Media Matters tears CNBC a new one

“And did we mention the idiotic Santelli episode? In terms of newsroom standards, it’s like Fox News run amok over at CNBC.”

That’s the conclusion to a very accurate, well sourced and blistering critique of CNBC over at Media Matters’ new financial site. They are going to be busy if they want to catalogue all of the lies and politicking on that network. Cramer’s not really the problem. He’s outrageous by nature and no one really takes him seriously. The main problem is the group of “journalists” who ‘play one on TV’ while in actuality serving as politically-rightward-tilting commentators. It’s a disgrace to financial journalists everywhere.

Daily Show war on CNBC, March 5-12, 2008

The conclusion of the Daily Show’s week of war on CNBC concludes with Jim Cramer appearing on the show. He appeared on the Colbert Report last week. The week of critical, mocking commentary on the network has led to more than a few lame rebuttals on the channel and represents a new area of anger boiling over following the financial crisis that began in August 2007. CNBC, the most watched channel in the financial television industry (far outstripping Bloomberg TV and Fox Business Network) is receiving the criticism it deserves and which has been largely absent before because, frankly, no one cared enough to watch it with a critical eye towards its kid gloves treatment of the financial industry.

I’m not going to defend Jim Cramer against the (justified) complaints made by Jon Stewart, but I will give him credit for being the only member of CNBC with the cojones to face the anger head on and be the verbal punching bag on behalf of the network. It, frankly, makes Rick Santelli look like a “loser” and a coward that he accepted Stewart’s invitation to appear on the show and then “bailed out”. I think he is in hiding because I have not seen him appear on CNBC since the opening salvo of the Daily Show’s war on CNBC.

Daily Show completes the takedown of CNBC

As described by FT Alphaville blog. The best part is the summary:

Jon Stewart’s very articulate on-the-button explanation to Cramer of exactly what was wrong with the CNBC’s coverage:

“You knew what the banks were doing and yet were touting it for months and months — the entire network was. And now to pretend that this was some sort of crazy once in a lifetime tsunami that no one saw coming is disingenous at best, and criminal at worst.”