I sat there transfixed.

Anyone else see it?

[Anonymous]

Yes, saw it. I'm totally sympathetic to Jon Stewart's point and applaud him for making it. But, yikes! I had to look away out of embarrassment for Cramer.

Andrew Sullivan had a good post about it on his blog this morning.

"I watched the Daily Show with growing shock last night. Did you expect that? I expected a jolly and ultimately congenial discussion, after some banter. What Cramer walked into was an ambush of anger. He crumbled from the beginning. From then on, with the almost cruel broadcasting of his earlier glorifying of financial high-jinks, you almost had to look away. This was, in my view, a real cultural moment. It was a storming of the Bastille. It was, as Fallows notes, journalism.
Stewart - that little comic with the Droopy voice for Lieberman - is actually becoming an accidental activist. Why he matters, is why South Park matters. He, like Matt and Trey, do not leave aside their own profession from scrutiny: they have the actual balls to take it on. There is a cloying familiarity among many cable show hosts and television personalities. We all have to get along, even though some of us may believe that others of us are very much part of the problem, rather than the solution. And what Stewart has done is rip off that little band-aid of faux solidarity for a modicum of ethical and moral accountability.
Now, I know Jim Cramer a little. The reason he crumbled last night, I think, is because deep down, he knows Stewart's right. He isn't that television clown all the way down. And deeper down, he knows it's not all a game - not now they've run off with grandpa's retirement money.
It's not enough any more, guys, to make fantastic errors and then to carry on authoritatively as if nothing just happened. You will be called on it. In some ways, the blogosphere is to MSM punditry what Stewart is to Cramer: an insistent and vulgar demand for some responsibility, some moral and ethical accountabilty for previous decisions and pronouncements.
Braver, please. And louder."

[jsteele]

I give Cramer a lot of credit for simply showing up. I also think he showed lot of class in taking the beating that Stewart (rightfully) meted out. Stewart was on fire. It reminded me of the time he went on Crossfire and called Tucker Carlson a "dick". Rick Santelli may have thought he was voicing a populist rage when he called defaulting home owners "losers", but I think Stewart did that much more accurately and convincingly. Hopefully, Cramer will start being a journalist from now on.

[Anonymous]

The democratic party turning on each other...it happend so quick. I guess this what the Red Guard does when one critizes our Dear Leader.

[Anonymous]

The Democratic Party has always turned on one another, PP. It's called disagreeing, and they do because its members are allowed to. Unfortunately, Republicans are not allowed to disagree or vote differently; it is why we are where we are right now and why they have lost the respect of most clear-thinking people. I hope that the Republican Party re-forms into one where people are allowed to call each other out for nonsense. Meaningful progress cannot occur without disagreement.

I agree with jsteele; I give Cramer credit for showing up and taking his medicine. You could almost see him shrinking as JS shouted out Run 210! Run 212! BRU-tal.

[Anonymous]

yay jon stewart....standing up for the little guy

[Anonymous]

I don't think Cramer had any idea what was in store. Given his earlier appearance on Martha Stewart (where she told him to pretend the pastry dough was Jon Stewart, and he hammishly obliged) I think he was expecting a funny, silly faux-fight. He forgot that Stewart is a quick study, has excellent recall, and when he wants to, can verbally hand someone their ass quicker than they can say... well, anything.

Given that Stewart's normal M.O. is either light talk-show banter peppered with pot jokes, or else respectful assistance in book-shilling, this tongue-lashing would have been difficult to predict. I say difficult, not impossible, because of the Tucker Carlson piece from a few years ago. That interview was the beginning of the end of Carlson's TV career, and his mistake was underestimating how much rhetorical firepower the funnyman could bring to the fight. It wouldn't surprise me to see Cramer's show cancelled, or at least moved to a less prime timeslot.

If Cramer (or his people) had thought about it, they might have realized that there are a few things that get Stewart geniunely upset. First among them is dishonesty in news reporting. Add to that the very real and human cost of the crisis, which Stewart maintains was abetted by the financial news, and they might have realized that this wasn't going to be a genial pun-off. Hindsight, 20/20, etc etc.

Anyway, I found it hard to watch Cramer squirm like that, but I was blown away by Stewart's utter control of the situation.

[Anonymous]

I was disappointed in Cramer for locking up and not coming up swinging. He could've had some good comebacks (hec, little old me was even yelling at Stewart with a good rebuttal), so that was disappointing to see Cramer freeze up like that.

Stewart sounded like he was just hearing himself give a commentary though. It almost didn't really matter what Cramer said (or didn't say). Stewart hardly let Cramer finish a sentence. It was almost pointless to have Cramer on the show since Stewart obviously had his editorial memorized.

CNBC probably should've had Kudlow come on instead.

[Anonymous]

I guess the left has their Bill O'Reilly.

[Anonymous]

Except that Jon Stewart doesn't make things up or tell people to shut up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Except that Jon Stewart doesn't make things up or tell people to shut up.

He doesn't make stuff up. He just puts the truth that you are so blind to see...ignorant.

[Anonymous]

Two words for you: Malmedy Massacre.

Yes, it is *I* who am ignorant.

[zumbamama]

ooh I can't wait to watch it tonight.

[Anonymous]

Cramer was completely "set up" from the get go. He can't say anything about personal responsibility of his listeners for their own decisions. If he *correctly* blames them they will no longer watch his show! So he had no choice but to sit back and take punches and apologize for other people's mistakes. And Stewart just kept punching the guy who couldn't defend himself acting like he's some kind of hero. Pathetic!

[Anonymous]

Set up. That's hilarious in the context of "personal responsibility."