Jon Stewart recently took the time that was to be devoted to an interview of CNBC’s Rick Santelli (Santelli canceled) and instead spent it destroying CNBC. During the destruction, a little bit of shrapnel landed on crazy Jim Cramer and being Jim Cramer — he totally flipped his sh*t and started “defending himself” on MainStreet.com.
In the 6 page article, Cramer said that The Daily Show was incorrect in claiming that he had suggested that people buy Bear Stearns stock — when he in fact was just telling people not to pull their money out of Bear Stearns accounts (which are insured against the bank failing).
The Daily Show responded with a fairly painful collection clips of Cramer recommending Bear Stearns stock. This apparently caused Cramer to book a tour of NBC’s various networks so he could fan the flames a little higher.
Now, in round three of Stewart Vs Cramer, Stewart responds by getting Dora the Explorer to say “pendejo.” Enjoy.
… And while we do wish this feud could go on forever, it seems that Cramer will be a guest on The Daily Show tomorrow night. Oh, joy!
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Cramer is so pissed, but tries to play if off by saying that Stewart is merely a “comedian,” when he knows that Stewart is 100% correct. I am looking forward to the explosion tomorrow, and Cramer crawling back to CNBC with his tail b/w his legs. F-you, CNBC!
@Mr_Mantastic: You gotta love how Cramer is left with absolutely nothing more than blatant argumentum ad hominem. So amusingly childish. I love it.
No hate from Stewart, merely pointing out things factually said by Cramer.
I haven’t looked forward to anything this much since Bill O’Reily and Stephen Colbert traded guest spots on each other’s shows.
This could be like the Oscar’s and the Superbowl combined… but the thing about Jon Stewart is that in crucial times he sometimes kowtows a little too much and is too deferential, playing the whole, “I could be wrong and I’m just a basic cable talk show host…”
I hope this will be more like when he was on Crossfire and lambasted Tucker Carlson though.
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@stevejust: That video never gets old. I love that they canceled the show within days of this interview.
@stevejust: Wow this is the first time i have watched that video [I came to USA in August 2006]… That video is AWESOME. He destroyed them… man!
Thanks for making my day!
Cramer’s ego and mouth are so big that he doesn’t realize how stupid it is to tangle with someone who engages in mockery like a Jedi Master. This is like McCain ditching Letterman, and Dave chewing up the senator for days.
@DarthVegan: Yep. Never, EVER pick a media fight with a satirist. You will lose.
@DarthVegan: This is much worse than what McCain pulled. This is like Jar Jar calling the Emperor a “doo doo head”.
Disregard my comment above…it was changed right as I hit “submit” and went back to the consumerist home page. All rainbows and bunnies again…nothing but love for you guys.
Jon Stewart *IS* just a comedian, and he’ll happily tell you that. One of the reasons the show has taken a slightly more news-reporting twist in recent memory is because they’re all acutely aware of the fact that a LOT of people turn to The Daily Show to get their *real* news, despite regular reminders that TDS is a *fake news* show.
Cramer (and MSNBC) getting upset simply underscores the fact that TDS is more than a fake news show, and that Jon has, despite his wishes, become far more than “just a comedian.”
@RvLeshrac: It is not a *fake news* show. They do not make up headlines. They take headlines and real stories and comment satirically on them. They have always done that, since the beginning when Craig Kilborn hosted. It’s not something they started doing recently.
@RvLeshrac: You realize, of course, that there was a study that tested viewers of The Daily Show and “news” shows, and the only audience that scored higher in being up on hard news were PBS viewers (damn pointy-heads!)?
The Daily Show audience bloodied the national news shows viewers, eviscerated Fox News viewers and stole the wives of O’Reilly viewers and did horrible, horrible things to them.
So, “fake news” for smarter-than-average audiences.
@Trai_Dep:
Yep, but the question is whether the Daily Show is actually making them better informed, or the type of people who watch the Daily Show are better informed to begin with.
@ilves: Good Question. I think it is a feedback cycle. I read stuff online/watch it on CNN, then at the end of the day, tune into Stewart… who just bangs it all into perspective.
Like recently: “9000 earmarks… wtf!!!” Even though i know that a lot of earmarks are for good causes, that figure still bugs me… but as he pointed out… “It is LESS than 2% of the total Budget… canned fruit has more insect gook in it.”
@Lucifer_Cat: I’ll take 2% of 500 Billion. Heck, I’d even share it. It’s still more money than any of us will ever see in our lives.
@RvLeshrac:
You can catch TDS on CNN.
Back when print newspapers ruled, a wise man once said: “never pick a fight with someone who buys ink by the barrel.”
This is the modern day equivalent. Never pick a fight with somebody who is paid for mockery.
And we all thought Stewart’s job was going to be a lot harder with Bush out of the White House. He should send Cramer a Thank You note!
@theczardictates: Maybe Viacom and GE are in merger talks?
oh lord….. have mercy on CNBC.
you dont wanna fuck with the programs that had a huge role in picking a US president.
good luck cramer.
cramer should just own up to it and let this end. Jon is eating him alive…..buy buy buy BEAR STERNS at 69! ITS A BARGAIN!
I just found it odd that cramer was on colbert tough.
This is one more version of someone pointing out that the emperor has no clothes and it is soooo fun to watch. The comedians are so necessary to put reality back into the world.
It’s like watching a portal thru a magic portal into another world where Bambi faces off against a rabid, nonsense-spewing Godzilla. A three-inch Godzilla. And a Bambi packing a Snark Bazooka with laser-guided shells.
Boy, I can’t wait!
@Trai_Dep: Can’t wait so much, in fact, that I forgot to close my Bolds.
@Trai_Dep: …And over-use “portal”.
Sigh. But yup, that excited!
@Trai_Dep: Fancy some decaf?
Stewart has already won! Him appearing as guest is just like a peace treaty signing. If Cramer would of one, John would of been on Mad Money teasing the set or something… that would of been awkward
I saw something recently that said you would have been better off listening to everything Cramer said over the past few years and then doing the opposite because he’s wrong much more often than he’s right.
@chris_d: Here on Consumerist: Cramer worse vs. a freaking coin toss!
[consumerist.com]
@ComcastRedwoodFlyer: To call the models those sites used to evaluate his ‘picks’ is disingenuous at best.
For those of us unfortunates who can’t see the clips…
Round 2:
+ Watch video
Round 3:
+ Watch video
@fruvous: The second one is already gone.
I don’t know why I can’t get the videos at the top to work; I’m not even outside the U.S.
Even if he was right, you’d be better off ignoring him. By the time you hear something on any TV show, Cramer included, almost by definition you’re among the last to know, and the market has already priced in his position. Heck, by the time you can get your trade in tomorrow morning, the market has already priced in the very fact that people are trading on his advice. It’s a Red Queen’s Race.
For most of us mortals, there’s only two ways to sensibly trade the market. Buy individual stocks that you somehow understand better than the majority of the market, like the mythical small trader who bought into a shoe company because his teenage daughter told him it was cool (but watch out for those insider trading laws…). Or buy blue chips and index funds for the long haul.
Srsly, t’s JN Stwrt, nt Jhn.
Dear Jim Cramer,
Jon Stewart is a PROFESSIONAL COMEDIAN. Don’t keep engaging him; you can’t win.
@joellevand: Bingo…All this stuff of how good JS is is kinda irrelevant.
A serious (or so it claims) news channel is trying to debunk A COMEDIAN. They lost simply by starting this horse race.
@joellevand: Not to mention he has a staff of writers. So, grade A comedian + grade A writing staff vs a loud mouthed guy with what appears to be an anxiety disorder. Ouch.
@failurate: You’re so cute, you think Cramer doesn’t have writers.
@joellevand: Bingo! I *love* it when self-absorbed freakballs get high and mighty and go around snarking Stewart and Colbert on other shows, because Stewart and Colbert thrive on that kind of thing. Did you see how Colbert masterfully kept a whole thing going about towns named Canton last year? Bloody brilliant…all he has to do is make some over-the-top-to-the-point-of-silliness comments about a town and then sit back and reap the insanity rewards.
Never, ever, ever attract the attention of the Jester if you can avoid it, and if he does look at you, smile once and then back away. The Jester always wins because a) he’s smarter than he lets on and b) he’s got a special place in the court that lets him get away with things that would be a beheading for anyone else. Plus, the people always love him more by default.
That’s a good timeline, but here’s a better more complete one, feel free to use parts of it. I’m really looking forward to tomorrow.
[idiocracyindex.com]
These two need to have a final showdown at the Weehawken dueling grounds.
@ theczardictates: You got that right. People need to realize the market runs by a matter of MILLIseconds, and adjusts as such. If you listen to Cramer (and the like), you’ve long, lonnnnnnng missed the train.
I have no problem admitting that I get some of my news from The Daily Show. While CNN is preoccupied with what kind of dog the Obama’s are gonna get, TDS actually reveals the idiocy of our government and finds different “stories within the stories.”
Who is Jon Stewart? This brush up with Cramer is the first time I had heard of him.
@kwsventures: Either you are a liar or you’ve had your head buried deep in the conservative echo chamber sand way to long. Which is it? Please enlighten me.
All Cramer had to do was admit he was wrong, but he keeps digging himself deeper.
1. Don’t mess with the Stewart
2. I think Jon Stewart’s Fuck You’s have summed up most of thinking America’s feelings
turd mining.
my new favorite activity.
I loved Crossfire (especially the Ragin Cajun). F— Stewart for basically ending it.
What no one points out here is that Stewart’s underlings at the Daily Show did a poor job cherrypicking Cramer quotes, he got called out on it by Cramer, so they did even more cherrypicking and finally found some quotes of Cramer recommending the purchase of Bear Sterns. Find me someone in Cramer’s business who didn’t make a poor stock pick before this disaster happened. The problem is, there are two important facts that Stewart doesn’t mention:
1. Cramer called the housing crisis a year before it happened, much more important than a bad stock pick.
2. Stewart was originally calling out Cramer for criticizing Obama’s economic policies, basically insinuating that because Cramer made some poor stock picks that he’s not qualified to criticize Obama’s economic policies.
I can’t believe I’m the only one defending Cramer here since I’m a moderate, politically-informed college student and should be gargling Stewart’s semen just like the rest of you. Just once though, I urge all of you to take a step back and realize that it doesn’t always taste that great.
@Kevin Weber: But Jon’s is minty-fresh!
@Kevin Weber: have you read this?[consumerist.com]
@Kevin Weber:
re: your 2nd point: If Kramer was so prescient about calling the housing crisis, then why did he recommend buying stock in any financial firm that was so entangled in the reverberations of the housing crisis?
@Kevin Weber: You know, next time instead of being so disgusting you could just end your comment with, “Please disregard everything I have just said as I have zero respect or credibility.”
Even though Stewart IS a comedian, his show has more credibility than Cramer’s ever did.
This ought to be interesting. Cramer appears unable to ever admit he could be wrong and is such a hot head. Stewart could send him all Tucker Carlson with a mere word.
Stewart is right about everyone and everything but himself.
Stewart is really a not so-secret journalist and commentator. Despite his assertions to the contrary, his is a fake news show that has the freedom to mix in real news and views – when they want. And they do. But whenever someone says “Hey Jon, why didn’t YOU do blank” Jon says “”who me not me not responsible I’m just a comedian.”
That’s code for “I’m not responsible for anything.”
It’s not that Jon isn’t a social commentator or pundit. Whenever someone like Bill Maher point out Jon is, Jon goes right back to the “who me schtick.”
It’s immature. This is the same as when Jon went after Crossfire. He wants pundits to responsible for what they say. He wants financial pundits to be responsible for what they say.
Jon, be responsible for what you say. Stop being such a pussy.
@twophrasebark: Do you know what a satirist is?
Sorry I meant Bill Moyers above.
I would like a question I have answered.
Why is this article on The Consumerist so blatantly anti-Cramer?
I mean, I have to deal with this crap on other sites, I didn’t expect it from The Consumerist.
@Jage: If you actually wanted that question answered you would have sent them an e-mail.
@Jage: because Cramer doesn’t give good financial advice (see the “flip a coin” article) and therefore could be seen as anti-consumer. Not maliciously but via incompetence (which is what a lot of articles are about)
MSNB-CSI:Miami is the funniest thing i’ve ever heard.
Whether people take it seriously or not, god bless The Daily Show and Jon Stewart.
Give ‘em hell, Jon!
@twophrasebark: For the most part he’s right. The Daily Show prime purpose is to make people laugh. He points out crazy things in current events. When he went on Crossfire, they were trying to back him into a corner with his handling of interviewing John Kerry, to which he said something along the lines of “You’re CNN! The show that leads into me is puppets making crank calls!”
CNN’s whole purpose is to deliver the news. TDS’s purpose is to make you laugh. The fact that a lot of people seem to get a better understanding of current events from TDS is rather embarassing for CNN.
@Dyscord:
Those guys on Crossfire were buffoons but one of their points was on the mark: Stewart missed an opportunity to seriously question Kerry. His position that he doesn’t have to doesn’t ring any truer than the position of the guys he was grilling.
They’re pundits. He’s a pundit. You can play semantics, but his calling them out was simply disingenous based on his own interviewing. I mean, c’mon, you expect Tucker Carlson to do serious journalism?
If you go back and watch the Crossfire segment, John dodges the ridiculous questions from the hosts or people in the audience during the segment by pretending he didn’t know about the bulge in Bush’s jacket or O’Reilly’s sex scandal. Of course he knew. He didn’t want to get involved. I agree with him. But while he has the tremendous freedom on his show to do whatever he wants – flip from serious grilling of a guy like Jim Cramer to – then sudenly say “I’m a comedian” when he throws softballs at John Kerry…
Look, it’s the pot calling the kettle black. If the newspeople grill these people hard, they lose access. Stewart knows that and that’s why he doesn’t take on someone like Kerry.
@twophrasebark: “I mean, c’mon, you expect Tucker Carlson to do serious journalism?” Uh…. Yeah, I do actually. He is (or was) on an actual news show on a news network. I think Jon’s point is that he shouldn’t be the one looked to for real journalism. No one here seems to see the irony in a guy on a dedicated NEWS network asking the guy that runs the COMEDY news show to ask the HARD questions…
@twophrasebark: Except that no segment of TDS is based on “access”.
Theirs is purely an outsider view of the whole circus. Thats their biggest strength.
@Mr.DuckSauce,
Do you?
There is no satire in his attacks on Jim Cramer. It’s a lot closer to Edward R. Murrow than Robert Benchley.
And that’s my point. Sometimes Stewart uses his show to make comedy and sometimes he uses it for more serious issues. And that’s awesome. But Jon wants to have his cake and eat it, too.
You can’t hold people to the fire and then not hold yourself up to the same scrutiny.
now where i understand that cramer is not advocating buying and or selling of bear sterns in the original clip explicitly, i think theres alot of implicit things going on there.
firstly, its a show that has a big emphasis on picking stocks so its already weighted against cramer, the question is should he take his money out of bear sterns? while it could be an investment question, it could be a stock question, which is notable because they show a graph of bear sterns STOCK. they didn’t show an FDIC graph, or anything like that, it was STOCK. and he said bear sterns was fine. he definitely didn’t say sell it.
cramer was wrong on this.
Did everyone else see the smile on Cramer’s face when he heard the “apology” and how quickly it left his face? The guy is taking it like an attack when it simply a statement of fact.
A prediction for tonite’s festivities: Stewart, knowing he’s already won this battle, will treat Cramer with kid gloves. Cramer, not realizing he never had a chance, will accept Stewart’s “mea culpa.” Stewart fans and Cramer fans will live happily ever after. Only Consumerist readers will know what really happened.
And by the way, where the hell is my comment preview button?
@Hands: Yeah, I just noticed this morning that comment preview went bye-bye.
Cramer’s actually quite a populist. He’ll be sincere, likable, honest about (some of) his failings, and able to quickly change the public’s mind about the network in a heartbeat. It’s all too easy, after all, to deflect the blame onto AIG, Madoff, banks, and others. From a PR perspective this will be an easy wriggle.
I love it when two democrats scream at each other.
@bilups: Cramer is a republican. From what i can tell.
It’s like SNL (when it was funny) taking on CBS news. Apples and Oranges if you ask me.
@ Trai_Dep Which study was that?
Just to clarify, the original “CNBC Takedown” on 3/4 did not replace Santelli’s interview; it was at the top of the show, and Stewart had a guest at the end as usual (NYT’s Joe Nocera).
I love when John Stewart shows clips of people doing exactly what they claim they’re NOT doing.
I wish Stewart would really skewer some instutions which are run by the two major parties. Such as the Commission on Presidential Debates, jointly run by former heads of the Democratic and Republican National Committees, which is responsible for the infomerical-like, two party only quality of the ~debates~. Hammer those fools and Stewart would be proven as an equal opportunity satirist…
@econobiker: He already has. He has hammered the comission as well as the candidates on the whole softball approach to debates.
@TAxel: google “media study” “daily show” and/or “current events” and/or …
It was all over the interwebs a year ago, I’m sure you can find it then cite it for us.
Thanks!
Now if we could somehow goad CNBC into pulling something on Bill Moyers, that would also be pretty entertaining.
NEVER Heckle a comic!
I used to watch TDS much more often than I do now. JS is NOT an unbiased media person, he has STRONG bias on every topic, and I’ve grown tired of his Christian bashing, evolution preaching, libbie ways. Cramer? Best thing he could do is just say, “in an economy like this, EVERYone is gonna be prone to making mistakes, I’m SORRY I also didn’t see this coming (no one really did btw) but let’s go on from here and make a ton of money in this NEW economy.”
I think Stewart’s point was that the financial networks are nothing more then large marketing arms for corporations. The information that they dish out, is designed to encourage individual investors to spend money. One long commercial 24 x 7. That’s fine as long as you see it for what it is.
The Cramer’s and Santelli’s of the world are freaked out because these guys want to make you believe that they are doing the consumers a service, and Stewart had the gaul to point out that they are the schills that they are.