Stewart/Cramer

The video of the uncut interview is available at the Daily Show site, because their code is screwing up my blog. Bleh.

My take on this is one I've seen elsewhere: why does it take a comedian to ask these kinds of questions? And how does Cramer defend himself? At the end he was a whining fifth grader, asking for another chance to let him at those lying CEOs. But he kept saying, "These guys were friends of mine and they lied to me." Well, the reason Cramer bought the lies instead of doing investigative reporting is because they were friends of his.

Again and again, it comes down to access. Who tends to get the access? The people who are going to tell the best story for the companies. Who tends to get those kinds of jobs? People who are friends of the CEOs.

In the uncut version, this exchange occurs:

JIM: There's a market for it and you give it to them.

JON: There's a market for cocaine and hookers.

JIM: Well --

[LAUGHTER and APPLAUSE]

JON: So what?

JIM: I think those should be legalized -- no.

JON: What is the responsibility of the people who cover Wall Street?

Making sure that the people who are pushing cocaine and hookers don't have the chance to swamp the global financial market sounds like a good start to me.