I was baffled by uproar from the Stewart v. Cramer bit a few days ago. I got the sense that I misunderstood what Cramer did on his show (attempt to time the stock market). Stewart made it seem like Cramer was driving the ambulance, rather than simply chasing it.
Then I remembered that Stewart’s show “followed sock puppets making prank calls” and Stewart’s show, Cramer’s show, like online dating is a great percentage of pure, value-free, entertainment.
Why CNBC should inherently be considered any more or less credible than Comedy Central is really the pre-requisite question to ask.
I was sort of on the “Jon Stewart is awesome Cramer is stupid” bandwagon” until I read Megan’s post. CNBC, however lax their journalism, didn’t cause the financial crisis. Better jorunalism would have exposed the insanity earlier, but it’s probably foolish to expect Cramer’s obviously over-the-top show to have played this role.