Jon Stewart Faces Off With CNBCs Jim Cramer Thursday Night; Media To Blame

Jim Cramer is going to respond in person to attacks on CNBC by Jon Stewart while appearing on Comedy Central’s “Daily Show” Thursday, the Los Angeles Times reports. Ever since CNBC’s Rick Santelli backed out of a “Daily Show” appearance last week, Stewart has been ripping CNBC for its cheery reporting before the stock market tanked. Cramer has been responding on various NBC Universal outlets, prompting Stewart to blast back with fake clips from other Viacom shows on Tuesday night’s show.
—Jon Lafayette

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Comments Mother Jones:

Jonathan Stein says Cramer deserves some credit for “ending his market boosterism” and “apologizing for some horrifically bad stock picks” but “ultimately that’s all tangential” to the real problem:

What Cramer really needs to do is stop making ordinary people believe they can game the stock market on a day to day basis. A massive majority of the buying and selling done on Wall Street is done by banks and massive institutions with all the resources in the world at their disposal. Joe Sixpack and his 1,000 shares of Coca Cola are just grease for the gears. . . . 
Jim Cramer can defend himself all he wants. But his modus operandi is still problematic: he sends amateurs hurtling into a professional’s game.

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Eric Janzsen of the great financial blog iTulip.com, which was once threatened by Cramer’s The Street.com for running a video critiquing him, writes:

Where was The Daily Show back when the DOW was 13,000 and criticizing Cramer might have mattered to his viewers?

Proto-fascism: only comedians are permitted to do real journalism that criticizes the power structure to a national broadcast audience. Today even the comedians can’t do real journalism until the subject of criticism is already on his way down.

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New Survey; COUNTRY IS BUMMED OUT

The most recent “American Workplace Insights” survey from Adecco Group North America (www.Adecco.com) the world’s largest recruitment and workforce solutions provider, gives great insight into the state of mind of America’s workforce. The stresses and strains of the current economic situation have caused many Americans to consider unethical conduct on the job. In addition, a staggering number of Americans report that the recession has caused a negative impact on their mental health. This Friday’s jobs report numbers will draw our attention to the unemployed, but what are the effects of a steady stream of bad news on those of us with jobs?

• The recession has caused many Americans to develop unseen illnesses. 1 in 5 employed people report that the recession has had a negative impact on their mental health

• Desperate times call for desperate measures. 28% of people would do something dishonest to keep their jobs (examples included blaming co-workers for mistakes, blackmail, and flirting with a superior)

· Leading by far is the generation Y demographic of which 41% would do something dishonest

· Leading all groups, 44% of men between 18-35 would do something dishonest

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Slain US Nazi hated Obama, had parts for ‘dirty bomb’

Claim: Depleted uranium purchased over the Internet from an American company

Trust fund millionaire James G. Cummings, an American Nazi sympathizer from Maine who was slain by his wife Amber in December, allegedly had the radioactive components necessary to construct a “dirty bomb,” a newly released threat analysis report states.

The man, allegedly furious over the election of President Obama, purchased depleted uranium over the Internet from an American company.

“According to an FBI field intelligence report from the Washington Regional Threat and Analysis Center posted online by WikiLeaks, an organization that posts leaked documents, an investigation into the case revealed that radioactive materials were removed from Cummings’ home after his shooting death on Dec. 9,” reported the Bangor Daily News.

“Amber (Cummings) indicated James was very upset with Barack Obama being elected President,” reported the Washington Regional Threat and Analysis Center (PDF link). “She indicated James had been in contact with ‘white supremacist group(s).’ Amber also indicated James mixed chemicals in the kitchen sink at their residence and had mentioned ‘dirty bombs.’”

DS: Anyone Remember Jose Padilla who was pictured as a super-terrorist Dirty Bomber for years until no evidence of any dirty bomb was ever produced?

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Mark Crispin Miller: So where’s the coverage? This story comes from the Bangor Daily News.

By and large, terror from the right does not exist, according to the media, whose employees have long turned a blind eye to terrorism aimed at government workers (as in our national parks), environmentalists and abortion clinics (and, also, foreign terrorists working for our government); and now the media consistently tune out, or underplay, assassination threats against the president.

The same press that yakked endlessly about William Ayers, and his alleged close connection to Obama, have so far been completely mute about this character, who planned to kill the president (and, of course, planned it recently, while Ayers set off his bombs decades ago). The Ayers/Obama “friendship” was the subject of a front-page story in the New York Times. So where’s that paper’s front-page piece on James G. Cummings?”

Robert Parry, Editor of Consortiumnews.com: It’s The Media, Stupido

Less than two months into Barack Obama’s presidency, it has become clear that the top threat to his ability to accomplish his goals - from reversing the recession to reforming health care to building a greener economy - is not just an obstructionist Republican Party but a U.S. news media that remains largely tilted to the Right.

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Thats the News Dissector blog for today. Your comments welcome, your financial support more so. I am off to Doha in the Persian Gulf Thursday night, invited to the annual AlJazeera forum. Back Tuesday.

On Tuesday night, I will be speaking about my book PLUNDER at BLUE STOCKINGS, a funky, committed and fabulous book store at 172 Allen St New York, NY 10002 in the Lower East Side of New York City. All readers welcome.

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