Jon Stewart's Epic CNBC Rant: Best Moments (Funny Video)

Yeah I saw this on TV. So freaking funny.

Didn't know that

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Hasn't CNBC always been about day trading pandering, with some business news sprinkled in throughout the day? Like any other 24 hour news channel they realized pretty quickly there's not enough actual news to fill 24 hours of programming.

Aren't we all still gonna watch CNBC in bschool too?

I mean Fox Business News or Bloomberg is not even a competition to CNBC.

CNBC is like business channel mixed with Howard Stern/Jerry Springer kinda circus road show....

I wouldn't say that Jon Stewart and Jim Cramer have some conspiracy going, but remember that these two people are EXTREMELY media savvy. One's a comedian, and the other is a stock commentator -- but both are TV hosts, and as TV hosts, they ply their trade in maximizing RATINGS. They are both media savvy enough to know how to play off each other without having to actually pre-plan or discuss anything ("hey, it's nothing personal") because both know the game and are willing to play along without having to step aside and say "wink wink we're just playing each other for ratings".

As such, while I believe that their disagreements are genuine, they certainly both know that they are playing it up for each other -- it's theater and they both know it.

CNBC is certainly guilty of cheerleading and wanting "access" over investigative journalism. But if CNBC and Jim Cramer were truly truly bothered by that accusation, they would've just issued a "no comment", rather than adding more fuel to the fire by having Jim Cramer do a bunch of interviews to respond to Jon Stewart's monologues.

Jim Cramer added fuel to the fire because he (and CNBC) knows that it will only up the "gawker factor" and get more people to watch his show - Jim knows he's completely over the top and will play that up for the camera. Likewise, Jon Stewart continues to respond because he knows that this tit-for-tat is becoming newsworthy, which only gets more people to tune into his show. From this spectacle, it's clear that CNBC does NOT care about its journalistic integrity. It's about ratings, pure and simple. With a circus, you're guaranteed to get some audience...

And the fact that this tit-for-tat has culminated in Jim finally being a guest on Jon Stewart's show? Ratings gold. How many more people are more motivated to tune in to see what will happen now?

Get your popcorn ready...

Good analysis Alex!

I agree that this tit-for-tat response has to be taken with a little grain of salt. Jon Stewart is probably the most incisive commentator on TV today, even though his show happens to be in Comedy Central. He knows how to manipulate the cable news commentators (anyone remember his visit to Chris Matthew's hardball in CNN couple of years ago? that was freaking genius) and morning TV shows (which seem to cover Stewart/Colbert almost obsessively). And most of us know pretty well that Cramer is well Cramer!! (what is he smoking with all that weird sound effects... and why does he have such huge problems accepting that he was wrong with his call on Bear Sterns and Lehman.. i mean come on.. the evidence is on video (as Jon Stewart played it repeatedly)

Cramer just needs to show a little humility (and I know this is asking a lot from a guy who makes a living pretending to be always right) and Jon Stewart is probably going to call him on it during the interview. This gotta be fun. Anyway, I can't wait for the Daily Show tonight!!

Disclosures: I do not enjoy watching Cramer in CNBC (in fact not a big fan of CNBC, I prefer Bloomberg). Also, I am a fan of Daily Show/Colbert Report (combination of comedy and current affairs is just irresistible

To some degree, one can get more incisive commentary and insight into what's *really* going on by watching Jon Stewart or Steven Colbert than the news networks themselves.

CNBC is so obsessed with getting "access" to business leaders that they end up becoming mouthpieces for the people they are interviewing. As such, CNBC no longer becomes a "news network" but a PR machine for corporate America and Wall Street. They're stuck because if they were to really conduct hard hitting journalism, none of these executives would ever want to be interviewed. As such, the interviews tend to be puff pieces.

In response to Alex, I do think it was partially about ratings but only from Jon Stewart's side. Was there any genuine anger on his part? Of course. Did he purposely design this feud, actually expecting Cramer to join in? Not sure. Do I enjoy answering my own questions? Indeed.

Anyway, the ratings were released. Since the feud began, the Daily Show's viewership increased by 20%. On the other side, Mad Money's viewership has decreased by 24%! 24%! If Cramer (or CNBC) expected something good to come out of this, as of now they are very disappointed.

For anyone who didn't see this live, it's a classic Jon Stewart take down of the corrupt shenanigans on Wall Street that led to this whole cluster&@!#.

Links:
https://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index ... amer-pt.-2

https://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index ... amer-pt.-3

Really, I couldn't have said it better myself.

"Brawl Street": Jon Stewart vs. Jim Cramer

The “week-long feud of the century” kicked off The Daily Show’s March 12 episode with host Jon Stewart flexing his muscles and concluded with a conciliatory friendly handshake with CNBC’s Mad Money host James Cramer. But if this was a friendly make-good appearance intended to follow up on Stewart’s unusually lengthy (8 minutes) and vitriolic take-down of CNBC on March 4 and his follow-up show that focused on Cramer on March 10, there were plenty of hard punches by Stewart, leaving Cramer scrambling to explain himself and his network’s ways.

https://www.businessweek.com/investing/i ... =rss_daily

Anyone see the show last night?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LceizefhP4k

Stewart vs. Cramer. Now, that was good TV!!

Anyway, some of my thoughts:

1) It was not a fight at all. It was Stewart all the way. He was very well prepared, especially with the footage of Cramer's interview about how to manipulate the market and make easy money by shorting shares. Cramer on the other hand seemed completely out of it, he did not fight back at all (which was a pretty big surprise to me, considering his personality).

2) Cramer seemed contrite and apologetic throughout the interview, which was a welcome change (since saying I made a mistake should not be such a difficult thing). Any financial commentator who is not a little humble about the market since the meltdown last year (did anyone really predict demise of Bear Sterns/AIG/Lehman?) is just a blowhard (at least in my book)

3) Even though I am a big fan of Stewart, he did come across as a little too serious (for a comedian!!). But who can blame him, I mean somebody has to ask some tough questions about the role of financial media in this meltdown (I know that CNBC is not going to do it . As Stewart asked repeatedly, who is CNBC for? Is it for the Wall Street traders or the regular investors (401k investors and general public)?

PS: For those of you who think Stewart was able to put Cramer on the spot, only because he was hosting his own show, need to check out the Crossfire interview (as somebody else also pointed out).

Stewart crossed the bounds of a satire show ...taking an obvious personal opinion/gripe..I like him and not saying he does not have a point...but I lost a lot of respect for his show as a comedic medium....

Comedians should stick to what they do best....make us laugh.