Jon Stewart Stuffs, Trusses and Roasts Jim Cramer

Posted on by

Last night’s Daily Show was supposed to be a debate between Jon Stewart and Jim Cramer. Instead, Jon skewered Jim, who was almost mute during the episode. The damage was so great that Cramer is in hiding now.  Watch the carnage below: (Warning – The video is too gory to be watched by anyone under the age of 18).

The Intro:

Vodpod videos no longer available.

Part 1:

Vodpod videos no longer available.

Part 2:

Vodpod videos no longer available.

Part 3:

Vodpod videos no longer available.

Update:

Andrew Sullivan had this to say and James Fallows said this.

add to del.icio.us : Add to Blinkslist : add to furl : add to ma.gnolia : Stumble It! : add to simpy : seed the vine : : : TailRank : post to facebook

14 thoughts on “Jon Stewart Stuffs, Trusses and Roasts Jim Cramer”

  1. I stayed up to watch this last night. Wow.. Jim Cramer appeared scared to death. That was pretty clear. Uncomfortable..

    It also appeared that Cramer was throwing himself on the mercy of the court before he is even under investigation.. He knows he could possibly be in trouble.. Every time he started to argue, he quickly restrained himself and acted all contrite and remorse-filled. (He SHOULD be contrite. He could be in real trouble.) It was weird..

    And the one genuine moment to me was when Jon said “run 2:12″.. It was just for a second, but Cramer had a moment of sheer panic (that you cannot fake). His face and body language totally changed instantaneously, and he very quickly said “NO! Don’t run 2:12″ and it immediately jumped to the video. That was when I realized he was really scared.

    He knows he is in deep shit. Not about possibly losing his job, but actually going to jail. Especially given they started out by talking about how Bernie Maddow was sent to jail that very day for possibly up to 150 years.

    Jon Stewart was deadly serious, speaking on behalf of all Americans out there who are losing their 401-k’s, and this was the best interview with Stewart that I have seen. Intelligent, actually hard hitting REAL, honest questions. The guy sitting across from him was toast.

    I want to know why ALL news reporters and journalists cannot do the same… He puts them ALL to shame for not doing their jobs.

    James Fallows of the Atlantic had this to say:
    “It’s true: Jon Stewart has become Edward R. Murrow”

    That’s saying something.

    Andrew Sullivan (also of the Atlantic) wrote something interesting as well.

    They showed a real appreciation for Stewart’s practicing real journalism.

    Reply ↓

  2. Everyone on the internet is talking about this interview.. Glenn Greenwald has a very good post on it. He actually takes it a step further and applies what Jon Stewart (and Jim Cramer) did last night to journalists and the run-up to the Iraq War. He discusses the media cowardice and inability or unwillingness to ask the hard questions, or go looking for the truth themselves, and then calling people to the mat.. He hits the point that they are incapable of facing the criticism for not doing their jobs..
    Very interesting.

    http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/03/13/cramer/

    STEWART: But what is the responsibility of the people who cover Wall Street? . . . . I’m under the assumption, and maybe this is purely ridiculous, but I’m under the assumption that you don’t just take their word at face value. That you actually then go around and try to figure it out (applause).

    That’s the heart of the (completely justifiable) attack on Cramer and CNBC by Stewart. They would continuously put scheming CEOs on their shows, conduct completely uncritical “interviews” and allow them to spout wholesale falsehoods. And now that they’re being called upon to explain why they did this, their excuse is: Well, we were lied to. What could we have done? And the obvious answer, which Stewart repeatedly expressed, is that people who claim to be “reporters” are obligated not only to provide a forum for powerful people to make claims, but also to then investigate those claims and then to inform the public if the claims are true. That’s about as basic as it gets.

    And then this:

    Today, everyone — including media stars everywhere — is going to take Stewart’s side and all join in the easy mockery of Cramer and CNBC, as though what Stewart is saying is so self-evidently true and what Cramer/CNBC did is so self-evidently wrong. But there’s absolutely nothing about Cramer that is unique when it comes to our press corps. The behavior that Jon Stewart so expertly dissected last night is exactly what our press corps in general does — and, when compelled to do so, they say so and are proud of it.

    At least give credit to Cramer for facing his critics and addressing (and even acknowledging the validity of) the criticisms. By stark contrast, most of our major media stars simply ignore all criticisms of their corrupt behavior and literally suppress it (even if the criticisms appear as major, lengthy front-page exposés in The New York Times).

    Perhaps the most egregious instance of this media cowardice is that there are very few occasions when media stars were willing to address criticisms of their behavior in the run-up to the war. With very few exceptions, they have systematically ignored the criticisms that have been voiced from many sources about the CNBC-like role they played in the dissemination of pre-Iraq-War and other key Bush falsehoods. But on those very few occasions when they were forced to address these issues, their responses demonstrate that they said and did exactly what we’re all going to spend today mocking and deriding Cramer and CNBC for having done — and they continue, to this day, to do that.

    Reply ↓

  3. That was Comedy Channel? That wasn’t comedy at all. That was Tragic Channel. All the more tragic that it took a comedian to be the one to take 20 minutes to lead that interview.

    Stewart was very professional with Cramer, short comedic moments to reduce tension aside, and I thought Cramer was worth listening to, although, you are right Muse, I think he could be in some real trouble – *if*, and *only if* someone in criminal justice system somewhere is paying attention. But Cramer is definitely small fry in the big picture.

    Reply ↓

  4. Right on muse, can we ditch that John King cheerleader-guy for this much-touted CNN state of the union with Darth Cheney and give the slot to Stewart instead?

    And someone please tell me why Cheney should be given any more airtime for anything besides an arraignment in the Hague?

    Reply ↓

  5. Has anyone covered what type of charges might be alledged against Cramer, when his crimes were to have occurred, and what the statute of limitations on those crimes might be?

    Terry, if Stewart were on CNN, that would be the end of the truth telling. Keith Olberman could not get away with this reporting either, could he? On other things, yes, but not making his own network’s financial news division look bad.

    Reply ↓

  6. I have been reading a number of commetns by people around the internet. A lot have the same message: why it takes a comedian to rise to the defense of our nation..

    That struck me odd. Yes, Stewart is a comedian. Does that then mean that he can’t be an intellectual? A journalist? An incredibly talented, brilliant, insightful, informed, quick witty and articulate, smart man? A serious, concerned caring citizen of this country? Can’t he be all of that?

    Yes, I think he can and is. He has proven it over and over. Some of his interviews are some of the best I have ever seen. Yes, his humor and wit puts his guests at ease, but his grasp of the issues and the questions he asks, and the way in which he is able to ask them demonstrates his amazing abilities. He makes them think, and often does not let them off the hook with their answers. He asks the next question..

    Often, I love watching the show just for the interviews. I learn a lot. And yes, he is one of the funniest people I have watched.

    Reply ↓

  8. Muse, what you said in your 1st post.

    EV. right on.

    There’s little for me to add, except that I think Cramer did a mea culpa from the minute he sat down on…

    He wasn’t prepared for the fact that Stewart had that earlier footage. He blanched the moment it went on.

    I do give Cramer kudos for stepping up to the limelight and taking his hits. That took guts. Not too many people do that.

    And MAJOR KUDOS to Stewart. He was prepared, and called not just Cramer, but all of main-stream-media to the carpet for not doing their jobs.

    Reply ↓

  10. Right on BNF, Stewart asked the questions that the rest of us want to ask, but don’t have the access to power to ask. Jon Stewart steps in for the 4th estate again.

    Reply ↓

  11. NOTE:

    On last night’s open thread:

    March 12, 2009 at 9:11 pm @ The Zoo

    5thstate (a relapsed blogger, but constant commenter):

    “…tonight’s Daily Show will be the biggest thing tomorrow and over the weekend and it should go down in history….. and if there’s an Ed R Murrow Award for being Ed RR Murrow-ish, Jon should get it with brass knobs on and a bag of chips!”

    Five hours later(13 Mar 2009 02:00 am)…..

    Fallows, a professional journalist for The Atlantic:

    “It’s true: Jon Stewart has become Edward R. Murrow”

    Is James Fallows cribbing from The Zoo?
    Or was this an independent conclusion and a coincidence and he’s just a bit slow on the uptake?

    Hmmmm…. 😀

    Reply ↓

  12. Whoah, first the Youtube outing Cramer as a hedge-fund weasel appears on Daily Show the next day and now 5th pull a stunning prediction out of his hat. Of course 5th could *be* James Fallows which would reduce the mystique somewhat, but who am I to piss on his bonfire?

    Reply ↓

Leave a comment