Jon Stewart is certainly-- from my vantage point here in California,( and from the background POV of a scholar) --looking like a combination statesman intellectual and the heavenly sort of Shakespearean or Greek oracle who makes sense of it all and exudes truth and mordant sense. Who cares if it was uncomfortable? I enjoyed that, with the sense that --at last, the real "clowns" of 2000-2008, Bush/Cheney, are not in charge. Onward and upward Stewart! Vive Jon!

Stewart is of course now feeling the wrath of all the Republican trolls on all the sites his videos are posted on. Well not really because he probably doesn't read them.

For example Koldijk is really letting him have it on TheDailyShow.com

You may know him here as MrRepublican. And I am sure he is on 10 other liberal sites bashing Democrats.

But Stewart spoke the truth, and the bigger news is how many times it is being replayed on real news networks, showing just how much they have to learn about the benefits of "Gotcha Journalism" sometimes, you get someone.

Jon Stewart didn't address Cramer's critique of Obama's policies - he just showed that Cramer had made mistakes in the past and has a stupid show.
So anyone who makes a mistake isn't allowed an opinion?
And as for stupid shows, talk about pot calls kettle.
It is pretty scary that many people actually get most or all of their political knowledge from the snarky and immature Daily Show.
Stewart came off as just another quisling running with the Obama herd.
So who is going to be the first lefty comedian to speak truth to power as Obama makes his first mistakes - like all presidents do?

Self-proclaimed "scholars", John Stewart a "statesman", "intellectual", "heavenly", "Shakespearean",
"oracle", and LOL "real" news networks. I'm wondering who the real buffoons are here. If you are such a scholar, why don't you open your eyes and realize that Bush is not a buffoon just because the "real" media kept telling you so for eight years. Like sheep to the slaughter. (Stewart was wickedly funny and Kramer is an idiot, but they are both ENTERTAINERS just as are all "news" personsalities in this country. Turn off the tube and read some books from both sides of the issues - not just the ones your liberal professors made you read you stupid apes and maybe you'll actually have an original, "scholarly" thought since it means so much to you).

Stewart is one of the few in the media who gets the fact that one of our biggest - if not the biggest - problem in our country is the pathetic job done by our media. And he has the balls to repeatedly point it out.

No democracy can function effectively when its citizens are routinely misinformed which is the main reason ours is floundering now. Our media is willing to pass on propaganda of those in power that they like rather than report the truth. (Judith Miller for example). Contrary to popular belief this is not because they are liberal, but because they are emotional adolescents trying to get in with the cool kids. After all in 2000 they unfairly trashed Al Gore by gleefully repeating right-wing talking points such as his supposed claim to have invented the internet (never happened) and praising Bush as a great guy to have a beer with. (At the time I thought that should have been a negative - I sure wouldn't want any of the people I like to drink with running the country.)

The media was entirely capable of forseeing our current meltdown yet they were too busy cowering from the Bush administration and focusing on trivia like Britney Spears to inform the public of the growing risk. For example, they completely ignored the fact that in April 2004 the big investment banks talked the SEC into dropping the regulation that limited the amount of debt they could take on. In short order Bear Stearns ratio of debt to capital rose to an astounding 33 to 1. It was no conincidence that Bear was the first to collapse.

Had the media bothered to inform the public as well as explain just how risky this rule change could be citizens would have had an opportunity to protest. Instead ALL the major media outlets ignored this critical story.

To miss Allisonnorth:
I agree with you 100% yeah 100%!
But you see, you should follow your own advice and turn off the tube and read some books from their liberal professors. Because it seems to me that it's not your case.
If you did you'll not call them and I quote :"not just the ones your liberal professors made you read you stupid apes" which is a little presumptuous of you to think that all liberal readers are stupid apes which lead to conclude that all conservative readers are !!! "Smart" "people".
I say that you missed the point, actually you missed two points here :
Primo: reading for both sides means to me being in the middle, having you own mind agreeing with the both sides in some issues not all Nobody is 100% liberal or conservative. And when read for both sides and by read I mean really read understand, at least try to understand to motive and the meaning of both sides, you become empathic (which certainly you're not the proof calling people Stupid apes, people that you don't know you read 3 lines of their commentaire and you judge them);
- Segundo: The Feud about Cramer/Jon stewart is not about conservative and liberal. If you did really watch the show, forget about your own judgment for a minute, you'll understand that the message their to CNBC the channel and all those journalists whom trying to advice us now. the message is your advices caused losses to many people in the past and we hope that you've apologized before the fued and tell us that you're just people you made mistakes like all of us. This country need to learn to apologize for her mistakes.
Sorry if I seem like lecturing you. But am really having enough from this message in the media of people treating others like stupid apes just because they have preference for a certain type of shows.
Sorry again it's nothing personal but now body here is a stupid apes everybody is entitle of having his own opinion liberal or conservative and we need every body it's the differences of opinion that made democracy and evolution (even if I suspect you don't believe in), human evolution.

You forgot to add that in Round 2, the "8-minute thrashing" came after Santelli cancelled his scheduled appearance on The Daily Show that night. Good old Joe Nocera, the business writer for the NYT, filled in, pretty much confirming Stewart's take and laughing along.

You have to give Jim Cramer credit for taking it like a man as opposed to that blow-hard Santelli who pops off and hides in his room full of white middle class traders he things is indicative of America as a whole. Santelli doesn't have half the nads Mr Cramer has left after his thrashing at the hands of Mr. Stewart.

I actually think both Cramer and Stewart won. As far as I'm concerned, I never even heard of Cramer before this dispute. I read some stuff he wrote, and actually he seems like a pretty good guy. Now he's much known, and I imagine viewership of his program is up. Stewart is emerging as Obama's topic media attack dog, which I'm sure will make him even more popular.

allisonnorth wrote: "If you are such a scholar, why don't you open your eyes and realize that Bush is not a buffoon just because the "real" media kept telling you so for eight years."
----------
Why you continue to dredge up Pres. Bush as some misunderstood beacon of rational leadership is beyond me. You seem to want some vindication for the former president, as if, somehow, that will make you feel better while looking at your quarterly 401(k) statement.

The problem is that you and your ilk continue to insist that it was the media's fault that Pres. Bush looked bad - that somehow they totally missed the fact that we had the second-coming of Reagan living at the Whitehouse unnoticed. You blame liberal "professors" (as if only college kids voted to throw the Republicans into the wilderness). Then you resort to a lovely chunk of name-calling (stupid apes?), childish computer-speak (LOL!) and a weird attack on scholasticism ("you'll actually have an original, 'scholarly' thought since it means so much to you" - as if being scholarly is some type of valueless quixotic fantasy).

Let me be clear. The Republicans' ad hominim attacks on thoughtful, pragmatic governance and its blind adherance to a failed ideology is exactly what got us into this mess - financial and otherwise. And you are part of the problem, claiming the fact that the media reported on Pres. Bush obscures the truth so drastically that it has no basis in reality.

Well, we don't need the media to tell us the following:
1. Almost $1 trillion spent in Iraq (remember how much that much-maligned stimulus package cost? The one you guys were so happy to criticize?);
2. $50 billion down the drain for Medicare Part D which forced states to step in and try to save its own citizens from being killed by the administration's poorly planned and executed attempt to privatize huge hunks of the federal health safety net.
3. Katrina (are you really going to argue with that?);
4. Trade deficit grew to over $1 trillion dollars;
5. Americans achieved a negative savings rate;
6. Running of secret prisons and use of torture which made our men and women in uniform MORE vulnerable to attacks; and
7. Added about $7 trillion to our national debt.

I could go on and on and on, but (hopefully) you get the point. You may well be right that a sizeable chunk of the media had it in for Pres. Bush. But certain things aren't subject to bias. Eliminating all of the opinion and commentary still leaves MASSIVE, quantifiable mistakes for which this country will be paying a long time to come.

So how about this. Why don't YOU pick up a book. Even better, do some research that doesn't involve opinions at all. Look at OMB's reports, GAO's reports, the Iraq War Commission's report. Allow your mind, for one moment, to get past the indignation of seeing the entire country turn against your way of looking at the world and learn to see the facts in front of you. Blaming the media, or the "elite," or the "scholars" (sorry, that just cracks me up) just distracts from the world in front of you. In short, grow up.

Great writeup; being overseas and relying on thedailyshow.com I had missed several of the events.

In defense of the public media, while it may perhaps be true that they do not push the important stories, I think to an extent it's because they aren't able to sell them.

That could arguably be because they're incompetent, as Jon often presents a good case for, but the daily shows angle is, I think, precisely what allows it to sell these stories where the popular media comes up short.

Simply put, the daily show is funny. They can shine a light on whatever they want as long as they're funny; the popular media don't have that, they get people by being interesting, amusing, or exciting.

All of which is very hard to do when it comes to certain types of news.....as opposed to being funny about them.

So, perhaps it truly is in order that the daily show be considered a major source of good journalism, simply because it's a lot more popular than other outlets that cover similar topics....

For all the republicans who defended Cramer (who I like and I am sure so does Stewart) got what was coming to him. In case some of you who don't know Cramer is a democratic and voted for Obama. Stewart is an equal opportunity truth teller. He has said stuff about Obama that weren't nice. That is who Stewart is. Stewart spoke of everyone and the republicans who defend Cramer only due so because they hate Stewart and never watch his show.

John Stewart was the first person who began to give me and many others hope during the darkest days of the Bush/Cheney regime. When I first started watching his show, I did not even know who he was, but I became a regular viewer. I was amazed and grateful that there was actually someone out there who dared to challenge the Bush administration's assertion that anyone who disagreed with their policies, anyone who criticized them, was somehow unpatriotic. The rest of the media seemed to be mostly following Bush's edicts like blind sheep. Stewart and Colbert made great use of all that CSPAN footage to out Bush and others on their hypocrisy and lies to the American people. He also made it clear how most of the media just seem to copy each other, right down to using the same slogans every day. The fact that we had to turn to a comedy station to get the real story speaks volumes about the 8 years of the Bush administration and its efforts to squelch people's rights. Obviously, Stewart and Colbert stuck a nerve - their shows became and remain extremely popular. What's especially enjoyable is that they can make us laugh while making their point.

Stewart's pummeling of Cramer was excellent!

Parker1227:

Pot calling the kettle black?!? Hum, one is a comedy show the other, well maybe you have a point. It's hard to take Cramer so seriously by how he acts. But with that said, Cramer's show is supposed to be legit, the other one is on Comedy Central.

One gives opinions as a comedian, the other as an "insider." ("In Cramer we Trust")

Also, one would wonder if you watch The Daily Show, since Steward has cracked/disagreed with President Obama too (and as his presidency goes on, I'm sure you will see more of this). Oh, I guess this answers your last question.

BTW, I find it sad that people get their only news from Limbaugh, Hannity, Matthews, King, Blitzer and co., but hey, to each their own.

Allisonnorth:

While on your high-horse, how do you know that PetiteNanan doesn't read. I mean it would be hard for someone to claim themselves as a "scholar" and not read. What, can a "scholar" not watch Comedy Central? Wouldn't an actual response been better then just insults based on how you perceive the other person to be?

With that said - unfortunately - I would take John Stewart over many of the so-called "mainstream" media (which, BTW, includes FOXNews - I don't know how they keep acting as if the most watched cable news channel somehow isn't "mainstream" or "elitist" for that matter).



Anywho, in the end this was really about Santelli, who didn't show up on The Daily Show after his ridiculous hypocritical outburst. Cramer just took Stewart's criticism to heart and made it personal. Stewart then called him out, and the rest of the media had nothing to talk about.

Some remarkable comments here. John Stewart is probably one of the brightest people in media today and simply the best at what he does. His disassembly of Jim Cramer was masterfully put together and Cramer knows it, even if he and CNBC won't admit it. People may recall his similar unspooling of Tucker Carlson when he appeared on CNN's Crossfire. After that program aired, it was only a matter of time before CNN management figured out that Stewart was right and they cancelled the show. Just because he uses humor rather than arrogant certitude does not mean he isn't insightful and informed. It would be a big mistake to underestimate him in that way. Certainly, Jim Cramer did. By the way, even though he makes an attempt to be entertaining, Cramer's background was in hedge fund management. Stewart has always been in the entertainment industry and he's a born satirist. As Dirty Harry once said, "Man's got to know his limitations."

hahah, yeah, allisonnorth suggests reading books!
You are more entertaining than both of the famous men in this article. I'm sure you read a lot.. of what, Ann Coulter? the Bible? A "How To" on creating a typical hillbilly response to any given left-wing internet article?
It's also amusing that whenever we get one of these super-right-wing trolls on here spouting out ignorance like a drunken gutter whore, they always refer to liberals as 'sheep following the herd.' These people are usually deeply religious, and probably have never formed an opinion, only carried them down from the generation to generation... man, if that isn't irony..
And yes, the "real" media kept telling us Bush was a buffoon for eight years... oh wait, not so much, that's partially why he was able to get away with genocide. Do you even remember his first term? Probably not, you just remember being sad that they started saying bad things about your fearless leader waay after he had started doing what he's now best known for.
Please try to have an original thought for once, you putrescent human wasteland

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Jon Stewart is such an angst-reliever and breath of fresh air during these days of Rush Limbaugh and Fox News.

Stewart. Limbaugh. entertainers. Choose your poison.

Jon Stewart...you are my hero!!!!

Let's not forget, Cramer willingly went to the set of a professional entertainer knowing the deck was stacked. He knew, we all knew, Stewart would win the 'debate' that night. I think Jim felt a bit bad about the last six months and supposed that taking a lashing from a comedian while building his own ratings was a bit of confession he could survive. They are both smart. Nobody is trying to mislead anyone. The economy sucks and the guy who's supposed to know the business looks stupid right now.

LOL! Cramer's little clip at the end was pretty good; Stewart's prolly laughin' his ass off!

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This comment has been removed by The Daily Beast's editors.

Wow, there are a number of people here who just didn't get it. Stewart was not going after Cramer (correct spelling for those of you defending him...I mean, shouldn't you know how to spell his name?), he was going after the CNBC network for their complete failure as insiders to report on the issues as they were unfolding that caused this mess. As you will recall Stewart told Cramer it was "unfortunate Cramer had become the face of it."

He mocked them for their "access" to, as Cramer noted, CEO's who lied to them and felt it was, per Cramer "out of bounds" to push back or report their lies.

That is the job of the media, although they seem to have forgotten it. They fear being denied access to power and, therefore, fail to properly report facts and truth.

Stewart did this country a favor it pointing out the media's failure yet again (remember Iraq anyone) to speak truth to power. They are insiders - they know what is going on - and they have failed miserably. And the sad thing is, they apparently don't care.