3/13/09

Video: A Serious Jon Stewart Lectures CNBC Straw Man Jim Cramer

The one person both Cramer and Stewart excluded from their criticism and agreed to praise by name was my friend and master documentary maker for CNBC, David Faber.

Now to the main event. The media world agrees 100% that Stewart bested Cramer and that it was not a funny 12 minutes. Jon Stewart has a stinging serious side that underlies the essence of his comedy. In fact, calling what Steward does four nights a week comedy is misleading. It is usually biting satire with a purpose and often hysterical in its presentation.

Just a footnote to the whole CNBC debate. True, in the financial firms that I am familiar with, overhead monitors broadcast CNBC to the firm throughout the day. But note well, the volume is muted. The main purpose CNBC serves in this context is to provide stock ticker information. In this model, the conversation among the correspondents is background chatter of little consequence.

Following this line of reasoning, it well may be that Jon Stewart has used CNBC and Kramer as straw men. And the real culprits lie elsewhere unscathed by this latest skirmish over financial wrongdoings.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

100%, tzvee? Methinks you should step out of your little leftist bubble every now and then.

And if you don't realize that Stewart has made a habit of severely editing any interview in which he comes off as the snide moron he really is- as he did here- then that bubble of yours must be very small indeed.

Tzvee Zahavy said...

thanks nathan for straightening us out. we would be emerging from our bubble and entering into the the wingnut echo chamber except that it's getting hard to find that nowadays. we linked to the unedited interview... check it out. yes he is snide and cynical but moron is a little harsh.

Anonymous said...

We? Who are you, Jeffrey Lebowski? :-)

Talmudist said...

Jon Stewart is guaranteed a 10% uptick in his viewership after last night's performance.