It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad Money

Grr. I know I'm probably in the minority here--and definitely in the minority among my fellow college students--but Jon Stewart really gets on my nerves.

Yeah, he's a funny guy. Tremendously funny. Outrageously funny. Roll-over-on-the-floor-laughing-until-your-appendix-ruptures kind of funny. We haven't had a TV comic this talented since Johnny Carson.

But being funny can't excuse being a pompous ass. Just because you're funny doesn't mean that every word that drops from your lip is a beautifully-shaped pearl of wisdom and truth.

Yet that's the way Stewart acts. He has set himself up as the Guardian of the Free Press, the Defender of Democracy, the Vigilant Watchman of the Fourth Estate. I don't know if things were different in the past, but now he takes himself more seriously than does, say, a bloviator like Chris Matthews.

His little spat with Jim Cramer is a case in point. Look, Cramer's an entertainer. He's just like Stewart, in that both guys set out to amuse their audience.

What gives Stewart the right, then, to get all huffy when Cramer criticizes Obama? Yeah, Cramer dishes out some lousy stock advice. If you followed his picks to the letter, you're probably sitting in a cardboard box somewhere.

But Stewart has the gall to try to crucify Cramer because of that? As I said only a post ago--do Cramer's mistakes invalidate everything he says from now on? Good God! If that was the standard we used, every television pundit would be worth less than their weight in lint.

Mark Hemingway of National Review does a much better job of summarizing my complaint than I myself can. Stewart bugs me. I can't quite articulate it yet. When I do, I'll be sure to let you know. And by "you," I mean my loyal reader, and by loyal reader, I mean my mother.