The Daily show interview Jon Stewart did with Jim Cramer of Mad Money just re-aired. If you have not seen it I encourage you to watch it on comedycentral.com. I however suggest you take this interview with a grain of salt and not judge Cramer purely on this if you know nothing else about him besides he is the guy that yells about stocks.
I must admit that I am a fan of Cramer's and think he is very attuned to this country as a whole economically. In general I think he is a pretty smart guy. I also must admit that I am not that big a fan of Jon Stewart. He can be funny sure, but often times when he gets all serious i just want to roll my eyes at him. Feel free to report the news, try and get the scoop or whatever, but its the holier-than-thou attitude he sometimes projects that bothers me. Aside from college aged liberals (probably the majority of my audience) I'm not sure there are many people who care what his opinions actually are.
So I guess that brings me to why I decided to comment on this interview. To be completely honest I thought Jon Stewart's interview of Jim Cramer was unprofessional. He goes on a number of accusational rants which baring the approval of an English Major, (aren't you glad I've provided you a use for that...I kid I kid) I'm pretty sure weren't questions. Cramer lets him finish his "questions" and then usually started in on an "answer" which i guess is better labeled a rebuttal. To which he was often interrupted by Stewart so he could either go on another rant or run one of many clips he had from one poorly shot interview from a few years back. And although he at several points tries to say it isn't about Cramer but about CNBC and the financial district in general, he uses the videos pretty douchely. Calling out clip numbers off note cards, like a kid checking off his list on Christmas morning, at one point one right after another as if to just say "GOTCHA!" I didn't take a stop watch to it or anything but it seemed to me Stewart was talking a large majority of the time. One point I chose to pay enough attention to Cramer spoke for 30 seconds of a 4 minute span. Not exactly a great interview when the guest just gets the best seat for a monologue from the host.
The last thing that got under my skin a little was that Stewart dropped the eff bomb three separate times. I'm not saying he isn't allowed to curse on his show, but when you are grilling someone about how they should take their role as a news person more seriously, you probably shouldn't just yell expletives while you go on emotional rants.
Anyway, I guess the moral of this story is think for yourself and dont just take one persons views for the only way to see things.
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I saw this interview when it first aired and was very confused when several days later many colleagues and my parents were talking about it like it was a big deal or even ground-breaking. My immediate reaction was that the whole this was un-professional and rather annoying. But now, thanks to Jon Stewart I now know that the entire recession was caused by Jim Cramer.
ReplyDeleteStream of consciousness while watching this thing for the first time:
ReplyDeleteSo Cramer goes completely against Santini (who said some right things)...and Steward still puts him the boat with him - that's ridiculous.
And to blame this thing on CNBC is utterly ridiculous, utterly the worst commentary on the economy I've ever heard in my entire life. Jon loves to trade long-term and short-term indicators to make his point no matter what is said.
It's "ethically dubious" to have a day-to-day stock market? Does he have no idea what the business cycle is?
Is it the banks or the financial markets that was the problem? Jon has NO IDEA what he's talking about and is just talking from emotion and has no clue what he means.
Cramer makes a great point "the market was going up for a long time and we all made a mistake thinking it was going to go up forever". Markets go up and down Steward, its a fact. And he loves saying "35 to 1 leverage" like its the only term he says that he can actually understand. And then doesn't even listen to Cramer's very valid point that people were getting 30% returns from those companies for YEARS. Why do you think everyone in the financial industry talks about risky but diverse funds early and then move towards more solid securities as you get older...Jon doesn't even listen to that very clear argument which is a coherent well formed counter point.
Then "when are we going to realize that our wealth in this country is our work"...EXACTLY. Listen to yourself. I love how Cramer has to like compose himself from saying what he wants which is "your not correct" at best or "your an idiot" at worst.
I'm pretty done with this interview...I can't stand it...its almost as bad as a Michael Moore interview.
crap sorry -- just heard his mother comment at the end. DUH..no wonder Jon has such a stick up his ass. It's just like I said before I heard that comment - you can never keep your money in a high growth secutriy forever and expect 30% forever without a huge downturn. That's why you put it there early in life, take the good with the bad for 25-30 years and earn like 20% net and call it a great fucking day.
ReplyDeleteHis mom's 75 and got hurt by this?!?! She should have divested to treasury notes or money market 10 years ago! Or at least 5 years ago, and she would have made a pretty penny. And I assure you if she had asked Jim Cramer or anyone from CNBC or any financial adviser from any firm what she should do 5 years ago they would have said the same. Sorry you had a personal bone to pick Steward but something tells me your mom's going to be okay since you've been in cable and movies for years. Yet you pretenously pretend to care about the people losing their homes in this?
One word which I've probably overused already: ridiculous
Jon Stewart = entertainment, not real news, thus no one should actually expect him to conduct an interview like a true newsperson.
ReplyDeleteIf this had happened on a real news channel, it'd be something to get upset over, but really, it's on Comedy Central.