Although Stewart took some care to separate Cramer personally from his larger attack on CNBC -- whose misrepresentation of the financial crisis as "some sort of crazy once-in-a-lifetime tsunami that nobody could have seen coming" he called "disingenuous at best and criminal at worst" -- the net he was throwing was certainly meant to include him.
Earlier in the day, Cramer had appeared on "The Martha Stewart Show" and had admitted that he was "a little nervous" about going on "The Daily Show." "You should be nervous," Martha Stewart replied, and indeed there was something in his bearing last night that reminded one of a boy called before the school principal. Cramer is a star in his own world, but in the larger hierarchy of cable TV and pop-political culture, "The Daily Show" ranks higher than "Mad Money." And though he had told Martha Stewart earlier that "I'm going to have to fight back. I'm not a doormat," he came off as chastened, conciliatory, pleading and overwhelmed:
"I try really hard to make as many good calls as I can."
"I should do a better job."
"I wish I'd done a better job."
"I'm trying. I'm trying."
Jon Stewart had a home-court advantage, of course, as well as a few damning clips, not meant for broadcast, of Cramer describing, in a positive way, certain barely to not-even-barely legal things a hedge fund manager might do to work the market to his advantage. And he also had editorial control -- the interview that went out over the air was cut for time; Cramer comes off somewhat better in the complete exchange, which is available online. But what makes Stewart formidable is that he also has a passion greater than the irony in which it is often couched.
Cramer, who repeatedly characterized the illegal and merely immoral doings of the market as "shenanigans," tried to downplay his own importance: "I'm not Eric Sevareid, I'm not Edward R. Murrow. I'm a guy trying to do an entertainment show about business." Like Stewart, he said, he wanted his show to be "successful" and to "bring in younger people."
Stewart was having none of it. "I understand you want to make finance entertaining," he said, "but . . . you knew what the banks were doing and yet were touting it for months and months. . . . These guys were on a Sherman's march through their companies financed by our 401(k)s, and all the incentives for their companies were for short term . . . and they . . . walked away rich as hell. And you guys knew it was going on."
Closing the show, Stewart added, "I hope that was as uncomfortable to watch as it was to do."
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robert.lloyd@latimes.com
