Stewart vs. Cramer

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Filed under: Fraud and Deception, Media Literacy

The Comedian as Media Critic
by Brian Stelter
TVDecoder.blogs.nytimes.com
March 13, 2009

Is the “weeklong feud of the century” finished?

Jon Stewart, the host of “The Daily Show” on Comedy Central, critiqued CNBC”™s coverage of the stock market on Thursday during a highly anticipated appearance by Jim Cramer, the host of the sometimes frantic stock market show “Mad Money” on CNBC.

Mr. Stewart questioned Mr. Cramer about the perception that CNBC acts as a cheerleader for the investment community. “The financial news industry is not just guilty of a sin of omission but a sin of commission,” Mr. Stewart said. Mr. Cramer agreed that he made a number of faulty predictions over the years.

The must-see-TV moment came more than a week after CNBC abruptly canceled Mr. Stewart”™s interview with Rick Santelli, a reporter who had ranted about President Obama”™s housing plan on the network last month. Mr. Stewart complained about the cancellation and spent eight minutes on “The Daily Show” playing video clips of the network”™s mistaken financial forecasts. “If I had only followed CNBC”™s advice, I”™d have a million dollars today,” Mr. Stewart said, “provided that I”™d started with $100 million.”

That first video has been viewed more than 1.5 million times on Comedy Central”™s Web site for the show. Mr. Cramer and Mr. Stewart battled back and forth in a series of online columns and TV segments before meeting for the first time on Thursday on “The Daily Show” set. Comedy Central called it the “weeklong feud of the century.” Read the rest of this article here.