Tucker Carlson is not A Smart Man

Tucker Carlson is not a Smart Man

OK, by now you know about the mess between Jon Stewart and Jim Cramer a couple of weeks ago. Jon Stewart made some cutting criticism of CNBC and while doing so singled out Jim Cramer who happens to have a loud and obnoxious finance show. Cramer took exception and fired back in the media. I didn't really get what was the big deal in the media fueled duel. Neither one of them really said anything all that horrible. But, to his credit, Cramer came on The Daily Show to talk it out with Stewart. This was either bold and courageous, or dumb and naive.

Stewart came prepared. He had evidence of Cramer's double talk cued up to be shown on command. Stewart was pretty ruthless and had a point that he wanted to make, and he wasn't about to let Cramer being somewhat repentant get in the way. Stewart called the financial news networks nothing more than "cheerleaders of the big companies" who were involved in the financial collapse. He shot barbs at them for not reporting on the downward slide, and continuing to talk about the small picture instead of the big story.

The saddest part of the confrontation was that Cramer seemed to come on the show to actually fess up to giving bad advice at times. But Cramer's apology didn't actually cover the problem that Stewart was pointing out.

Stewart's confrontation of Cramer has become big news. Bigger than 4 years ago when he made Tucker Carlson look like a fool on Carlson's own show. So now, Carlson, since his previous show was cancelled weeks after Stewart's appearance, loaded his gun and went on a Stewart hunt. Unfortunately, Elmer Fudd looked like Grizzly Adams compared to Carlson's weak attack on Stewart.

Carlson said:
"[W]as Jim Cramer the only analyst to call it wrong ... to, you know, come up with stupid stock picks? Of course not. He criticized Obama's budget, and that's what started this, because in the end, Jon Stewart is a partisan hack."

Carlson doesn't get it. Stewart did not stand up for Obama's budget. He slammed CNBC for being a news network that was a mouthpiece for the big financial institutions. None of the attack was partisan at all. What Carlson has tried to do is a high school debate team trick. He simply tried to change the argument to something that he knows something about by relating two things that were totally unrelated. Carlson is apparently short sighted enough to relate anything to politics. But his attack falls so short that it feels like Carlson might not have even watched the entire confrontation.

Carlson then in the Washington Post said:
"Cramer humiliated himself the other night (and on many previous nights on his own show) but that doesn't mean he and his network are responsible for the meltdown. That's way too simple. In fact it's demagoguery."

I dare you to find a place where Stewart blamed the meltdown on the news networks. That wasn't his argument at all.

And then, again the most unbelievably dumb comment that Carlson made, that shows that he still has not learned from his own confrontation with Stewart.
"And by the way, where was Jon Stewart when the bubble was swelling? How many shows did he do on the coming financial collapse? Why didn't he warn us?"

Jon Stewart goes out of his way, again and again to let us know that he is a comedian. He's not a newscaster. He doesn't have a journalism staff. His entire show is nothing more than a parody of the news networks and their ridiculous tendency to not cover actual real news.

Because of his comical parody, he is confronted daily, face to face with the evidence that News organizations are not reporting news. Stewart was astonished in the 04 election at how the networks only reported on the talking points of the candidates. Their idea of fair and balanced was to fill us in on the talking points of both guys, however each network would omit some points and would stress others. But Stewart's frustration was that none of the networks did enough investigation to find the truth. When one candidate says the Iraq war cost one amount and the other says that it costs only half that, it is the job of real news people to tell us what the war cost and how each candidate came up with their number and what the candidates are trying to say by giving us false numbers. Instead, they report the talking points and then have dumb pundit debate shows that will take one side or the other based on little research.

When Stewart told Carlson famously in 04 that his stupid Crossfire show was "hurting America" what he was saying was that they were not reporting news, they were purposely fueling debate and not coming up with the truth.

Carlson's retort in 04 was to make fun of Stewart's interview with John Kerry, and tell Stewart that he was not hard enough on Kerry and didn't expose the truth through his reporting. Stewart was amazed at Carlson's ignorance. Stewart boldly told Carlson that he hosts a show on Comedy Central and it is extremely sad if Americans are really looking for Comedy Central to be the network that holds the candidates feet to the flames. Stewart told Carlson "the show that leads into mine is about sock puppets making crank calls."

Stewart is not trying to influence America, he was trying to have a funny show. The reason for the show's longevity is the ridiculousness of the cable news networks. They provide plenty of ammo for Stewart to parody.

Carlson told Stewart in 04 "you should get a job at a journalism school", basically telling Stewart that he had a lot to learn. Stewart replied to Carlson "you need to go to one."

Carlson is now saying that Stewart should be more careful. He is saying that Stewart is having an impact on National politics and needs to start acting like more of a journalist. But Carlson is too self involved to realize that Stewart didn't ask for this power and only has it because of the terrible punditry of people like Carlson.

To be clear. Stewart has latched onto this one cause, and I believe he has every right to do it. He has parodied the news for so long it has made him increasingly cynical and bitter about the impact of the news networks on politics and misinformation that the American public believes. It is the perfect cause for Stewart. It is a problem that Stewart has a unique relationship with, and if Stewart has any power the news networks need to recognize that they look ridiculous on Stewart's show because they are. Jon Stewart would marginalize himself if he started to walk into causes the way that Michael Moore does. If we see Stewart do this same thing with universalized health care, or gun control etc, then we might have to acknowledge that Stewart is too self important. But unlike Carlson, Stewart stays in his own niche, one that he has comfortably created and one that he has plenty of ammo to stay in for the forseeable future.