Monday, March 16, 2009

Jon Stewart, Attack Clown

So Jim Cramer, the nutty host of CNBC's Mad Money show, fired off a series of anti-Obama rants on TV recently. Jim was infuriated by the profligacy of the Obama Administration and the market tanking as a result. Jim's rantings prompted any number of counterattacks by administration lapdogs, culminating in Jon Stewart attacking him on his TV show. Here's one of Jim Cramer's rants.


There have been plenty of blog posts on the subject. All of the ones that I have seen so far take sides. Either Stewart is a know-nothing or Cramer is a corporate shill. The arguments circle around Cramer's history of stock picks.

I think that's a mistake.

Cramer was not on the show because of his stock picks. He's been doing Mad Money for quite some time and there were plenty of chances for Jon Stewart to attack him before now. Stewart went after Cramer because he criticized Barack Obama. There's nothing more to it than that.

It's the shape of things to come.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

So, when did Cramer switch to decaf?

capcha: sersile

Kelly the little black dog said...

Can't disagree with you more. First of all Jon has been repeatedly critical of the Ones cult of personality. Secondly, if you actually watched the interview, even better the edited parts, its clear Jon is quite pissed about the stock market crash. Jon got hosed in the latest down turn and he resents corporate cheerleaders like Cramer who mislead investors about the health of the big investment houses. Cramer as much as admitted that he knows they were paying games, but was reluctant until the very last minute to warn his viewers.

K T Cat said...

So why did Stewart choose this moment to skewer Cramer?

Anonymous said...

My understanding of it is that Stewart was initially attacking CNBC in general for giving a lot of bad advice to people over a long period of time, and then trying to avoid taking any blame for their bad advice. Cramer was only one of a bunch of CNBC personalities that he made fun of. However, while the other guys on CNBC pretty much said nothing, Cramer "took the bait" and attacked Stewart back. Thereby *making* himself a target.

When somebody hears a bullet whiz by, then jumps up and yells, "Hey, shoot at me, shoot at me!", I can't give him too much sympathy when somebody then goes ahead and shoots him, you know?

K T Cat said...

Tim, I saw the video of Cramer going after Stewart. I thought Stewart was definitely fair game on that. Cramer's performance on Stewart's show was such a complete rollover that the only thing I could think was that he was trying to reestablish his relationships in the entertainment industry.

Still, the timing of this is beyond suspect. No one went after Cramer until he attacked Obama.

K T Cat said...

Hmmmm.

Rose said...

I agree, KT.

It's certainly easy to criticize Cramer is retrospect - anyone who picks stocks gets some right and some wrong, and hope he gets more right than wrong.

Cramer was pretty good on Cudlow and Cramer, and his outspoken feisty style made an entertaining new show with a schtick that brought alot of people new understanding of the market because he made it entertaining.

The reason I think Stewart's criticism is ultimately unfair is - the market, and the economy, is like the ocean, beautiful, fruitful, fun, but dangerous.

Cramer surfed, successfully, and made it fun, he navigated the waters, and taught others to navigate, but the waters were always treacherous.

To blame Cramer for this tsunami, cause by an earthquake no one felt, is wrong.

Cramer was a big Obama supporter, but he now sees what a mistake that was and he cannot sanction the destruction of wealth that Obama is making worse, nor can he sanction Obama's apparent hatred of successful people, his desire to punish them and take any profits, his changing of all the rules that people have followed, and trusted.

Trying to say too much, in too little time - complicated issue.

But I hope Cramer sees the attack machine for what it is. And continues to stand up to it. We'll see if he is that brave.

devionce