Jon Stewart's 2009 criticism of CNBC
Encyclopedia
On March 12, 2009, television personality Jim Cramer appeared as a guest on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
. The host of CNBC
's Mad Money
, Cramer appeared in response to host Jon Stewart
's highly-publicized week-long criticism of CNBC. The exchange began with a scathing piece on CNBC's miscalculations regarding the Global financial crisis of 2008–2009 in response to Rick Santelli
, who had recently said on the floor of the Chicago Board of Trade
that homeowners facing foreclosure were "losers". Santelli had been set to appear on the show, but CNBC canceled Santelli’s appearance. Stewart, along with Daily Show executives, claimed the CNBC montage was not retaliatory and that they planned to show it before the cancellation was announced.
Subsequent media coverage of exchanges between Cramer, who had been featured heavily in the original segment, and Stewart, led to a highly anticipated face-to-face confrontation on Stewart's show. The episode received a large amount of media hype and became the second most-viewed episode of The Daily Show, trailing only the 2009 Inauguration Day episode. It had 2.3 million total viewers and the next day The Daily Show website saw its highest day of traffic year-to-date
.
exchange. In it, Stewart implied that CNBC's commentary was overly optimistic or too strongly slanted in favor of the companies being discussed by featuring several clips of CNBC pundits accompanied by slides showing the eventual failure of their predictions. In one clip, a CNBC host reported American International Group
(AIG) would not need capital, which The Daily Show followed with a list of the bailout money—amounting to billions of dollars—that the financial services firm had required since September 2008. On-air editor Charles Gasparino was shown saying in December 2007 how AIG's subprime losses were "very manageable", which was followed with a clip showing that AIG had also received a large amount of federal bailout money. Commentator Larry Kudlow was shown saying in April 2008 that "the worst of this subprime
business is over.”
In another clip, Jim Cramer was shown simply affirming "Your money is safe in Bear Stearns
", followed by a Daily Show statement that the global investment bank went under six days later. "If I’d only followed CNBC’s advice, I’d have a million dollars today," Stewart said during the piece, "provided I’d started with a hundred million dollars."
In response, Cramer defended himself in a column published the following Monday which claimed that the clip was taken out of context. Cramer stated that he was not talking about buying Bear Stearns stock, but simply reassuring viewers that their liquidity held in Bear Stearns was safe. He also said that he had told his viewers to sell all their stocks in October 2008.
, where he continued his criticism. Stewart said, "The thing that upsets me the most, honestly, there are three 24-hour financial networks. All their slogans are like, 'We know what's going on in Wall Street
.' But then you turn it on during the crisis, and they're like, 'We don't know what's going on!' It'd be like turning on The Weather Channel
in a hurricane, and they're just doing this: 'Why am I wet? What's happening to me? And it's so windy! What's going on, I'm scared!' How do you not know, man?"
, Cramer admitted, "OK, I'm a tempting target. Plenty of people come in and give their criticism on this show. But we're dealing with serious issues here; we need solutions, which I offer almost every night. I don't want ad hominem
attacks. Take [The New York Times
columnist] Frank Rich
and Jon Stewart
; I criticize Obama
, so both of them seize on the urban legend
that I recommended Bear Stearns
the week before it collapsed, when I simply told an e-mailer that the deposit in his account at Bear Stearns was safe. 'Your money is safe in Bear Stearns,'" Cramer repeated, referring to his own quote during a March 11, 2008 segment of Mad Money. Moreover, Cramer outlined, "But through a clever sound bite, Stewart, and subsequently Rich—neither of whom have bothered to listen to the context of the pulled quote pass off the notion of account safety as an out-and-out buy recommendation. If you called Mad Money and asked me about Citigroup
, I would tell you that the common stock
might be worthless, but I would never tell you to pull your money out of the bank because I was worried about its solvency. Your money is safe in Citi as I said it was in Bear. The fact that I was right rankles me even more."
On the episode of The Daily Show that aired that same day, Stewart jokingly responded with an apology for taking Cramer's comments out of context. "OK, I was wrong. So Jim Cramer, I apologize," Stewart said, then promptly showcased video of Cramer suggesting the safety of Bear Stearns stock during the Lightning Round on Mad Money, five days prior to the collapse of Bear Stearns. Stewart then stated, "He's not saying literally 'I'm asking you to buy Bear Stearns,' for that you have to go back a full seven weeks before the stock completely collapsed." Stewart then showed additional video footage of Cramer on January 24, 2008 telling TheStreet.com TV viewers to specifically "buy Bear Stearns" stock seven weeks before it collapsed. A clip showed Cramer's stating that he liked the stock at prices above $60, and later on February 5, 2008, Cramer changed Bear Stearns' rating to a Sell on TheStreet.com.
Stewart responded further on The Daily Show, in a segment in which he mocked Cramer's appearances on other NBC
shows to plead his case, and showed a parody portraying Stewart appearing on other Viacom
programs, such as Dora the Explorer
and MTV
's The Hills
, to give his position.
(distributed by NBC Universal), revealing his fears to Martha Stewart
about his upcoming appearance that night: "I'm a little nervous... How bad is it gonna be? Is he gonna kill me?" Cramer continues that he had previously idolized Jon Stewart: "The reason why it's been so hard for me, the attacks, is that early on I patterned my show off of his, which is that you can do an entertainment business show. And then suddenly to be attacked by a guy that's your idol makes it difficult."
.
Stewart claimed CNBC shirked its journalistic duty by simply accepting information given to it by corporations, rather than playing an investigative role as a "powerful tool of illumination." Stewart stated his belief that such failure was due to too much emphasis on entertainment value and a lacking sense of journalistic responsibility. Stewart challenged that, "I understand you want to make finance entertaining... but it's not a fucking game." Stewart said of Cramer in particular, "I can't reconcile the brilliance and knowledge that you have of the intricacies of the market with the crazy bullshit I see you do every night."
Cramer disagreed with Stewart on a few points, but mostly acknowledged that he could have done a better job foreseeing the economic collapse: "We all should have seen it more." Not content with his explanation, Stewart showed videos in which Cramer recommended ways to drive down stock prices by spreading false rumors, deceiving the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and deliberately misleading journalists. Cramer admitted that he can do better, and that he can change.
The interview ended with Stewart suggesting, "Maybe we can remove 'In Cramer We Trust' and go back to the fundamentals and I can go back to making fart noises and funny faces." Cramer responded: "I think we make that deal right here."
by March 13, and Stewart was given positive reactions by many mainstream media sources, with certain newspapers such as the San Francisco Chronicle
and New York Times portraying Stewart as "winning" the debate. A blog
by Maureen Ryan from the Chicago Tribune
website was titled "Stewart cleans Cramer's clock", and ABCNews.com
titled an article on the confrontation "Jon Stewart Wins Cramer Showdown". The New York Times
reported that, "For his part, a chastened Mr. Cramer, much more subdued than on his own show, took turns apologizing, defending his past coverage and promising to try and get back to the basics of financial reporting in the future."
News outlets generally hailed Stewart's journalistic integrity during the interview. A mention in Newsweek
reported, "Cramer's excuse: CEOs lied. Stewart's retort: act like a real journalist. Stewart did." James Fallows
of The Atlantic contended that, "Stewart, without excessive showboating, did the journalistic sensibility proud." Director of the Project for Excellence in Journalism Tom Rosenstiel
stated his belief that it was Stewart's ambiguous position between news and comedy that allowed him to call out CNBC so aggressively.
Some sources also felt that Stewart's anger was a reflection of a general attitude held by the American public, such as Jon Friedman of Marketwatch
. David Folkenflik
of NPR stated,
Others felt that Stewart's anger was unwarranted or misdirected. Richard Cohen of The Washington Post
called it a "cheap shot at business media". In an article from The Daily Beast, Tucker Carlson
, whose own cable television show was cancelled after a similar encounter with Stewart on Crossfire in 2004, criticized Stewart for having illogical arguments. Carlson also implied that Stewart was attacking CNBC because he was unwilling to go after the new Democratic administration as he had in the past with the administration under George W. Bush
.
Days after the airing of the program, a group of economists and progressive
s issued an open letter to CNBC and called for public signatures. The letter demanded that the network set higher journalistic standards and said that, "Americans need CNBC to do strong, watchdog journalism — asking tough questions to Wall Street... Instead, CNBC has done PR
for Wall Street." The letter was signed by a variety of economists and journalists, such as Dean Baker
of the Center for Economic and Policy Research
and Doug Henwood
, author of Wall Street and After the New Economy. Funded by the Progressive Change Campaign Committee
, a political action committee focused on electing progressive Democrats in congressional elections, the group also launched a website, fixcnbc.com. Their stated goal was to persuade CNBC executives to prioritize investigative financial journalism over Wall Street "access".
Though it had been hyped by NBC in the lead up to Cramer's appearance, CNBC declined to comment directly following its airing. Instead, CNBC issued a broad statement in defense of its track record: "Recognized as the worldwide leader in business news, CNBC produces more than 150 hours of live television a week that includes more than 850 interviews in the service of exposing all sides of every critical financial and economic issue. We are proud of our record and remain committed to delivering coverage in real-time during this extraordinary story and beyond." Insiders at CNBC, however, privately acknowledged that the interview was ultimately a public relations disaster for the network; viewership went down 10% in the first three days after the interview. In a conference held March 18, the CEO of NBC Universal, Jeff Zucker, called Stewart's attacks on business network CNBC "incredibly unfair" and "completely out of line".
Referring to Stewart's interview with Cramer, White House Press Secretary
Robert Gibbs
said, "I enjoyed it thoroughly." He added that he had spoken with President Barack Obama
on the day before about watching the show, but that he "forgot to e-mail and remind him that it was on", so he could not tell whether Obama had seen the segment.
In a May 2011 interview with The New York Times
, Cramer explained that he was unprepared for Stewart's intense interview, saying "As soon as he started, I realized Stewart was on a mission to make me look like a clown. I didn’t defend myself because I wasn’t prepared. What was I supposed to do, talk about how often I had been right? Praise myself? Get mad? I was mad, but I didn’t want to give the audience any blood. The national media said I got crushed, which I did, and made me into a buffoon... They wanted to make me the Face of the Era, and they succeeded. Rick Santelli’s a conservative. Ideological. O.K., I get that. But me? I was very anti-Bush. I’m a Democrat, I’ve got the canceled checks to prove it, and suddenly I’m the enemy? Me? Me?"
In an appearance on Morning Joe
, Cramer stated, "I think that I would like to cool the rhetoric... I think you ought to lighten up, I mean he [Jon Stewart] is a comedian." Joe Scarborough
responded, "No, no – he's not. He's an ideologue.... These are ideologically driven shows."
During the interview with Cramer, Stewart fired back at Scarborough by telling Cramer to relay the message that the nature of The Daily Shows satire is not to be fair. In addition, Stewart apologized to Cramer for the personalized nature of the media coverage by saying, "You now have become the face of this, and that is incredibly unfortunate. Because you’re not the face of it, you shouldn’t be the face of it. You were the person that was, uh, I-don’t-know-what enough to stand up and go, 'Hey, that wasn’t fair!' Which it’s not, because this show isn’t fair, and you can tell ‘Doucheborough’ it isn’t supposed to be fair."
The Daily Show
The Daily Show , is an American late night satirical television program airing each Monday through Thursday on Comedy Central. The half-hour long show premiered on July 21, 1996, and was hosted by Craig Kilborn until December 1998...
. The host of CNBC
CNBC
CNBC is a satellite and cable television business news channel in the U.S., owned and operated by NBCUniversal. The network and its international spinoffs cover business headlines and provide live coverage of financial markets. The combined reach of CNBC and its siblings is 390 million viewers...
's Mad Money
Mad Money
Mad Money is an American finance television program hosted by Jim Cramer that began airing on CNBC on March 14, 2005. Its main focus is investment and speculation, particularly in publicly traded stocks...
, Cramer appeared in response to host Jon Stewart
Jon Stewart
Jon Stewart is an American political satirist, writer, television host, actor, media critic and stand-up comedian...
's highly-publicized week-long criticism of CNBC. The exchange began with a scathing piece on CNBC's miscalculations regarding the Global financial crisis of 2008–2009 in response to Rick Santelli
Rick Santelli
Rick Santelli is an American on-air editor for the CNBC Business News network. He joined CNBC as an on-air editor on June 14, 1999, reporting primarily from the floor of the Chicago Board of Trade. He was formerly the vice president for an institutional trading and hedge fund account for...
, who had recently said on the floor of the Chicago Board of Trade
Chicago Board of Trade
The Chicago Board of Trade , established in 1848, is the world's oldest futures and options exchange. More than 50 different options and futures contracts are traded by over 3,600 CBOT members through open outcry and eTrading. Volumes at the exchange in 2003 were a record breaking 454 million...
that homeowners facing foreclosure were "losers". Santelli had been set to appear on the show, but CNBC canceled Santelli’s appearance. Stewart, along with Daily Show executives, claimed the CNBC montage was not retaliatory and that they planned to show it before the cancellation was announced.
Subsequent media coverage of exchanges between Cramer, who had been featured heavily in the original segment, and Stewart, led to a highly anticipated face-to-face confrontation on Stewart's show. The episode received a large amount of media hype and became the second most-viewed episode of The Daily Show, trailing only the 2009 Inauguration Day episode. It had 2.3 million total viewers and the next day The Daily Show website saw its highest day of traffic year-to-date
Year-To-Date
Year-to-date is a period, starting from the beginning of the current year, and continuing up to the present day. The year usually starts on January 1 , but depending on purpose, can start also on July 1, April 1 , and April 6...
.
March 4 segment
On March 4, The Daily Show aired an eight-minute clip lampooning CNBC at the beginning of a segment in response to an outburst by Rick Santelli broadcast from the floor of the ChicagoChicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
exchange. In it, Stewart implied that CNBC's commentary was overly optimistic or too strongly slanted in favor of the companies being discussed by featuring several clips of CNBC pundits accompanied by slides showing the eventual failure of their predictions. In one clip, a CNBC host reported American International Group
AIG
AIG is American International Group, a major American insurance corporation.AIG may also refer to:* And-inverter graph, a concept in computer theory* Answers in Genesis, a creationist organization in the U.S.* Arta Industrial Group in Iran...
(AIG) would not need capital, which The Daily Show followed with a list of the bailout money—amounting to billions of dollars—that the financial services firm had required since September 2008. On-air editor Charles Gasparino was shown saying in December 2007 how AIG's subprime losses were "very manageable", which was followed with a clip showing that AIG had also received a large amount of federal bailout money. Commentator Larry Kudlow was shown saying in April 2008 that "the worst of this subprime
Subprime mortgage crisis
The U.S. subprime mortgage crisis was one of the first indicators of the late-2000s financial crisis, characterized by a rise in subprime mortgage delinquencies and foreclosures, and the resulting decline of securities backed by said mortgages....
business is over.”
In another clip, Jim Cramer was shown simply affirming "Your money is safe in Bear Stearns
Bear Stearns
The Bear Stearns Companies, Inc. based in New York City, was a global investment bank and securities trading and brokerage, until its sale to JPMorgan Chase in 2008 during the global financial crisis and recession...
", followed by a Daily Show statement that the global investment bank went under six days later. "If I’d only followed CNBC’s advice, I’d have a million dollars today," Stewart said during the piece, "provided I’d started with a hundred million dollars."
In response, Cramer defended himself in a column published the following Monday which claimed that the clip was taken out of context. Cramer stated that he was not talking about buying Bear Stearns stock, but simply reassuring viewers that their liquidity held in Bear Stearns was safe. He also said that he had told his viewers to sell all their stocks in October 2008.
March 5 comments
On March 5, Stewart appeared on the Late Show with David LettermanLate Show with David Letterman
Late Show with David Letterman is a U.S. late-night talk show hosted by David Letterman on CBS. The show debuted on August 30, 1993, and is produced by Letterman's production company, Worldwide Pants Incorporated. The show's music director and band-leader of the house band, the CBS Orchestra, is...
, where he continued his criticism. Stewart said, "The thing that upsets me the most, honestly, there are three 24-hour financial networks. All their slogans are like, 'We know what's going on in Wall Street
Wall Street
Wall Street refers to the financial district of New York City, named after and centered on the eight-block-long street running from Broadway to South Street on the East River in Lower Manhattan. Over time, the term has become a metonym for the financial markets of the United States as a whole, or...
.' But then you turn it on during the crisis, and they're like, 'We don't know what's going on!' It'd be like turning on The Weather Channel
The Weather Channel
The Weather Channel is a US cable and satellite television network since May 2, 1982, that broadcasts weather forecasts and weather-related news, along with entertainment programming related to weather 24 hours a day...
in a hurricane, and they're just doing this: 'Why am I wet? What's happening to me? And it's so windy! What's going on, I'm scared!' How do you not know, man?"
March 9 comments
On March 9, during a segment of Mad MoneyMad Money
Mad Money is an American finance television program hosted by Jim Cramer that began airing on CNBC on March 14, 2005. Its main focus is investment and speculation, particularly in publicly traded stocks...
, Cramer admitted, "OK, I'm a tempting target. Plenty of people come in and give their criticism on this show. But we're dealing with serious issues here; we need solutions, which I offer almost every night. I don't want ad hominem
Ad hominem
An ad hominem , short for argumentum ad hominem, is an attempt to negate the truth of a claim by pointing out a negative characteristic or belief of the person supporting it...
attacks. Take [The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
columnist] Frank Rich
Frank Rich
Frank Rich is an American essayist and op-ed columnist who wrote for The New York Times from 1980, when he was appointed its chief theatre critic, until 2011...
and Jon Stewart
Jon Stewart
Jon Stewart is an American political satirist, writer, television host, actor, media critic and stand-up comedian...
; I criticize Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
, so both of them seize on the urban legend
Urban legend
An urban legend, urban myth, urban tale, or contemporary legend, is a form of modern folklore consisting of stories that may or may not have been believed by their tellers to be true...
that I recommended Bear Stearns
Bear Stearns
The Bear Stearns Companies, Inc. based in New York City, was a global investment bank and securities trading and brokerage, until its sale to JPMorgan Chase in 2008 during the global financial crisis and recession...
the week before it collapsed, when I simply told an e-mailer that the deposit in his account at Bear Stearns was safe. 'Your money is safe in Bear Stearns,'" Cramer repeated, referring to his own quote during a March 11, 2008 segment of Mad Money. Moreover, Cramer outlined, "But through a clever sound bite, Stewart, and subsequently Rich—neither of whom have bothered to listen to the context of the pulled quote pass off the notion of account safety as an out-and-out buy recommendation. If you called Mad Money and asked me about Citigroup
Citigroup
Citigroup Inc. or Citi is an American multinational financial services corporation headquartered in Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States. Citigroup was formed from one of the world's largest mergers in history by combining the banking giant Citicorp and financial conglomerate...
, I would tell you that the common stock
Common stock
Common stock is a form of corporate equity ownership, a type of security. It is called "common" to distinguish it from preferred stock. In the event of bankruptcy, common stock investors receive their funds after preferred stock holders, bondholders, creditors, etc...
might be worthless, but I would never tell you to pull your money out of the bank because I was worried about its solvency. Your money is safe in Citi as I said it was in Bear. The fact that I was right rankles me even more."
On the episode of The Daily Show that aired that same day, Stewart jokingly responded with an apology for taking Cramer's comments out of context. "OK, I was wrong. So Jim Cramer, I apologize," Stewart said, then promptly showcased video of Cramer suggesting the safety of Bear Stearns stock during the Lightning Round on Mad Money, five days prior to the collapse of Bear Stearns. Stewart then stated, "He's not saying literally 'I'm asking you to buy Bear Stearns,' for that you have to go back a full seven weeks before the stock completely collapsed." Stewart then showed additional video footage of Cramer on January 24, 2008 telling TheStreet.com TV viewers to specifically "buy Bear Stearns" stock seven weeks before it collapsed. A clip showed Cramer's stating that he liked the stock at prices above $60, and later on February 5, 2008, Cramer changed Bear Stearns' rating to a Sell on TheStreet.com.
March 10 comments
The following day, during a Tuesday appearance on NBC's Today show, Cramer said of The Daily Show piece, "The absurdity astounds me. Jon Stewart is a comedian, and he's decided to focus on some calls I made during a bull market. The guy is a comedian."Stewart responded further on The Daily Show, in a segment in which he mocked Cramer's appearances on other NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
shows to plead his case, and showed a parody portraying Stewart appearing on other Viacom
Viacom
Viacom Inc. , short for "Video & Audio Communications", is an American media conglomerate with interests primarily in, but not limited to, cinema and cable television...
programs, such as Dora the Explorer
Dora the Explorer
Dora the Explorer is an American animated television series created by Chris Gifford, Valerie Walsh, and Eric Weiner. Dora the Explorer became a regular series in 2000. The show is carried on the Nickelodeon cable television network, including the associated Nick Jr. channel. It aired on CBS until...
and MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
's The Hills
The Hills
The Hills is a reality television series which originally aired on MTV from May 31, 2006 until July 13, 2010. The show uses a reality television format, following the personal lives of several young adults living in Los Angeles, California, but tends towards a narrative format more commonly found...
, to give his position.
March 12 comments
On March 5, the morning of his interview on the Daily Show, Cramer appeared as a guest on the syndicated cooking show MarthaMartha (TV series)
Martha, also known as The Martha Stewart Show, is an American, weekday one-hour talk show hosted by Martha Stewart. Previously airing in first-run syndication, the show began exclusively airing on cable network Hallmark Channel since September 13, 2010.-History:The program originally debuted on...
(distributed by NBC Universal), revealing his fears to Martha Stewart
Martha Stewart
Martha Stewart is an American business magnate, author, magazine publisher, and television personality. As founder of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, she has gained success through a variety of business ventures, encompassing publishing, broadcasting, and merchandising...
about his upcoming appearance that night: "I'm a little nervous... How bad is it gonna be? Is he gonna kill me?" Cramer continues that he had previously idolized Jon Stewart: "The reason why it's been so hard for me, the attacks, is that early on I patterned my show off of his, which is that you can do an entertainment business show. And then suddenly to be attacked by a guy that's your idol makes it difficult."
Cramer on The Daily Show
On March 12, Jim Cramer appeared on The Daily Show with Stewart, amid widespread media publicity that included a front page article in USA TodayUSA Today
USA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...
.
Stewart claimed CNBC shirked its journalistic duty by simply accepting information given to it by corporations, rather than playing an investigative role as a "powerful tool of illumination." Stewart stated his belief that such failure was due to too much emphasis on entertainment value and a lacking sense of journalistic responsibility. Stewart challenged that, "I understand you want to make finance entertaining... but it's not a fucking game." Stewart said of Cramer in particular, "I can't reconcile the brilliance and knowledge that you have of the intricacies of the market with the crazy bullshit I see you do every night."
Cramer disagreed with Stewart on a few points, but mostly acknowledged that he could have done a better job foreseeing the economic collapse: "We all should have seen it more." Not content with his explanation, Stewart showed videos in which Cramer recommended ways to drive down stock prices by spreading false rumors, deceiving the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and deliberately misleading journalists. Cramer admitted that he can do better, and that he can change.
The interview ended with Stewart suggesting, "Maybe we can remove 'In Cramer We Trust' and go back to the fundamentals and I can go back to making fart noises and funny faces." Cramer responded: "I think we make that deal right here."
Reactions to the interview
Much of the exchange including the interview had become a viral internet memeInternet meme
The term Internet meme is used to describe a concept that spreads via the Internet. The term is a reference to the concept of memes, although the latter concept refers to a much broader category of cultural information.-Description:...
by March 13, and Stewart was given positive reactions by many mainstream media sources, with certain newspapers such as the San Francisco Chronicle
San Francisco Chronicle
thumb|right|upright|The Chronicle Building following the [[1906 San Francisco earthquake|1906 earthquake]] and fireThe San Francisco Chronicle is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California, but distributed throughout Northern and Central California,...
and New York Times portraying Stewart as "winning" the debate. A blog
Blog
A blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...
by Maureen Ryan from the Chicago Tribune
Chicago Tribune
The Chicago Tribune is a major daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, and the flagship publication of the Tribune Company. Formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" , it remains the most read daily newspaper of the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region and is...
website was titled "Stewart cleans Cramer's clock", and ABCNews.com
ABC News
ABC News is the news gathering and broadcasting division of American broadcast television network ABC, a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company...
titled an article on the confrontation "Jon Stewart Wins Cramer Showdown". The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
reported that, "For his part, a chastened Mr. Cramer, much more subdued than on his own show, took turns apologizing, defending his past coverage and promising to try and get back to the basics of financial reporting in the future."
News outlets generally hailed Stewart's journalistic integrity during the interview. A mention in Newsweek
Newsweek
Newsweek is an American weekly news magazine published in New York City. It is distributed throughout the United States and internationally. It is the second-largest news weekly magazine in the U.S., having trailed Time in circulation and advertising revenue for most of its existence...
reported, "Cramer's excuse: CEOs lied. Stewart's retort: act like a real journalist. Stewart did." James Fallows
James Fallows
James Fallows is an American print and radio journalist. He has been a national correspondent for The Atlantic Monthly for many years. His work has also appeared in Slate, The New York Times Magazine, The New York Review of Books, The New Yorker and The American Prospect, among others. He is a...
of The Atlantic contended that, "Stewart, without excessive showboating, did the journalistic sensibility proud." Director of the Project for Excellence in Journalism Tom Rosenstiel
Tom Rosenstiel
Tom Rosenstiel is an author, journalist, press critic and founder and director of the Project for Excellence in Journalism , a research organization that studies the news media and is part of the Pew Research Center in Washington, D.C...
stated his belief that it was Stewart's ambiguous position between news and comedy that allowed him to call out CNBC so aggressively.
Some sources also felt that Stewart's anger was a reflection of a general attitude held by the American public, such as Jon Friedman of Marketwatch
MarketWatch
MarketWatch operates a financial information website that provides business news, analysis and stock market data to some 6 million people. MarketWatch offers personal finance news and advice, tools for investors and access to industry research. Along with its flagship website, the company operates...
. David Folkenflik
David Folkenflik
David Folkenflik is an American reporter based in New York City and serving as media correspondent for National Public Radio. His work primarily appears on the NPR news programs Morning Edition and All Things Considered. He also appears regularly on the "Media Circus" segment on Talk of the...
of NPR stated,
Others felt that Stewart's anger was unwarranted or misdirected. Richard Cohen of The Washington Post
The Washington Post
The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
called it a "cheap shot at business media". In an article from The Daily Beast, Tucker Carlson
Tucker Carlson
Tucker Swanson McNear Carlson is an American political news correspondent and conservative commentator for the Fox News Channel...
, whose own cable television show was cancelled after a similar encounter with Stewart on Crossfire in 2004, criticized Stewart for having illogical arguments. Carlson also implied that Stewart was attacking CNBC because he was unwilling to go after the new Democratic administration as he had in the past with the administration under George W. Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
.
Days after the airing of the program, a group of economists and progressive
Progressivism
Progressivism is an umbrella term for a political ideology advocating or favoring social, political, and economic reform or changes. Progressivism is often viewed by some conservatives, constitutionalists, and libertarians to be in opposition to conservative or reactionary ideologies.The...
s issued an open letter to CNBC and called for public signatures. The letter demanded that the network set higher journalistic standards and said that, "Americans need CNBC to do strong, watchdog journalism — asking tough questions to Wall Street... Instead, CNBC has done PR
Public relations
Public relations is the actions of a corporation, store, government, individual, etc., in promoting goodwill between itself and the public, the community, employees, customers, etc....
for Wall Street." The letter was signed by a variety of economists and journalists, such as Dean Baker
Dean Baker
Dean Baker is an American macroeconomist and co-founder of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, with Mark Weisbrot. He previously was a senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute and an assistant professor of economics at Bucknell University. He has a Ph.D...
of the Center for Economic and Policy Research
Center for Economic and Policy Research
The Center for Economic and Policy Research is a progressive economic policy think-tank based in Washington, DC, founded in 1999. CEPR works on Social Security, the US housing bubble, developing country economies , and gaps in the social policy fabric of the US economy.According to its own...
and Doug Henwood
Doug Henwood
Doug Henwood is an American journalist who writes frequently about economic affairs. He publishes a newsletter, Left Business Observer, that analyzes economics and politics from a left-wing perspective, and is a contributing editor at The Nation.- Early years :Henwood was born in Teaneck, New...
, author of Wall Street and After the New Economy. Funded by the Progressive Change Campaign Committee
Progressive Change Campaign Committee
The Progressive Change Campaign Committee is a U.S. political action committee which focuses on electing progressive Democrats in Congressional elections and advocating on progressive policy issues.-Past campaigns:...
, a political action committee focused on electing progressive Democrats in congressional elections, the group also launched a website, fixcnbc.com. Their stated goal was to persuade CNBC executives to prioritize investigative financial journalism over Wall Street "access".
Though it had been hyped by NBC in the lead up to Cramer's appearance, CNBC declined to comment directly following its airing. Instead, CNBC issued a broad statement in defense of its track record: "Recognized as the worldwide leader in business news, CNBC produces more than 150 hours of live television a week that includes more than 850 interviews in the service of exposing all sides of every critical financial and economic issue. We are proud of our record and remain committed to delivering coverage in real-time during this extraordinary story and beyond." Insiders at CNBC, however, privately acknowledged that the interview was ultimately a public relations disaster for the network; viewership went down 10% in the first three days after the interview. In a conference held March 18, the CEO of NBC Universal, Jeff Zucker, called Stewart's attacks on business network CNBC "incredibly unfair" and "completely out of line".
Referring to Stewart's interview with Cramer, White House Press Secretary
White House Press Secretary
The White House Press Secretary is a senior White House official whose primary responsibility is to act as spokesperson for the government administration....
Robert Gibbs
Robert Gibbs
Robert Lane Gibbs was the 28th White House Press Secretary. Gibbs was the communications director for then-U.S. Senator Barack Obama and Obama's 2008 presidential campaign...
said, "I enjoyed it thoroughly." He added that he had spoken with President Barack Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
on the day before about watching the show, but that he "forgot to e-mail and remind him that it was on", so he could not tell whether Obama had seen the segment.
In a May 2011 interview with The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, Cramer explained that he was unprepared for Stewart's intense interview, saying "As soon as he started, I realized Stewart was on a mission to make me look like a clown. I didn’t defend myself because I wasn’t prepared. What was I supposed to do, talk about how often I had been right? Praise myself? Get mad? I was mad, but I didn’t want to give the audience any blood. The national media said I got crushed, which I did, and made me into a buffoon... They wanted to make me the Face of the Era, and they succeeded. Rick Santelli’s a conservative. Ideological. O.K., I get that. But me? I was very anti-Bush. I’m a Democrat, I’ve got the canceled checks to prove it, and suddenly I’m the enemy? Me? Me?"
Portrayal in the media
Throughout the back and forth, many media outlets portrayed the event as a celebrity feud between Cramer and Stewart. Stewart satirized this portrayal in a segment on the March 11 episode of The Daily Show by showing a montage of various network news personalities characterizing the event as a "war of words", "full-blown war" and "anchor war", after which Stewart called it a "largely manufactured battle".In an appearance on Morning Joe
Morning Joe
Morning Joe is a weekday morning talk show on MSNBC, with Joe Scarborough discussing the news of the day in a panel format with co-hosts Mika Brzezinski and Willie Geist. It was created as the replacement for Imus in the Morning, which was canceled in April 2007 after simulcasting on MSNBC since 1996...
, Cramer stated, "I think that I would like to cool the rhetoric... I think you ought to lighten up, I mean he [Jon Stewart] is a comedian." Joe Scarborough
Joe Scarborough
Charles Joseph "Joe" Scarborough is an American cable news and talk radio host, lawyer, author, and former politician. He is currently the host of Morning Joe on MSNBC, and previously hosted Scarborough Country on the same channel...
responded, "No, no – he's not. He's an ideologue.... These are ideologically driven shows."
During the interview with Cramer, Stewart fired back at Scarborough by telling Cramer to relay the message that the nature of The Daily Shows satire is not to be fair. In addition, Stewart apologized to Cramer for the personalized nature of the media coverage by saying, "You now have become the face of this, and that is incredibly unfortunate. Because you’re not the face of it, you shouldn’t be the face of it. You were the person that was, uh, I-don’t-know-what enough to stand up and go, 'Hey, that wasn’t fair!' Which it’s not, because this show isn’t fair, and you can tell ‘Doucheborough’ it isn’t supposed to be fair."