I’m sure that Jon Stewart’s interview with Jim Cramer has been written about elsewhere, but I wanted to share my own thoughts on the matter. If you haven’t seen the video, then you really need to so it’s embedded below:
http://www.hulu.com/embed/_3TIApx3ymwKbAfZnz-MKA
First and foremost, all the credit in the world ought to go to Jim Cramer for actually having the courage to walk into the firestorm that he knew would be waiting on The Daily Show. Secondly, Jon Stewart is simply great. With the election of Obama I remember there being some concern about whether Stewart would be able to maintain his high rating and popularity. After all, if he can’t make fun of Bush then how much material does he really have? Well, perhaps the election of Obama has created a bit of a shift in the Daily Show’s content.
As Stewart says in the interview, he shouldn’t have to be the one responsible for asking these kinds of questions and publicizing these facts. Despite the fact that it’s depressing that it is a comedy show that is taking this hard stance on questions of journalism, it is refreshing to see someone actually sit someone down and truly question them. Furthermore, it appears that people will actually listen to this kind of interview too. The audience was entertained in the way that Stewart tore Cramer apart and also seemed to be actually interested in the information both men were talking about.
It’s time for reporters, media, and the general populous to stop making the excuse that people don’t want to listen to or read hard journalism. It’s clear that they do, it just has to be done in the right way. Perhaps if more media institutions actually created content like this then they wouldn’t have as many problems attracting an audience.