Rachel and Keith are just hours away from a very important moment.
All their talk about Edward R. Murrow, the importance of a free press, and telling truth to power comes to a test in how each of these news programs are going to cover the Stewart/Cramer smackdown.
The cable news networks are giving the story a very light coverage in both tv reporting and website coverage.
I think last night's Stewart interview is a historic classic confrontation of corporate news bias that deserves to be in our history books for generations to come.
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Three major media news web sites (CBS,FOX,CNBC) have not even posted a story about last night's confrontation. A brave and lonely comic has called out a financial news industry for being spoon fed by CEO's and stock manipulators in a manner that is grossly negligent at best and criminal at worst.
I will be watching Keith and Rachel closely tonight in hopes of seeing the clip of Stewart's interview, and the 2006 clip of Cramer admitting to questionable practices.
If this story is ignored, or given a light touch in passing such a Best Person in the World, we will know that even our best and bravest news shows have been significantly censored. We will know that Keith and Rachel are not free to report on the compormised state of television journalism in America.
Please Keith and Rachel, take a page from Jon Stewart and hit it out of the park tonight, or it will be a very sad day for television journalism in Mudville.
If not now, then when.... will someone join Jon Stewart in standing up and speaking truth to the networks?
**********-Update-***********
This diary has been referenced in a Raw Story article.
The results are in..
Rachel mentioned the "dust up", gave a link to the video, and showed the Robert Gibbs reaction.
Keith- No mention and he has commented in this diary that he did not feel the story to be especially news worthy, and he has been under no pressure from management to suppress the story.
I've got to say that I feel really sad about how this is turning out.
Keith and Rachel are regular companions in my home and I am very fond of both of them. When I wrote the diary, I had every expectation that Keith would have a special comment in store for us about the dire consequences from Iraq to Wall Street of the media being in bed with the powerful.
Why is this story newsworthy?
Howard Kurtz, the "Washington Post" media critic and host of CNN's "Reliable Sources states....
......This is a really important moment for holding financial journalists accountable," Kurtz said. "It may have taken Jon Stewart to blow the whistle on some of the hype and shortsightedness at America's top business news channel, but those failings were repeated throughout the business press, which stumbled badly in reporting on what turned into a huge financial meltdown."
Cramer's 2006 video needs to have air time on both Keith and Rachel's shows.
A compilation of Jon Stewart's comments made to Tucker Carlson in his Crossfire video still ring true today.
No, no, no, but what I'm saying is this. I'm not. I'm here to confront you, because we need help from the media and they're hurting us.
See, the thing is, we need your help. Right now, you're helping the politicians and the corporations. And we're left out there to mow our lawns.
you have a responsibility to the public discourse, and you fail miserably.
it's not so much that it's bad, as it's hurting America. But I wanted to come here today and say...
Stop, stop, stop, stop hurting America.
Which fits nicely with what Jon Stewart said to Cramer-
I gotta tell you. I understand that you want to make finance entertaining, but it's not a f--ing game. When I watch that I get, I can't tell you how angry it makes me, because it says to me, you all know. You all know what's going on. You can draw a straight line from those shenanigans to the stuff that was being pulled at Bear and at AIG and all this derivative market stuff that is this weird Wall Street side bet.
As much as I love Keith, I've got to say that he is missing a big story.
Daniel Sinker writes in the Huffington Post This song ain't about you.
You see, Stewart's real critique wasn't about Cramer, it was also only marginally about CNBC. Instead, Stewart's real rage comes from the role the modern media has created for itself: the role of cheerleader instead of watchdog, of favoring surface over depth, of respecting authority instead of questioning it.
Jon Stewart is not just making fart noises. He is trying to save America from a sleepwalking entertainment media industry that is pretending to be doing news.