Friday, March 13, 2009

Disembowelment

One could argue that Jon Stewart drove a nail in the coffin of Crossfire, or that Stephen Colbert held a long-overdue, uncomfortable mirror up to Bush and the D.C. press corps at that dinner a couple years back...but both of those occurred in the relative obscurity of unanticipated improvisation. No one saw them coming.

This Jon Stewart vs. Jim Cramer/CNBC thing has been 8 days in the making and has gone far beyond YouTube viral stages. It was above-the-fold on USA Today yesterday—don't even ask me if that furthers the irony here or not.

Anyway, last night was the showdown, and from everything I've read it didn't disappoint. I saw a few minutes "live" last night, and a clip on line, but I won't be able to sit and watch the whole interview until later. But that doesn't mean you can't...

NOTE: Unedited and NSFW. Part One:



Part Two.

Part Three.

9 comments:

Noah said...

As I said on LLPN:

I watched it. Cramer tried for a half hour to defend himself when Stewart's indictment was towards CNBC and the MSM itself. Stewart's point was that the MSM is complicit, and that Cramer is just but one very obvious and public example of that.

I loved a segment, about half way through, where Stewart essentailly said that Cramer, by his own admission, knew this was going on, knew what was happening, and underplayed it. And told people to buy a stock that tanked. SEC investigation sammich, anyone?

steves said...

I am not a huge fan of Stewart, but he just took apart Cramer. It was such a mismatch that I actually felt kind of sorry for Cramer a few times. One thing that I took out of it was the broad complicity in this whole mess. Obviously, both parties share a fair amount of the blame. Obviously, the parts of the financial sector that engaged in shenanigans share blame and, as Stewart pointed out, the media deserves some scorn for not exposing this shit.

I can't help but wonder how much the rest of us share in the blame. Many of us saw these huge returns and invested money, expecting these high levels of return. It certainly isn't a justification and investments frims should have been more hinest and realistic, but who is going to invest money with a company that is "safe" and giving small returns when another company is promising easy money.

All in all, that was one of the best interviews I have seen in a long time. He asked all the questions that most of us would like to ask and the darlings in the MSM would be too scared to even try.

Bob said...

So does Cramer have balls for coming on the show, or is it that when Stewart calls, you HAVE to go on, because you are terrified of what happens if you don't?


I like Stewart, if only becuase every news outlet should ask tough questions. It's just a shame that to ask real questions you have to hide behind the fact that you are a comedian.

That says alot about the cowards in the media.

Bob said...

Oh and BTW-

Whenever Creamer said "buy X", I figured it was time to sell X.

steves said...

I don't think there is anything wrong with being a comedian. Others have suggested he is just like a modern day court jester.

Jennifer said...

I have something I would really like for you to see. I am going to see if I can link it from here ... hang on ..

Crap. I can't do it. I am going to go back out and see if you have an email and I can forward it to you.

Scared the crap out of me it did ...

Jennifer said...

You don't have one listed .. I am going to send it to Mrs. F because I have her email and will ask her to forward it to you. I would love to get your thoughts on it.

Jennifer said...

http://www.foxnews.com/glennbeck/

Ok, I can't figure out how to freaking get this video to you other than do this.

Go to the link above and scroll down to "Share these videos" and click on "Inconvenient Debt"

Missives From Suburbia said...

It was an incredibly painful interview to watch. I was curled up in a ball on the couch by the end of it.