Video: Stewart tears into Cramer over economic collapse

"I understand you want to make finance entertaining, but it's not a (expletive) game,"

Ok, so Jon Stewart is allowed to have a TV show that makes light of current events, yet wants to be taken seriously at the same time. But God-forbid anyone else have a TV show that does something similar.

What a hypocrite!

...because former MTV occasionally-funny-man Jon Stewart knows finance...

Well, John does "claim" to know finance and doesn't tell his listeners how to invest and doesn't cause them to lose their shirts with bad advice. Glad I never listened to that idiot Cramer.

Tony, I should hope that you know the difference between a show on Comedy Central whose purpose is to parody the news and a show on CNBC whose purpose is to give sound financial advice.

The brilliance of Jon Stewart is that he gets the Jim Cramers and the Brit Humes and the John Boehners of the world to set themselves up, and then knocks them right over with the simple poke of the one-liner. He doesn't have to know a thing about finance, but he knows comedy, can highlight what's outrageously and flat-out wrong, and put those goons in their places.

Anyone that doesn't appreciate that can just go dig out those VHS copies of "The Half-Hour News Hour" and watch 'em over again.

It's not about Stewart knowing finance, or criticisizing people who make light of current events while asking to be taken seriously. He has never asked anyone to take him seriously (except when he played Adam Sandler's brother in Big Daddy); rather, he criticizes and satirizes those people and networks who do not do their jobs when people depend on them for news, insight, and opinions on important issues. I don't think I'd classify Stewart as making light of current events. He knows full well how important everything is, but the show is made to be humorous, not serious.

Go back and watch Stewart's appearance on CNN's old show Crossfire (youtube it). Despite constant egging by Tucker and Begala to admit mistakes in criticizing their show, he retains a serious nature, and when asked why, when then presidential candidate John Kerry appeared on his show, he didn't ask him serious questions, his response was (and I'm paraphrasing here) "my show is followed by puppets making crank phone calls. People don't watch Comedy Central for political news and insight, that's your job." I'm still convinced it was this thrashing he gave the hosts that got them cancelled. The guy has a forum to talk to people we all want to talk to, and sometimes he says what needs to be said.

As poignant and satirical as Stewart may be, the real reason he is going after Cramer lies in the fact that Cramer criticized the almighty Obama and his administrations policies.

Stewart's got a great job....make fun of people. I think he's an idiot.

Much of Cramer's advice has not been spot on for the average viewer. If this is his forte and what he gets paid by MSNBC very well to do as an advisor, it appears his loyalty was to turn a blind eye in exchange for his contractual obligation. Jon Stewart is right to call Cramer on this issue. Cramer's advice is supposed to be geared towards the average layperson investor...the very people who were hit the hardest by the Wall Street collapse.

CNBC complicit? And all this time I thought people were responsible for their OWN financial decisions, Mr. Stewart. But hey, its not like I have a degree in finance.....oh wait....

Jon Stewart makes light of current events to show the absurdity of our government and politics. He makes his point by exposing the irrationality in regular news and most jokes have serious undertones. Jim Cramer yells and jumps around to emphasize his excitement in the correctness of his advice. His antics are for the purpose of selling, while Stewart's are to inform. Did you watch the interview? Cramer admits to investor fraud and actually recommends it to brokers. Partaking in fraud while handing out financial advice...who's the real hypocrite?

hey morons, jon stewart's show is on comedy central not a major news media outlet!

The difference IS that Jon Stewart's show isn't TELLING viewers
to 'BUY or SELL', but Mad Money does.. and viewers invest REAL
money based on his 'expertise' and affiliation with CNBC.

If Mad Money is now back peddling and branding itself as an
'entertaining show', then CNBC should NOT advertise is anything
else.

yeah, that's right. disregard the message, which is dead-on, because he's a comedian. who had a similar show that he criticized? tucker? that wasn't a comedy show. they wanted to be taken seriously - nothing else. your reasoning is specious.
you don't need to know finance to criticize shows like Cramer's. that's like saying the people who got swindled by Madoff shouldn't criticize him because they don't know finance.
coupla kneejerkers.

...but people don't make investment decisions based on what Jon Stewart says. They do take the advice of Jim Cramer.

Tony, the daily show is picking on a guy from CNBC...which is obviously affiliated with that demonic liberal media outfit, MSNBC. So what's your problem?

My guess is you're making a reference to people like Limbaugh, O'Reilly, et al, but they're the complete inverse: They think they're serious players but they're actually just clowns.

Given that Mad Money is on the Consumer News and Business Channel viewers might reasonably expect serious news on CNBC. They should be the experts.

One role of comedy is to stretch beyond truth or reasonableness. Going past the truth and recognizing that fact can often help us see the truth more clearly. Although I agree this episode is a programming tangent to the typical show I like the discomfort is causes.

That is one reason why the Daily Show attracts a fairly well informed audience. He keeps us guessing between fact and fiction thus gets us laughing and thinking.

The satirist has always been a moralist, pointing out the hypocrisy, foolishness, and immorality of those with power. Why are people surprised by this? Do people not watch Stewart on a regular basis? His show is rife with moral judgments and disgust at America's leaders, the media, and even our own excesses. They are just often packaged up in a laugh and seemingly puerile sex joke so we can stomach the ultimately depressing conclusion.

I'm glad Stewart did this. He gave voice to what a lot of Americans are feeling towards the so-called wizards of Wall Street and those who are in bed with them--like Cramer and the other mooks at CNBC.Maybe he will bring down Cramer like he brought down Crossifre

Why are some people here criticizing Jon Stewart? There's a reason Jim Cramer is on the Daily Show: he and CNBC helped support an illusory financial system that devistated countless of your fellow Americans. The Daily Show, once again, is asking the questions that the so-called serious journalists have failed to ask of our institutions. Maybe it's a general discomfort average journalists have with holding their colleagues to account. I'm just glad that The Daily Show took Cramer and CNBC to task for their complicity and their self-serving nonsense. Be grateful that someone is holding Wall St., the media, and our government to a higher ethical standard.

As Jon Stewart noted in the Cramer interview, at least his show advertises itself as fake news. Cramer pretends to be a real new show, but when pinned, he cries it's only entertainment. Tony (#1 comment) doesn't seem to understand the difference. Stewart is right: CNBC and Cramer are a disgrace. Shame on them. Just a step behind Bernie Madoff.

In regards to Stewart wanting to be taken seriously, it seems to me that he's just vert frustrated (as many of us are) about the "shenanigans" going on with our savings, retirement funds, etc. He says many times that he's no finance expert, just a layman, who is forced to put his trust (like us) in people who proclaim they *are* experts.

Tony and Phil,

What is wrong with you? The whole amazing part of this entire "feud" is the fact that NO ONE ELSE in the "real" world or journalism has done anything nearly as illuminating as Stewart did last night. I don't think he wants to do these kinds of interviews, but if no one else is going to do so, thank god he picked up the mantle.

As he said over and over, its not about Cramer, its about the culture of news media, financial deregulation and Americans' immature belief in getting rich quick. The fact that it took a comedian to point out these shenanigan is pathetic and depressing.

Cramer himself said he couldn't or didn't do what needed to be done: speaking truth to power. There are no MSM reporters willing to do that, so we get Stewart on Cramer and Crossfire, and Colbert sticking it in Bush's eye at the 2006 Correspondents' Dinner.

Sigh.

Jon is not a hypocrite because he's not telling you to bet on the number 5 horse at Aqueduct when he knows (or should know via due diligence) that the recommended horse is lame. Jim Cramer is not the chief culprit. He is the guy with guts enough to come over and take the heat for the rest of the wusses over at CNBC. If CNBC wants to be a "financial news network," then it has to stop being a patsy, wimpering that it was lied to, and dig for investigative information. There's always more than 1 side to every story. CNBC does not pursue any other sides. It allows corporate/brokerage talking heads to speak their BS with impunity. Point well made, Jon.

How many people do you think lost a lot of money because Cramer was on his show and a collection of other NBC shows telling people that Bear Sterns was a safe company to either buy or stay invested in? All Jon Stewart was doing was telling the people at CNBC that they need to report the real news and investigate these companies instead of just passing on the lies of the CEO's. James Cayne the CEO of Bear Sterns walked away with $232 Million in compensation for being incharge fro 1993 until 2007. Cayne should be sharing a cell with Madoff instead of walking free.

Stewart's show has more truth in his shows than most of the network news combined. Jon doesn't claim to know finance, but he knows that cNBC is beholden to Wall Street & not the shareholders who keep cNBC on the air!!

why is JON STEWART on Comedy Central the only guy on any tv network calling these guys out?

Cramer and CNBC and every other financial network completely BLEW it. is there any debate to that?

way to go, financial analysts! cheerleading all the way up to the collapse.

Just goes to show you cut out the stock market page hang it over your dart board through the dart, and where it lands run with that stock. Its just as good as any so-called financial guru. (And way safer than with someone like made -off).

seriously, watch the interview and then say Stewart was wrong. everything he said - especially about the long term, 401K people (you know, 99% of us) being played by these short term money movers - is true.

WHEN did the US become a nation of money-movers? "move money here, move it there, work day is over." this is "industry" in the US. is there any doubt as to the reason the US is OWNED by China? maybe, in order to get the economy back on track, we should get back to ACTUALLY MAKING TANGIBLE THINGS THAT WE CAN OWN AND SELL?

Way to be clueless Tony.
Jon Stewart's show doesn't tell people to risk their life savings in stocks he's picked. Cramer's does. Because you need someone to explain it to you, "THAT" WOULD BE DIFFERENT!"
Secondly, just because Stewart is funny, doesn't disqualify him from being smart enough to comment on the situation. It's just the opposite. Because he's smart enough to dissect the situation, he's able to skewer it.
Stewart is correct to point out that CNBC has been complicit in the robbery of Americans wealth. Their buddy buddy attitude's with the guys who trade and run funds have stopped them from being what they're supposed to be, reporters.

But run right out there Tony, and Buy Buy Buy! Duh.

Oh, I see - Tony and Phil - Jim Cramer is a comedian and his show was never supposed to be taken seriously. Hello? Anyone home?

dave, why don't you go back to school and get a degree in something useful. tangible. non-make-believe.

oh and THANKS for ruining the US economy!

Jon Stewart never claimed to know finance, his point is the people who do say they do know finance are either incompetent or scammers.

I think Stewart is a very bright and perhas gifted comedic talent. I dont agree with his one sided political views, and enjoy his show when i catch it admist the often painfully liberal lean. However, to call him out on seeing now, what we all can recognize as wrong becuase he hosts a comedy show is idiotic. What..we have to have all passed our series 7 exams in order to be qualified to cry foul? That's the same kind of arrogant BS that got us into this mess. Arrogance, greed, and sanctioned shell games, while the hardworking suckers lost 1/3 to perhaps half of everythign we made. All this while guys like Jim Cramer report on what leans the market ther own way. Shameful.

Yeah it would have been better for all these finance shows to tell everyone "Run! Take your money and hide it under your bed." Because that would have helped save the economy.

Geez. Everyone treat John Stewart like he is untouchable. No one can critize him.
They want it both ways. He is better than other newscasters and is an important source for information but the minute he is critized "he is just a comedian."

WWhat is funny is those shows that were saying this bubble is going to burst were critized when they did.

The salient point is that Stewart, a comedian, is the only one to expose the utter lack of integrity (fact checking anyone?!?!?!) that networks are mired in. It takes a comedian, okay a rather intelligent one, to do the job of journalists who have become entertainers. Talk about role reversals.

You can watch the unedited 22 minute interview at The Daily Show's website (www.thedailyshow.com)...without question, this is "must see TV".

As I expected, Jon Stewart's legion of defenders would claim he is beyond criticism because he's 'just a comedian'.

Except too many people do take him seriously, Daily Show is the major source of information for an alarming number of people. Why else would Jim Cramer even bother going on the show? Why do all the politicians go on there if it's just a comedy show not to be taken seriously?

In the CNBC lineup, 'Mad Money' is obviously a light-hearted , over-the-top show. Jim Cramer has made some spectacularly bad stock calls. He is also the first to do a mea culpa when he is wrong (Stewart's slick video montages conveniently leave those out). He is also not always wrong (again, watching Stewart's clips would never give that impression).

But Cramer also does complete shows on how to properly invest. Not 'buy this stock, buy that stock'. But only invest in stocks only after other commitments are taken care of, and only IF you are willing to spend time researching the companies you invest in. It is obvious from the above comments that most people's only idea of what goes on on that show is what Jon Stewart told them goes on.

Because of that Jim Cramer used to be heralded in the media as being on the side of the little investor. But then he dared criticize Obama (who he supported in the election), now suddenly he's become the face of all that is wrong in the world of finance. Funny how that works.

Pointing out Stewart's lack of pedigree wasn't a de facto praising of the pinhead journalists who are doing zero to pursue real culprits in this financial crisis.

I'm beginning to wonder if Tony & Phil's posts were just incendiary.. I hope.

When Obama's egg is fully laid, I doubt Stewart will be inquiring why NBC, CBS, ABC and CNN never vetted the almighty.

Tony - stop being a baby.

Stuart makes me laugh with his face contortions and mannerisms even when the punch line falls short. That would make him comically disingenuous.

Jon Stewart is the only person the American public can count on to ask the hard questions.

And that is truly sad.

mikeybigboy, why don't you go back to school and get your GED so you can get a promotion from flipping burgers overnight.

Bravo to Stewart for exposing what a complete and utter fraud Cramer and CNBC as a whole is. I hope this shows goes the way of Crossfire.

Also bravo to him for shedding light on the complete and utter falsity that NBC and its affiliates are somehow a "liberal media outlet".

Jon Stewart knows very little about finance and he clearly OWNED Jim Cramer. That is like me going to Fenway next month and embarrassing David Ortiz in batting practice. It should not happen to a so called expert in his field. And anyone trying to make excuses for Jim Cramer is as bit an !DIOT as he is.

BBill, learn how to sspell, then ccome back and ttalk to us. Your post also made nno sense, so figure out what you're ttrying to say while you're learning how to sspell.

Tony, what you've just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.

(with thanks to the principal from Billy Madison)

The point is that Jon Stewart on Comedy Central does not have a moral obligation to tell a fully researched and informed story. He is not a journalist and doesn't claim to be one. He may serve as a social and cultural critic, but he's not claiming he should be respected and trusted as a journalist.

CNBC on the other hand, and Cramer in particular ("In Cramer we trust.") does claim to be a financial journalist, which implies some level of professional responsibility to 'journalism' including fact checking and objectivity and in which he and his CNBC colleagues collectively have failed.

No one is asking them to be correct or to predict the future. Everyone should expect journalists to be professional about being journalists. If CNBC is a financial entertainment network, let it declare itself so, and be done with it. Claiming journalistic credibility comes with responsibilities. If they cannot live up to those responsibilities, they should exit the field.

"As I expected, Jon Stewart's legion of defenders would claim he is beyond criticism because he's 'just a comedian'.

Except too many people do take him seriously, Daily Show is the major source of information for an alarming number of people. Why else would Jim Cramer even bother going on the show? Why do all the politicians go on there if it's just a comedy show not to be taken seriously?" ---Tony

No one is claiming he is beyond criticism because he is a comedia. He is beyond criticism here because HE IS RIGHT. The sad fact is that many people consider the Daily Show a news source because traditional news outlets aren't doing their job (see Iraq War, lead up to) and they are proud of it. The press has become so dependent on their own sources (be they government officials or CEOs) that they dare not question their sources for fear of being cut off.

Of course Stewart enjoys a privileged position because he is a satirist. He can throw bombs and then duck behind is comedy show desk. But that doesn't mean he isn't right. And unfortunately, like Colbert at teh 2006 Correspondents Dinner, he is too right to be funny.

Tony,

The Daily Show is not a major source of news for many people. I'm not sure where you heard this, but it is a lie. It is, however, a good outlet for people to watch good old fashioned satire that pokes fun at liberals, conservatives, and anybody dumb enough to adhere to a single line of thought without ever deviating from whatever it is their label touts. Jim Cramer went on the show, presumably, because he knew what was up, and as you said, is the first to do a mea culpa when he is wrong. I do not dislike Jim Cramer; in fact, his guest appearances on Arrested Development probably made me appreciate him (and his "over-the-top" show) a little more. I don't doubt his ratings have been ever higher since the Daily Show began mentioning his show more often, and just as there "is a market for" "Mad Money," there is a certain market for the Daily Show (something I hoped Cramer would point out).

That being said, guys like John Kerry, John McCain, Barack Obama, John Ascroft, and Trent Lott appear on the Daily Show because they are not afraid to 1) loosen up have an open dialogue about light hearted things with a non-politico or 2) laugh at themselves. They're human. Why did Bush and Co. never appear on Stewart's show or the Colbert Report? They take themselves and their politics (as I imagine you do) a little too seriously.

A lot of people are hating on Obama and his "policies" already, but the guy hasn't even been office 100 days, so really, has he had a chance to screw up America worse than the last clown? No. So give him a chance before you rip into him (I gave Bush the same chance before his disgusting tumble to the worst presidency in American history).

So glad to see this. It's about time the media, even fake media, started really investigating things and stop being used by the corporations that pay them to control the news and discussion. Oh wait....

Great job Daily Show! This was a really great piece.

first off stewart never singled out cramer himself. If you listen to the interview stewart says "it's not you". The media created this whole conflict, but I am glad stewart stepped up to do this interview. Yea stewart, and colbert, are comedian at heart but for many cases it has been comedians that enlighten certain situations for what they really are. I watch stewart and colbert to catch up on current issues, but i know the edit the show for better entertainment. I use other resources to get my news. Remember that news is majority of the time always one sided!

When John Stewart has Barney Frank on and rips into him for saying Fannie and Freddie Mac are doing well and are fine prior to the meltdown, wake me up.

The risks involved in investing in the markets are well known, regardless of the choice of investment vehicle. If you are not aware of the risks shame on you, not Kramer.Hey Stewart how about dragging the House and Senate banking committees to the sacrafical altar. Maybe they could explain how they allowed a "shadow", totally unregulated banking system to exist right under their noses.

Ummmm.....earth to Tony.
Don't be afraid of Jon Stewart or Colbert for that matter. They're providing a valuable service, pointing out the fact that MSM outlets, and in the case of CNBC, a financial news outlet, are nothing but empty headed cheerleaders for their corporate masters. AIG? Bear? Is it that hard for you to understand?
You're either willfully ignorant, or just being disingenuous. If you don't like it, then stay in your bubble with Faux News and Rush, you'll be safe and sound, and your little feelings will never get hurt.

Cramer is an idiot. As a matter of fact, most people in finance are idiots. They expect you to think they know what they are doing when most of the time it's a gamble. And, they never lose, they just lose your money.