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This show will probably go down as a classic in TV history as Jon Stewart on his Daily Show not only takes a swing at stock-jockey Jim Cramer but the way the financial media, markets and business have colluded for their great “Adventure”. Skip to 5m18s to get into it. An extract:
There’s a gap between what CNBC is what it advertises what it is… Isn’t there a problem selling snake oil as vitamin tonic?… The difference is not good call and bad call, the difference is real market and unreal market. CNBC could be an incredible tool of illumination for people who think there is a market going on in the back room – it’s fast, ethically dubious. It feels like we are capitalizing your adventure with our pensions – and that it’s a game you know is going on and you go on television and pretend it’s not happening.
I can’t reconcile the brilliance of knowledge that you have with the bullshit you do every day. This [recession] is ten years in the making and it’s not going to be fixed but the network is blaming mortgage owners.
You are pretending that you are doe-eyed innocent. I understand that you want to make finance entertainment but it’s not a game. When I watch these clips – it says you all knew. You can draw a straight line from [your] shenanigans to the stuff that was being pulled at Bear to AIG and this weird Wall Street side bet… you knew what the banks were doing, so as to pretend that this was a once in a lifetime tsunami that no one could have predicted was at best ingenuous and at worst was criminal.
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once again stewart is the only tv personality in america (on a channel that is actually being watched) who says it like it is. whereas the general mass media is repeating the same line over and over again (actually very much saying nothing) and pretending that “the economy” is so far away from their independent reporting (hah!) stewart is lucky he’s on a “variety show” (says cramer) where he can more or less say what he thinks… and – and this is exceptional on tv – that is actually what he wants to say. i’d say without a doubt, for our generation he is the most trusted tv personality in america – the host of a comedy show. that doesn’t just speak volumes about the state that tv in america finds itself in: the fact that a comedy show tells “the truth”, whereas all the others tell pretty much nothing, talks about the state our society is in.
court jester anyone?
p.s.:commenting seems to be out on this blawg.
p.p.s.: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propaganda_model – not entirely correct, but great food for thought
March 13th, 2009 at 10:35 pm
Cramer tried everything to sway away from the jokes, but Jon just went on riling on. He just does not stop! Cramer was just getting crunched. The questions posed were great. The infomercial commercial comparison is another great one. In the end Cramer held his ground and took the shots. Overall, this was a serious interview.
March 14th, 2009 at 1:12 am
absolutely seriously reason for concern.. some of the oneliners from the squirmer were absolutely NOT funny…. what type of world are we living in where humour is the only place the truth can come out… and we all laugh knowingly.
March 14th, 2009 at 10:49 pm
I think there is a fundamental problem here that people are relying too much on advertising rather than actual knowledge of product or service to inform their decisions. Maybe I’m wrong, but I think advertising should serve to motivate…you can’t get the information you need to make the decision in 30 seconds, so Stewart’s claim that CNBC is not what they claim to be rings a little hollow in my opinion; however, that doesn’t take away from the fact that he made some good points.
I agree with the above commentators, it is sad that Comedy Central hosts are most trusted television host, but at least someone is saying it.
March 15th, 2009 at 12:41 am
It is ironic that Jon Stewart and a comedy show instead of the regulators or news media had to bring all of this public. Also in Cramers defense he is far less guilty than most of the other financial media for their efforts together with Wall Street, the politicians & incompetent regulators for what has happened.
While I enjoy watching Cramer every night, one must remember the show is primarily entertainment. The financial networks exist to promote their advertisers financial and investment products. Who would expect them to warn about the credit bubble or coming Washington national debt collapse which will destroy much of the remaining private wealth in America today or what this will do to the dollar, the stock market, bonds, gold or the real estate market?
China is now worried about their dangerous over investment in US Treasury obligations. Washington ’s long-term choice is either repudiation or monetization. For monetization to be effective, the depreciation in the dollar would have to be substantial and this in turn would dramatically raise prices of imports for American consumers which would mean a tremendous drop in foreign imports. Debt monetization would cause more disruption to exporting nations than selective repudiation of Treasury debt.
The Campaign to Cancel the Washington National Debt By 12/22/2013 Constitutional Amendment is starting now in the U.S. See: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=67594690498&ref=ts
Thanks,
Ron with 30 plus years in the investment business and banking industry.
March 15th, 2009 at 8:01 pm
While it maybe true that 99% of what is on tv is crap that 1% sometimes makes up for all of the dreck that you have to watch. Best segment I have seen in the past year on this topic. Jon Stewart asking the questions that we all have been waiting for answers to. Incredibly ironic that it has to come from the Comedy network. I find myself watching CNBC now just to see the caricatures that they have become.
March 16th, 2009 at 9:45 am