Jester

NBC Universal Chief Executive Jeff Zucker got himself into the fray with comedian Jon Stewart on Wednesday, saying it was "unfair" and "absurd" for the comedian to criticize CNBC and question its coverage of financial news. Mister Zucker's assertion was that his network was not responsible for "what is going on now." Is CNBC responsible for the collapse of our country's economy? No, they are not. But that is not what Jon Stewart and many of the rest of us are irate about.
Ironically enough, Fox News saw fit to air the public and rather embarrassing dressing down of Jim Cramer as a point for the conservatives. TV funnyman criticizing a competing network is good fodder for them, but they insist it would have been better if Stewart would have taken Chris Dodd or Barney Frank to task in the same manner. Frankly, I'm not sure why Cramer showed up, hat in hand, to take his lumps in the first place, but I am sure that if anything like that was in the wind for a politician like Dodd or Frank they would duck and run.
In some ways, Jim Cramer did us all a big service. His appearance on "The Daily Show" last week served as a lightning rod for the ire that is brewing among holders of 401Ks. Jon Stewart never suggested that anyone at CNBC was responsible for bad finances, he said that they were guilty of bad reporting. If they knew that the house was on fire, it was their job to report it, not to encourage everyone to redecorate.
I have long held that what happens in the stock market is made up, and I try to distance myself from the daily surges and upheavals of trading and exchanges. I am focused on doing my job, and I rely on the skill and cleverness of people I trust to manipulate my money in ways that keep it safe and will allow me to live out my days in front of a TV, shouting out answers to Final Jeopardy. No, Mister Zucker, it is not absurd that your star and your network was singled out for ridicule. Jim Cramer had enough shame to admit as much. What is absurd is that it took a guy who, by his own admission, "makes a lot of fart jokes" to point it out. Just be glad it wasn't Carrot Top.