Jon Stewart vs. Jim Cramer: No Contest

(MoneyWatch) 

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Impossible not to post about Jon Stewart's evisceration of Jim Cramer last night, above. Stewart had said earlier in the week that the showdown was destined to disappoint, but, as if hell-bent on proving himself wrong, Stewart gave us perhaps his finest half-hour of Daily Show ever, even if wasn't that funny. In the process, he not only continued to call into question Cramer's credibility, but an entire network's raison d'etre. Stewart was, as usual, quick-witted, but he was also completely in command of the facts and full of beautifully-articulated populist rage. Among his best, if long-winded, sound bites:

CNBC could be an incredibly powerful tool of illumination for people that believe that there are two markets. One, that has been sold to us as long-term. ... Then there's this other market, this real market that's occurring in the backroom where giant piles of money are going in and out and people are trading them, and it's transactional and it's fast. But it's dangerous and ethically dubious and it hurts that long-term market. So what it feels like to us, and I'm speaking purely as a layman...it feels like we are capitalizing your adventure by our pension, and that it is a game that you know, that you know is going on, but that you go on television as a financial network and pretend it isn't happening.

Jeez, what would Jon Stewart have said if he'd invested with Bernie Madoff?

There are alternate opinions on how this whole thing is playing out. As I was writing this. Alessandra Stanley posted a story at nytimes.com which, peculiarly, concludes: "Mr. Stewart kept getting the last word, but Mr. Cramer may yet have the last laugh." Stanley's thinking is that NBC, and Cramer, may ultimately come out on top because they are milking the controversy for all it's worth, leveraging every channel they have. Not only did Cramer appear on the "Today Show" this week, but he actually made an appearance on Martha Stewart's NBC-distributed morning show yesterday morning.

So what. Stewart has permanently damaged CNBC's and Cramer's credibility, and if the network we all look to for financial guidance has been taken down a few pegs, it's no longer as worthy to watch. (Also, it's not as though Stewart is lacking in tools to milk the controversy himself.) Stanley couldn't be more wrong.