Last week, Jim Cramer had to be asking himself, “Why me? Why now? Why did Pop Culture’s King Jester choose this point and time to turn me into a national joke for doing what I’ve been doing forever?”
It’s been a few days, so you have to wonder if Cramer’s figured it out yet — or if someone’s explained it to him. He certainly hadn’t pieced it together during his appearance on the “Daily Show” where he looked liked a fighter who didn’t see the punch coming – and he didn’t. Why would he? Through months and months of recession, Cramer’s been on the air doing what he’s been doing for years: Ranting, raving, predicting, promoting, suggesting, picking, pointing, and putting himself across as some kind of Market Seer –just like so many others out there, only he uses action figures.
Cramer’s transgression had nothing to do with any part of the thrashing he took from Jon Stewart. Cramer, an Obama supporter, committed the sin of turning on Barack Obama with his “wealth destroyer” comment.
Had Cramer not hammered Obama, does anyone believe Stewart would have given him the attention he did? The same is true with Rick Santelli. How long has Santelli been doing what he does on CNBC? But it’s only after Santelli criticized Obama that Stewart found something about Santelli (and CNBC) to get morally indignant over. There was only one dynamic that changed here, and that wasn’t how CNBC, Santelli or Cramer do business, it was that they criticized Barack Obama.
But Stewart employs a sleight of hand to keep the rules of the game below the radar. He can’t thrash and humiliate these men for criticizing Obama, that would give the game away, so he finds something else. But the pop culture rules of the game are clear: Stay in line or we will humiliate you. And “we” is Stewart and all those who participate in the viral aspect of Stewart’s game of humiliation.
And don’t confuse this with a defense of Cramer or any of the noisy, smarter-than-thou market guys. But unlike Jon Stewart, I’m not smug enough to believe I’m the only one who can see through their schtick. This, of course, would’ve been Cramer’s defense – standing up for the intelligence of his audience and the investor crowd. But I guess only Jon Stewart is smart enough to know bad investment advice when he hears it, even though Stewart didn’t appear to give much of a damn about “the rubes” until Cramer and Santelli dared stray from the liberal talking points.
People who have reached a time of life when they’re in a position to invest are generally a pretty savvy bunch able to discern and make decisions on their own, it’s those not fully formed we should worry about, which is why Jon Stewart’s detached irony and refusal to honor anything other than his own outrage is much more of a pox on society than CNBC.
In the movie “Tin Men” (1987) there’s a scene where a dishonest aluminum-siding salesman drops a five-dollar bill in the home of a potential sale and then asks the homeowner if the bill belongs to him. The hustle is obvious: do something dishonest to con the sucker into believing you’re honest. In the first minute of this video, you’ll see Jon Stewart drop his own five-dollar bill when he refers to what he does as selling snake oil.
It’s a nice feint on Stewart’s part, a disingenuous shot at humility, a way to hide behind the “I’m just a comedian” card he’s been pulling for years, but Stewart and Co. take themselves very seriously and a flag has been planted and a message sent that there will be a heavy price to pay for criticizing President Obama.
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