Jon Stewart vs. the Media
by Rosalind Adams

It happened weeks ago, the now infamous clash and clatter of Jim Cramer and Jon Stewart on The Daily Show. And though it might seem like simply a “grudge battle,” Stewart was making a much larger comment than what may have appeared.

Media pundits have been quick to take sides. While many lauded Stewart for his obvious skewering of Cramer, Ben Stein defended Cramer in a piece for the New York Times and NBC Universal Chief,  Jeff Zucker, also showed his support for Cramer (whose show is coincidentally on CNBC), calling Stewart’s actions “absurd.” Tucker Carlson denounced Stewart, saying he was making a partisan attack. But they all missed it.

Let’s go back to 2004, when Stewart appeared on CNN’s Crossfire. He spoke sincerely about his concern over the show, “You’re doing theatre when you should be doing debate, which would be great. What you do is not honest. What you do is partisan hackery.”

Sound familiar? Stewart told Cramer on The Daily Show, “CNBC could be an incredibly powerful tool of illumination…”

And this does raise a larger question. Is the job of the media to inform or to entertain, and how does one strike the balance between the two? Cramer defends the shows on CNBC, saying “There’s a market for it” while Stewart responds, “There’s also a market for cocaine and hookers!” Entertainment is often highly profitable and attracts more viewers, but isn’t at least some part of the conglomerate also responsible for keeping the actions of our government and leaders in check, for informing the public—like perhaps CNBC or CNN?

Stewart is one of the loudest voices, yet isn’t a hard reporter who is calling for accountability to such standards. “Maybe this is purely ridiculous, but I’m under the impression you don’t just take their word at face value, you go around and try to figure it out.”

Ironically, the direction in which the response to the Cramer/Stewart feud has taken is perhaps part of Stewart’s criticism of the media itself. Over and over again in his interviews, Stewart calls for honest political discourse and media outlets with higher standards of reporting. But what is interesting is Stewart himself cannot be held accountable to his own standards because of the context of his own show. And so, the back and forth between Cramer and Stewart has dissolved into a series of on-air skirmishes, in which any message to the media world has been lost. Stewart plays the serious guy role very well, but is anyone talking about CNBC improving its reporting? Certainly not NBC Universal Chief, Zucker.

Stewart’s role of media watchdog is complicated by the fact that he is first a comedian. While this allows him to point out the antics of our government and society in jest, it seems to also become problematic for people to take the critiques of Stewart seriously. On the aforementioned Crossfire episode, Tucker Carlson prodded Stewart with, “I thought you were going to be funny.” To which he replied, “I’m not your monkey.”

cnbc, crossfire, daily show, jeff zucker, jim cramer, jon stewart, media, nbc, new york times