It's Satire, Stew it? Why Jon Stewart's 'Jim Cramer' interview was dangerous and wrong.

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Jim Cramer

This is how Jon Stewart reported Jim Cramer's appearance on NBC's 'Morning Joe'.


Last week, I ended a four year love affair, and in the end it was much easier to let go than I thought it would be. In simpler times, a more naive version of me had loved this man, had hung on every word he had said, had believed in him. He made me laugh, then he made me think, then he made me cry. I wasn't the only one who loved him, millions of people felt like I did, felt that through his sense of humour and sharp, beautiful wit, he was making our crappy lives a little better. He became someone that all of us thought we knew, that all of us thought we could rely on. I didn't see the destructive power of what he was doing until it was too late. I'm not sure he realised what he was doing to me, but he was twisting my emotions, distorting my view of the world, turning me into a cynical,bitter husk of a man who hated on the world he inhabited, and lost all respect for the very institutions of society. Worse, even as I realised what I had become, the intoxicating power of his words had even more people left in his thrall. This man is Jon Stewart.

I think I was the only person on the entire planet who watched Jon Stewart's now infamous interview with Jim 'Mad Money' Cramer last week and felt disgusted not just with Jim Cramer, but also with Jon Stewart. For those of you who missed it (and I strongly suggest googling the interwebs and tracking it down, it should be on Comedy Central's web site) the interview was a culmination of a week-long feud between Jim Cramer and the muppets posing as financial analysts that inhabit the CNBC financial news network vs. Jon Stewart, his Daily Show leviathan and what appeared to be every twitterer,bloggerer and casual facebooker on the entire fucking Internet. To watch the interview itself, is like watching the school bully struggle to read out his apology letter in front of the whole school - compelling viewing, but leaving you to feel desperately uncomfortable. Cramer was totally eviscerated, his credibility as a financial analyst, an expert and a man extinguished by a Jon Stewart acid attack on his previous financial advice, his dodgy past and on the sorry state of financial analysis in general. In all honesty, Cramer probably deserved it - he had after all built himself up as a master of the market whose advice could be trusted, when in fact he appears to have as much financial acumen as the homeless guy on K Road that has one giant dreadlock. But this interview was especially troubling for me because it cemented the role of Jon Stewart, comedian, as one of the most important and insightful figures on the political left. And worse, much of Stewart's criticisms of Cramer apply more to Jon Stewart himself.

Stewart's fundamental criticism of Cramer was that he would make statements he knew that people would believe and rely on, but when the advice he offered turned out to be wrong (and financially disastrous for those who had relied on it), Cramer would claim all he was really doing was providing a form of entertainment. And yet, the modus operandi of Jon Stewart, a clever and dedicated man surrounded by a cleverer and more dedicated team of writers, is to cleverly edit video clips of prominent politicians, media-types and politicised figures, take statements out of context and make that person look ridiculous. If you have ever watched his show, you will know he is very, very good at it. The best example of this was his clip that began the whole CNBC v Stewart feud, where he accused CNBC's reporter Rick Santelli of being vehemently against bailouts only when they reached ordinary Americans, not big business. (Santelli had been advocating against the proposed bailout for homeowners unable to pay their mortgage.) In fact, Santelli had voiced loud, vocal and continued opposition against all bailouts right from the very beginning.

And yet, even the most idiotic AUTU scholar on their first day of a 'Bachelor' of 'Communications' 'degree' knows quoting people out of context is terribly unethical journalism. (If I said to you 'I am disgusted that some people think women should not vote' and you quoted me as saying 'Women should not vote' and published it, I'd be suing yo' ass fo' defamation). Jon Stewart knows that people watch his show not as a source of comedy, but as a source of news. Despite this, he continues to maintain that he is not bound by a need for fairness and accuracy, because he is not a journalist, he is a comedian - hiding behind a veil of ' frivolous entertainment' when it is clear his show is relied on by people as something more.

At several times throughout the Cramer interview, Stewart loudly urged Cramer to stop treating financial reporting as a 'game'. But Stewart himself seems set on treating the news, institutions of government and politics as a game where he's the only player who really understands the rules and where everyone else is an idiot. It's dead wrong. I realise that Stewart is a satirist, and I realise that satire is an important medium for raising mass awareness about unsavoury aspects of government activity. (Apparently, people listen to you if they think you're gonna entertain, not bore them). But the lampooning of political figures shouldn't be an false attempt to undermine trust and confidence in people and institutions that have acted in a way that is just, ethical and efficient - just to gain cheap laughs.

Sometimes, it's hard to be on the left-wing of the political spectrum. For one thing, we are required to make progressive cases for unpopular social issues - speaking from personal experience, NOTHING kills a family reunion faster than asking your elderly great-great aunt 'If incest is consensual, what's the problem??!?'. And when members of the right-wing get together, it normally involves a country club with comfy chairs, free club sandwiches, and the children of the super-wealthy telling 'non-politically correct' jokes and drinking expensive cocktails paid for by Daddy's credit card. Left-wing get togethers traditionally take place in the rain, involve throwing shoes at tennis players, and are frequented by a bunch of middle-aged unemployed Marxists whose committment to remaining part of the proletariat is exceeded only by their non-committment to personal hygiene. But the hardest bit is dealing with a general unwillingness by members of the left to criticise one of their own when they are acting in a way that is unreasonable. And Jon Stewart is a liberal hero- a relentless critic of the Bush Administration. Everyone has their favourite Stewart moment, I replay his 9/11 speech every year. But that doesn't mean Stewart is immune to criticism. In his attacks on Cramer, he has overstepped the line between satire and unethical journalism. He must return to doing what he does best - making us laugh and making us think. And he must do it soon.

Alex


This is what actually happened.