Friday, March 13, 2009

Taking Santelli's Bullet

As a longtime fan of the Daily Show, I have considerable tolerance for Jon Stewart when he crosses the line from satirist into pseudo-pundit--but going after Jim Cramer was just weak.

For those who don't know, there has been a spat rising between the two in recent days, both using their considerable media wherewithal to publicly criticize one another for whatever reasons TV personalities feel they should. (My guess is ratings.) I think most of it stemmed from this clip last week:



I understand that Rick Santelli backed out of his appearance on DS, which probably chapped Stewart's ass a little, but Cramer is just a personified straw-man. The clip above is supposed to demonstrate the purported hypocrisy of Santelli, yet the DS staff manages to catch everyone in on CNBC looking the fool except Santelli.

I'm sorry, but anyone who gets market advice from a mass media outlet deserves a certain loss in returns. C'mon--Cramer is a cartoon. People really looked to a TV character with millions of viewers for long-term investment advice? Who does that????

So yes, Jon, you punked out a guy who is famous for making a spectacle of himself. Your spot yesterday was an excellent piece of gotcha-Monday morning quarterback journalism--like we need more of that.

Stick to the jokes, Jon.

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