I don’t know the long-term cultural impact of the Jon Stewart/Jim Cramer interview. (Some have suggested the “have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last” moment from Joseph Welch to Joseph McCarthy — I have my doubts). But I think it should put a stop to the occasional moaning about how our young people get their news from The Daily Show. As it turns out, that’s a good thing, because Stewart is practicing a bit more journalism and a bit less stenography than your average news show.
To me, this might be the money quote from Stewart: “These guys at these companies were on a Sherman’s march through their companies, financed by our 401(k)s – and all the incentives at their companies were for short-term profits, and they burned the fucking house down with our money and walked away rich as hell.”
… and just think how much more fertile those Sherman-est marches would have been had Bush succeeded with his plans to privatize social security!
Doug, last time I saw “Decency” the Editors and a couple Sadlynauts had dug up the corpse and were jumping up and down on it because Bill Belichick got fined.
The last time I saw a “real” journalist go after an interviewee hammer and tongs? Last time I remember was Halloween 2007, when Tim Russert and Brian WIlliams (that’s “NBC’s Tim…) went after Hillary Clinton over the vast national shame of…Eliot Spitzer’s immigrant drivers’ license policy? Jeeze, at least Spitzer was payin’ for his own hookers!
And the last time anyone saw one going after a brother in the news-o-tainment biz? That’ll be the next time, excepting the various right wing demonizations of various com-simp network anchors over the years, which, of course, never actually get as far as giving the accused a hearing.
In order to duplicate Stewart’s work the past few days–not just the interview; he’s been brilliant from calling out Santelli on–the careerists in teevee “news” would have to have integrity, personal honesty, and a dedication to the concept and principle of a Free Press that exceeded their own financial expectations. And just as soon as the Nielsens and Q-Ratings tell ’em to start faking that, we’ll get some.
Amen to Katie.
katie said:
“… and just think how much more fertile those Sherman-est marches would have been had Bush succeeded with his plans to privatize social security!”
Please don’t take this as an advocacy of anything Bush, but is your social security any more secure in the hands of the government?
At the least, I think we can say we might get our social security money back. Had it been invested in Lehman Bros or Bear Stearns, we’d be even more screwed.
Honestly, Mr. Bell, even though I’ve yet to collect a dime I’ve already been repaid for my SS contributions numerous times over. Thanks to social security my parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and my orphaned nieces and nephews have enjoyed a secured living as well as access to health care because of social security.
Thanks for asking!
I resigned myself years ago that I would never see a dime of Social Security money. See: “Lockbox”, but also “Ponzi Scheme”.
the older generations have benefitted from Social Security. My generation is merely the one that pays and receives an IOU.
“…Social Security is a transfer payment, but it is not a pyramid scheme. There is a huge difference between the two, and only a superficial similarity.”
“If the demographics of the population were stable, then a pay-as-you-go system would not have demographically-driven financing ups and downs and no thoughtful person would be tempted to compare it to a Ponzi arrangement.”
http://web.archive.org/web/20041001-20051231re_/http://www.ssa.gov/history/ponzi.html
After reading these comments I can’t help but think of that Python sketch:
…other than that, what have the Roman’s ever done for us!