Sandwiched in between Victoria Secret commercials and trailers for raunchy teen flicks, a comedy show did what many 24-hour cable news channels could not. Comedy Central's The Daily Show with Jon Stewart aggressively pursued and demanded accountability in journalism. The week long on-air feud between Stewart and CNBC Mad Money Host Jim Cramer, culminated in an awkwardly frank but biting criticism from Stewart on the financial reporting done by Cramer and his network CNBC.
Visit The Daily Show website; you can watch the lead up to the showdown in the section, Cramer vs. Non-Cramer: Tale of the Tape. And you can watch the complete unedited interview with Jim Cramer embedded at the bottom of the page.
In what was times a trial room and a church confessional, Stewart battered Cramer for his pandering to bank CEOs and the focus on the entertainment aspects of Mad Money rather than the journalistic duty of the program and network to call out and assertively track the fraudulent practices and business transgressions of the banking institutions.
Stewart rolled out a series of un-televised clips from an interview with Cramer, like exhibits in a courtroom, pointing out the duality of Cramer’s extensive familiarity with the inner dealings of the finance world and his bad financial advice prior to the banking fallout.
Stewart lamented, “I can’t reconcile the brilliancy and knowledge that you have of the intricacies of the market, with the crazy bull**** I see you do every night.”
He attacked the station promos for Mad Money, which associated Cramer's advice to that of God. A disingenuous marketing technique, that Stewart likened to "selling snake oil as vitamin tonic".
Cramer defended the veracity of his financial reporting and that of his colleagues on CNBC, citing instances in which the network and his show actively pursued the criminal charging of corrupt finance. He readily agreed that CNBC was “fair game” for criticism, citing the challenges of producing 17 hours of live television a day, but conceded that over eagerness to believe the lies of bank CEOs and the unforeseeable collapse of the whole financial sector led to the inaccuracies in CNBC broadcasts.
Throughout the interview, Stewart tried to ease the tension by reminding us that although television commentators like Cramer are guilty, they are a symptom of the larger problem of accountability for financial and media institutions.
Jon Stewart expressed the yearning we all have for our news organizations to be that unbreakable line of accountability for the powerful people that run our society’s institutions. He hinted at how the roles of reporter and commentator have become interchangeable and implored for our television news organizations to uphold the responsibility and duty of journalism. I have to laugh and worry that in today's culture, the mantle of journalistic integrity is in the hands of a comedian.
The unedited complete Jim Cramer interview on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart:
Comments
Posted by KPZ (not verified) on Sat, 03/14/2009 - 9:37am
1775 – King George the III outlaws the independent currency that the American colonies were using and producing, instead forcing them to borrow money from the CBE at interest. It can be argued that this was the primary reason for the Revolution.
1907 – The Panic of 1907 began when the Heinze family attempted a bear squeeze on United Copper but failed, prompting the stock to collapse. Consequently, the Heinzes’ brokerage house and bank went into bankruptcy. The public, in fear of losing its deposits, began mass withdraws from their banks as well as banks associated with the Heinzes. Banks were then forced to call in their loans, which eventually led to soaring interest rates and a stock market collapse.
1913 - Woodrow Wilson becomes President of the United States by the heavy support of leading bankers. One of his first acts is to create the Federal Reserve to “prevent” any such panic from occurring again. However later he says,
“Our great industrial nation is controlled by its system of credit. Our system of credit is privately concentrated. The growth of the nation, therefore, and all our activities are in the hands of a few men who necessarily, by very reason of their own limitations, kill and check and destroy genuine economic freedom.
We have come to be one of the worst ruled, one of the most completely controlled and dominated governments in the civilized world – no longer a government by free opinion, no longer a government by conviction and the vote of the majority. But a government by the opinion and the duress of small groups of dominant men.”
1921-1929 - The margin loan is created. This becomes very popular in the “Roaring 20’s,” a period when the stock market reached new highs, and unprecedented returns created a delusion of an everlasting bull market. Despite signs of a collapse, investors largely ignored any indicators and suffered as the margin loans were called, prompting mass selling and the Wall Street Crash of 1929. The Great Depression ensues.
This is a cycle.
You cannot expect the financial industry to act “morally,” when the quintessence of that industry is simply the transaction of money, the addition and subtraction of numbers from a bank account. As such, the one and only goal is to make money, be it legally or until-you-get-caught.
“Man [Finance] is the only creature that consumes without producing. He does not give milk, he does not lay eggs, he is too weak to pull the plough, he cannot run fast enough to catch rabbits. Yet he is lord of all the animals. He sets them to work, he gives back to them the bare minimum that will prevent them from starving, and the rest he keeps for himself.”
Posted by Danny Hahn (not verified) on Mon, 03/16/2009 - 3:04pm
I'm inclined to agree with you. To use a pop culture reference, "greed is good" - Gordon Gekko (Wall Street). I believe that mentality is standard in the world of finance, so it's up to media institutions to keep financial institutions accountable and inform the populace of what's going on.
Post new comment