Jon Stewart vs. CNBC

Like many others, I have been following the Jon Stewart/Jim Cramer "war of words" all of last week. I'm just going to sum it up because chances are that anyone who crosses this has no idea what it's about. Last week, Jon Stewart trashed CNBC and put them on the spot for not being tougher on the big Wall Street CEOs who either had a hand in bringing about the financial collapse and subsequent economic downturn...or just plain stole from other people (aka Ponzi schemers). Included in his condemnation were some videos of CNBC's Mad Money host, Jim Cramer. Even though Stewart's tirade was not directed at Cramer per se, Cramer responded on several of NBC's sister network shows.

The culmination was Thursday, when Cramer went on Stewart's show and they went head-on. All the writers out there say Stewart just steamrolled Cramer, who was on the defensive the entire time. But I think they don't put enough emphasis on the fact that Cramer is not "the issue" - just the face of it - and only because he took it upon himself to be.

Jon Stewart is undoubtedly one of the greatest political/social thinkers of this generation, and this is exemplified in his surprisingly hard-hitting interview with Cramer. Stewart showed that while he doesn't hold any sort of reputable degree or certification on Wall Street, he is still able to hold his ground against the financial pundits, who really have no defense against his criticisms.

I have a lot of respect for Jon Stewart and I love his show for his cut-through-the-bullshit, call-it-like-it-is political satire. As noted by some other writers, this is THE opportunity for the financial reporting sector to reform themselves and to really gain some integrity. They surely have taken a blow to the nutsack and the best way for them to recover is to change the way they do things. I hope historians save a paragraph in the history books for this one.