It finally came to a head last night on the Daily show where John Stewart confronted Jim Cramer.

I had hoped for a real cage match, a throw down the gloves kind of battle. Instead what I witnessed was an unprepared, scared former hedge fund manager, turned advisor, turned entertainer, looking apologetic and somewhat pathetic

John Stewart the host of the daily show is a self proclaimed satirist and serves up some fantastic jokes and a daily dose of political and current event commentary. He is clearly in the entertainment business, and there can be no mistaking the cable channel “The Comedy Network” as being anything other than what the name suggests.

Classifying Jim Cramer however leads to a host of other questions and concerns. Is he an advisor, is he strictly an entertainer? Can he be both or switch hats at will? Is he held to a higher standard because of his past as an integral part of the financial system that he now points an accusing finger at. Must he be held to a higher standard because his show airs on CNCB, the so called ‘world leader in business news”, and authority on all matters of the financial markets.

I do not hide the fact that I have never been a Cramer fan, and it’s about BOUYA time that someone said something about all the nonsense and theatrics of his Mad Money show. The videos I have seen claim to be edited and taken out of context, to me the context could not be more plain and obvious.
The beauty of the modern day media, and in this case the ugliness as well, is the ability to revisit the events as if they just happened and let the viewer decide on the contextual accuracy.
A date and time stamped TV show, or video blog laid up against the Stock price chart goes a long way in defining the context in which statements were made.
In other words there is nowhere to hide.

Here is the dilemma. First lets put aside the question, ‘is Cramer an advisor or an entertainer’. I think given his past as hedge fund manager, his current role at www.TheStreet.com his Mad Money show on CNBC, his numerous news letters and stock advisory services, it would be a stretch to say he is strictly an entertainer. Perhaps entertaining to some…

But the real dilemma here, in my own opinion, is; What is the role, responsibility and ultimate accountability of Market related reporting on TV stations like CNBC.
Don’t get me wrong I love CNBC and it has been a constant companion throughout my career as a trader, even though I find some segments hard to take.

Jim Cramer did make 1 very good point in the interview, he said “we have 17 hours of live airtime to fill” Very true and no easy task I am sure.

But when it comes to reporting the financial news, are we getting facts or opinions? I think that is the issue touched on by John Stewart, and I think it is worth a deeper look.

Assume 16 of those 17 live airtime hours are filled with cutting edge reporting of the facts, events and goings on in the financial world. We have certainly seen David Faber, Joe Kernen and Charlie Gasparino, blow the lid off of some major events in the financial world, and traders have to love the straight no bull talk of Rick Santelli.

But when does the reporting of facts become opinion and how does the viewer distinguish reporting from entertaining? Should viewers have assumed that the stage props and antics of Cramers’ Mad Money meant that the reporting was over and the entertaining had begun?

One more issue to ponder, and I readily admit that I don’t have the answers. What if Cramer had actual evidence at the time that Bear Sterns was a bad investment choice. His ‘commentary / advice’ could be seen as the cause of sell off in the price of the stock. What would be the consequences of that? He then becomes the cause of the problem in the eyes of the stock holder, even though he was merely reporting what he knew.

I am NO fan of Cramer, not a fan of Mad Money and the CNBC double talk of blaming day traders for the 2001 tech crash and then following that up with a show called Fast Money really gets my goat.
The relentless and shameless pumping or should I say pimping of Cramer and Cramerica was incredibly effective at distancing CNBC from every serious trader and investor, who I naively believed to be their demographic.

It’s time to get back to the serious cutting edge financial reporting that I know CNBC is capable of, and time to toss the Cramer Bobble Head doll in the trash.

Just my opinion

Greg

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It seems there is a real fine line between reporting the facts, and coloring the facts with personal opinion.