Jon Stewart gives Jim Cramer the “Crossfire” treatment

For the past decade, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart has mocked playfully at the conventions of news and politics in a way that has allowed us to see how the world's metaphorical emperors have no clothes when the mainstream media failed to do so. Every so often, though, Stewart himself has gotten so riled up by the failings of the media that he has taken them to task…in their faces. Remember in 2004 when he went on CNN's Crossfire and effectively killed the show? Alas, while Stewart won that battle, he fell far short of removing political hot air from the cable news networks — in fact, that virus had seemed to spread far and wide during the 2008 election campaign. Last night, Stewart lambasted the financial news networks for turning our collective wealth and now poverty into a sport, with CNBC and Mad Money's Jim Cramer in the hot seat for the full half-hour. In fact, Stewart let Cramer have it for more than a half-hour, so during last night's show, Comedy Central superimposed promos telling you to watch the whole exchange on the Internets. Which we shall allow you to watch in its entireity after the jump.

Do you think this will have a lasting impact on how financial reporters cover our economy? Or will it be a short-term blip on the radar, a la Stewart's Crossfire appearance?

I like how even the opening of the show adopted a different tone and poked fun at the hyperbole, USA Today's "free" copies at hotel rooms, and even how Comedy Central would attempt to take advantage of it all.

In part one, a lot of the inside talk about CNBC got cut from the actual broadcast:

And in part three, Stewart goes in for the kill:

Sean L. McCarthy

Editor and publisher since 2007, when he was named New York's Funniest Reporter. Former newspaper reporter at the New York Daily News, Boston Herald and smaller dailies and community papers across America. Loves comedy so much he founded this site.

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