Sam: Toby, do you really think it's a good idea to invite people to dinner and then tell them exactly what they're doing wrong with their lives?
Toby: Absolutely. Otherwise it's just a waste of food.
The West Wing
Season 1, Episode 7, The State Dinner
Jon Stewart understands better than anyone - except possibly Steven Colbert - the tremendous opportunity that a comedian has when it comes to speaking truth to power. He's been making the most of that opportunity over the past week or so, with the "weeklong feud of the century". If you've missed it, you've probably been in a coma, but it's basically a been fight over the role irresponsible financial journalism has played in the current financial crisis.
On one side of the battle, we had the cable network CNBC, aided and abetted by other NBC networks. On the other, we had a comedian, his 4 night a week 30 minute cable show, and his writing staff. In a reasonable world, where the journalism industry takes its responsibility to the public seriously, there's no way - no way - the comedian should have walked away from the fight a winner. But that's not the world we live in.
In the world we live in, the comedian won handily.
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Of course, that is just scratching the surface - it's not just Cramer, or just CNBC, it is the way US media THINKS they are supposed to their jobs.
This is the same Jon Stewart who was the straw that broke the back of CNN's "Crossfire".
Guests always underestimate him.
Cramer should have realized he was screwed around the time Stewart said "run 208." (referring to one of many video clips his staff had collected).