Jim Cramer appeared on The Daily Show and it was refreshing to see Stewart being fairly serious. However, to be completely honest, I think Stewart is being a little too sanctimonious on this one. This interview kind of reminded me of when people got all upset about Katrina. Who didn't know that shit was about to go down? Before the hurricans people knew the levees might not hold. How many people took it upon themselves to make some sort of effort or try to make a call to action? It seemed like everyone was waiting to see what happened. I know Stewart often cops the plea that his program is a comedy show but isn't that even more of a sin; in a corrupt world in need of watchdogs, Stewart is wasting his time on a making wisecracks?

I like to make a crosswalk comparison about three kinds of "people in the know". The majority of the populace are like a person not paying attention to the signs. walking against the light, and stepping into traffic. Jim Cramer and most media people just watch us walk into the street. For one reason or another, they don't want or care to stop us (or, in some cases, could profit from our injury). The rare kind is the person who steps out into traffic to reel us back in. That person puts their life in a bit of peril in order to make sure we don't get killed. The third person are the post-game pundits: they might not know exactly what's going on but they see us walking, know something isn't right, but don't say anything. When we get hit by a car though, they are the first to talk about what happened and explain why everyone else was in the wrong for not helping us.

During the interview, John Stewart says that he and Cramer are both snake oil salesman but at least his show labels itself as snake oil. Again, I think that's kind of a weak cop out. John Stewart is respected by many and has a good amount of viewers. If he really wants to stay on his high horse, it's about time that he replaced his snake oil with something that the people actually need. I'm not saying he has to become a full-time journalist or anything but at least try to have more segments that point out things that are going wrong or that other networks/news shows need to cover rather than fiddling around until the next fire starts so he can call someone out.