Cramer vs. Jon Stewart

At last, the eagerly awaited confrontation on the Daily Show between Jon Stewart and Jim Cramer has taken place. I can only sum it up with one word: WOW!

I had wondered (and discussed with several of you in class) how Cramer should handle his appearance. Obviously, any temper tantrum would be a total disaster for both Cramer and CNBC. I had expected him to be very nice and self deprecating. His actual performance even exceeded my expectations: he fell on the proverbial "sword," which was probably his best strategy. But I will let you judge for yourself. Here is the link to that show.

I hope that the mystique surrounding CNBC has finally begun to disappear at long last. Now all CNBC needs to do is get rid of those egotistical "I am CNBC" short segments about the "stars" that appear on their network.

For the record, though, let me reiterate something I have said several times in class: the contention by CNBC, specifically Jim Cramer, that the President should do what the stock market is telling him to do, is totally asinine! Hopefully, such absurd advice, which emerged as a by-product of the metamorphosis of CNBC "reporters" into hacks and ideologues, will never be given again. Should such advice ever be offered in the future, don't hesitate to categorically reject it from the outset.

There are two lessons to be learned from all of this. First, never confuse charisma with competence. But, what about persons (who will go nameless) who possess both of these traits? The second lesson is: some people who are more than capable of dazzling you with their knowledge will, based on an incessant need to sustain their inflated egos, opt to also baffle you with bull ----.

Update on CNBC Critique -- Reply to Cramer

After the Daily Show absolutely blasted CNBC and its "reporters" for their shortcomings (see the video clip on the March 5 post), Jim Cramer apparently whined on his Street.com blog about how unfairly he had been treated on the Daily Show. Big mistake! The Daily Show did some research and showed that Cramer had actually blundered more substantially than they had said.

Here is a link to the video clip for this Daily Show "update."