Jon Stewart as Oprah Winfrey

I love The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, but I've never been a big fan of Stewart's interviews. He never really gets around to letting anyone say much. However, I loved his public spanking of the Crossfire folks a few years ago and I was looking forward to his much-anticipated smackdown of CNBC's Jim Cramer, hyperactive host of a financial advice show. I never watch CNBC and I really don't understand what's happening with the economy right now (though I advise reading the latest Rolling Stone for an excellent article by Paul Krugman that gets me closer to understanding than I've ever been), so all I knew (and still know) about this comes from The Daily Show.

The heart of Stewart's beef with Cramer (and all the financial cable news networks and programs) is that he is trying to give financial advice and be entertaining at the same time, while also (possibly) being "in bed with" the very people who would benefit from folks who take his advice. Of course, all this came crashing down recently in the current economic meltdown, and many of the people who took Cramer's advice are now regretting it. Stewart showed examples of Cramer's bad advice, Cramer badmouthed Stewart in the press, and it all led to Thursday night's encounter. What undercut the whole thing is that Stewart forgot to be funny. Instead, he came off like Oprah Winfrey punishing James Frey in public for lying in his memoirs and abusing the trust of his readers. It was such a mismatch that I actually felt a little sorry for Cramer.

I totally agree with Stewart's low opinion of cable news--not just Fox but all the 24-hour operations who have largely switched from delivering news to screaming uninformed opinions--and I wish he would have used this example of CNBC to stand in for all the rest of the cable bunch. Watching Fox or CNN may not cause people to lose their life savings or their homes, but it does cause them to think that, because they've heard a blowhard on TV argue something, they now know it to be true without having to think any more about it, or, God forbid, actually listen to (or read) other opinions, let alone dig up some facts. The one funny moment: when Cramer said there was a market for what he does, Stewart replied that there's a market for cocaine and hookers, too. I think if Stewart was determined to be dead serious here, he missed a chance to present a larger-picture argument about the media. Still, I love ya, Jon, and I'll see you Monday.