The Jon Stewart Jim Cramer interview/showdown took place on March 12, 2009. Watch the Jim Cramer Daily Show video in its entirety and see photos here. The highly anticipated confrontation between Comedy Central ‘Daily Show’ host Jon Stewart and Jim Cramer, financial commentator and host of CNBC ‘Mad Money’ will be talked about for some time, as it was a classic moment in television history.
After unrelenting criticism of CNBC in the last several days (see video above) the Daily Show host had more than done his part to fuel the Stewart Cramer feud, as the Mad Money host had dismissively said in mock terror on the Today Show, ‘”A comedian’s attacking me! Wow! He runs a variety show!”
Continue reading and see video below…..
The feud was actually begun when Jim Cramer’s CNBC colleague, Rick Santelli, canceled his Daily Show appearance. Santelli is now infamous for his rant on the floor of the Chicago Board of Trade, in which he called homeowners in foreclosure caught up in the sub-prime mortgage crisis, ‘losers’ Jon Stewart then took a hard look at the entire CNBC network, and finding the ‘Mad Money’ host’s dubious stock predictions an irresistible target.
The ‘variety show comedian’ was unrelenting in his indictment of Jim Cramer’s ‘Mad Money’ offers advice and stock market tips, most famously taking issue with the tag line, ‘In Cramer We Trust’ while suggesting something more down to earth (You feel lucky, Punk? Well, do you?) as well as in a series of video clips showing Cramer continuing to recommend investment bank Bear Stearns stock just weeks before the financial giant caved in (as have so many, lately). In the showdown, Cramer could only concede, ‘ I didn’t think that Bear Stearns would evaporate overnight. I knew the people who ran it. I thought they were honest. That was my mistake.’
Jon Stewart was just as justifiably critical CNBC network’s reporting of the economic crisis in general and Wall Street’s role in the financial market meltdown in recent months, leaving Cramer with no choice but to admit that he and his network had given bad advice and had put entertainment and showmanship ahead of solid financial reporting.
“I understand that you want to make finance entertaining, but it’s not a f–king game,” Stewart said reminding the financial adviser that people, trusting the network to give sound financial advise and guidance, have their pension funds and life savings at stake.
Jon Stewart underscored the need for CNBC hosts and reporters to uncover the truth and not become collaborators with powerful Wall Street figures and and government officials. “The financial news industry is not just guilty of a sin of omission but a sin of commission,” he said. Which led to this very revealing dialogue that is the crux of the issue and is rare but brazen confrontation of the true is what has everyone talking.
CRAMER: I always wish that people would come in and swear themselves in before they come on the show. I had a lot of CEOs lie to me on the show. It’s very painful. I don’t have subpoena power. . . .
STEWART: You knew what the banks were doing and were touting it for months and months. The entire network was.
CRAMER: But Dick Fuld, who ran Lehman Brothers, called me in – he called me in when the stock was at 40 — because I was saying: “look, I thought the stock was wrong, thought it was in the wrong place” – he brings me in and lies to me, lies to me, lies to me.
STEWART [feigning shock]: The CEO of a company lied to you?
CRAMER: Shocking.
STEWART: But isn’t that financial reporting? What do you think is the role of CNBC? . . . .
CRAMER: I didn’t think that Bear Stearns would evaporate overnight. I knew the people who ran it. I thought they were honest. That was my mistake. I really did. I thought they were honest. Did I get taken in because I knew them before? Maybe, to some degree. . . .
It’s difficult to have a reporter say: “I just came from an interview with Hank Paulson and he lied his darn-fool head off.” It’s difficult. I think it challenges the boundaries.
STEWART: But what is the responsibility of the people who cover Wall Street? . . . . I’m under the assumption, and maybe this is purely ridiculous, but I’m under the assumption that you don’t just take their word at face value. That you actually then go around and try to figure it out (applause).
Source: There’s nothing unique about Jim Cramer
For more analysis, see also: Stewart vs. Cramer: A One-Sided Smackdown
Photo credit: Comedy Central
Watch the Comedy Central Jon Stewart Jim Cramer Daily Show video in its entirety below.
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Jon Stewart Jim Cramer Video: Jim Cramer Daily Show Video
