Pity Party

Just when you thought Jim Cramer would have a pretty tough time being more of a whiny, self-serving douchebag than he's been, he finds a way to make it happen:

No one wants to suffer a beat-down. No one wants to be humiliated or embarrassed. I was shocked at [host Jon Stewart's] behavior. I wish he knew about my background, and I wish he knew about a lot of things that I had done, because I think he would've thanked me instead of attacked me...I think the attack on CNBC and the attacks on me were gravely misplaced. It was rather remarkable in that it was so clear that his goal was to just destroy me. One day he'll answer for it.

I think Rick Santelli actually had the most egregious outbursts at the time, pound for pound, but what distinguished Cramer specifically is that he carries Wall Street's water, day after soul-sucking day, and as he constantly reminds everyone, as a three-decade professional in the bidness, he knows better. He knows goddamn well that the bailout and the shenanigans leading up to it constitute the biggest financial crime of this young century, that the unborn grandchildren of the working class will be paying for the thievery and machinations of a greedy, overfed finance sector, that this is all a big confidence game, that Wall Street fucking despises the American working class, and it shows with their every action and deed.

If only Cramer's histrionics were justified, because he deserves to be destroyed by interviewers. But the fact is, Stewart is one host on a basic-cable news satire show, who cold-cocked him on one magical night. And the second Li'l Jimmy got his feathers ruffled, he and Erin Burnett spent the next week or so making the circuit on every single media entity owned by the Sheinhardt Wig Company. Some "beat-down", given those resources with which to rebut, falsely at that, the idea that Stewart using Cramer's own words against him was somehow foul play.

But this is what the "media" exist for these days, cross-promotion well before disseminating useful -- or even factual -- information. Li'l Jimmy's pissed because someone finally called him on his bull dances and his cartoon noises and his cynical nonsense, and it might be nice if the Newsweek interviewer that gave Li'l Jimmy yet another soapbox to whine from turned around and got Stewart's side of the story. I have a feeling his response would end with "and the horse he rode in on."