On March 12, 2009 may be the day that Main Street has said enough to Wall Street and it happened in the most unlikely place –The Daily Show with Jon Stewart on the cable channel Comedy Central. The world has turned upside down when a self-professed parody comedy show of the day’s news is the conscious of Main Street.
For all of the past week, there has been a media ‘event’ of a feud between Jon Steward and Jim Cramer the host of Mad Money on CNBC – one of the most watched business programs on cable TV.
Well the interview came on March 12th and the tables were turned – the comedy show became more effective than TV investigative journalists like 60 minutes or Nightline and the investment professional was on the other end of the stick.
What seemed like a move to drive ratings by generating tension between two popular shows suddenly became a very serious exchange and Wall Street did not have great answers.
Watch the interview on http://www.hulu.com/watch/62203/the-daily-show-with-jon-stewart-thu-mar-12-2009 or http://www.thedailyshow.com/ and you will see.
Now realize that when the Daily Show broadcasts a weekly summary in Europe its prefaced by a screen at the beginning and end that reminds Europeans that this show is a parody and not actually the news. The analogy in the UK would be a puppet from Splitting Image interviewing Mervin King ala Hard Talk.
The world has turned upside down not only in terms of the serious issue being addressed by a comedy program, but that they are the protagonists for getting the straight answers out of the market when everyone else was getting corporate double talk.
This turned out not to be a stunt to get earnings. It reflects a real desire for the public who is suffering from the economic downturn to understand what is going on. After all we are the ones who will ultimately have to sacrifice in order to move the economy forward.
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