‘One day he’ll answer for it’

Jim Cramer: former hedge fund manager, best-selling author, self-proclaimed infotainer, television personality and – most recently – Jon Stewart victim.

Cramer interviewed this week with Time magazine’s Justin Fox, and despite his hope that his tragic interview on The Daily Show was behind him, the interview included a multitiude of questions regarding his appearance.

Fruits of the conversation included such lines as “We all have to answer for things when we’re vicious and when we try to take people down, and we should because it’s not fair” as well as “But uh, if I’m waiting for an apology, I’m really stupid. But he was very vicious.”

Ultimately, however, Cramer concluded that he’d just been had. Between his accusations that Stewart was trying to get him fired and that Stewart’s attack was “gravely misplaced,” the host of CNBC’s “Mad Money” mostly defended himself by saying that he was trying to take the high road while Jon Stewart leveraged personal attacks.

Of course, there was nothing personal about Cramer’s later responses to that interview the next morning on “The Today Show” declaring, “A comedian’s attacking me! Wow! He runs a variety show!” And his comment to Fox about Stewart that “One day he’ll answer for it” had not the slightest ambiance of personal attack.

All this, of course, has very little importance beyond the general entertainment value of celebrity tiffs that make the cover of People. The main point driven home by the interview, however, should not be disregarded simply because the man making the
point drops the f-bomb on TV.

Sure, the attack unfairly targeted Cramer as a centerpiece for an entire industry. And it’s true that hours of footage of nearly anyone, including even Warren Buffett, could produce several incriminating 30-second clips. But Stewart’s interview drove home the notion that the Jim Cramers of the world are truly disconnected from those they are advising. He illuminated the real-life divide, to use a generic and overly referenced phrase, between Wall Street and Main Street.

In his response to Cramer’s “Today Show” appearance, while noting Cramer’s awkwardness as he watched the interview clip live on the show, Stewart deadpanned that “it put a human face on my mocking, and gave me a sense of the damage I had done to a real person. ... It’d be like him having to watch me as his Bear Stearns advice wiped out my parents’ 401(k).”  

Stewart’s influence can no longer be written off because of his comedic appeal. The fact that about half the letters written to Time for Fox’s interview with Cramer involved that fateful episode, which took place months after The Daily Show episode aired, illustrates Stewart’s non-comedic sway. The points he makes through his satire are tangible concerns and have real repercussions, as Cramer discovered only too late.

In times like these, we almost have to laugh. Stewart can do it while making a great point; meanwhile, Cramer has lost his sense of humor.