[CJFusco]

Slackjaw - of course you're entitled to your opinion, but if you call a popular entertainer "retarded" - especially one who so obviously possesses a pretty keen intellect - you leave yourself open for criticism.

Stewart's point in this interview was that both him and Cramer are selling snake oil, but the Daily Show is packaged as snake oil; in other words, the Daily Show doesn't pretend to be anything but entertainment. It is a satire of the folly of our cable news media (and Colbert takes it a step further, to be an ironic satire of a cable news pundit, in character); what Jon considers strange is that he often finds himself in the unlikely position of being the ONLY "news outlet" willing to devote time and effort to unveiling the absurdities of the men behind the curtain. Jon was attacking Cramer for playing along, for being complicit in, the wool that was pulled over America's eyes. And I think he's right.

I wrote briefly about the role that Stewart/Colbert are playing as de facto media watchdogs in my book "Our Orwell, Right or Left"; it's worth checking out, if this topic piques your interest (shameless plug).