Comments on: NBC CEO Jeff Zucker: Jon Stewart Was "Incredibly Unfair" to CNBC

By: David Kaplan

David Kaplan — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 23:51:48 +0000

It’s not at all clear what Jeff Zucker is talking about. Has he watched Mad Money? Here’s a guy that went to Harvard and sits on very prestigious boards and supports this trash being on the air. I thought the best part of the Kramer/Stewart interchange was when Stewart said “There’s a market for cocaine and hookers”. Mr. Zucker, I suggest that when you go home tonight to your expansive Manhattan apartment, take a stroll into your walk-in closet. I’m assuming there is a full length mirror there. Stand in front of it and take a long hard look. Perhaps you might ask yourself what standard you seem to be striving for. I’m guessing it has 100% to do with maximizing the almighty dollar and 0% to do with the ideals you may have one time espoused as a Harvard freshman. You’ve made your choices and that’s fine. But please, please don’t tell us that Jon Stewart is out of line. Thanks, JS for hitting the nail on the head. CNBC is reeling and now that their PR campaign has fizzed, they wheeling out the big guns. Some programming advice for Mr. Zucker, albeit stolen from a dated Levi’s commercial: Quality never goes out of style.

By: Jay Theas

Jay Theas — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 23:31:04 +0000

What Zucker avoids is the tragic little truth about the type of Stewart’s ‘show’ , and how broadcast nets use them.
Simply release hordes of research assistants to screen every bit of recorded media for the cycle, and they tag every incident where someone of note (1)-misspeaks themselves; (2)-experiences an episode of clumsiness; or (3)-is caught with a goofy look on their face!
Then a slot-filler who cleans up pretty well, and who can display their own goofy look, grunts, moans, or titters, and they are off to stardom!
If the studio audience is brain-dead enough, or lazy enough, the response is automatic; or canned responses are used.
I suppose that we should encourage people like MYSELF to stop writing/speaking about it, for I feel that I’ve only helped validate the thing.
Besides, the act was in use very long ago, AND I must add, a whole helluvalot better!
“Wink, wink, nudge, nudge!!….. know what I mean, know what I mean?? …..Say no more, say no MORE”!

By: Zucker: Topic A “Defending Jim Cramer and CNBC” | Sobel Media

Zucker: Topic A “Defending Jim Cramer and CNBC” | Sobel Media — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 19:47:47 +0000

[...] FOR THE COMPLETE STORY CLICK HERE Filed Under: Breaking NewsTagged: Business Week, CNBC, Comedy Central, Jeff Zucker, Jim Cramer, Jon Stewart, McGraw Hill, Media Summit, NBC Universal, The Daily Show [...]

By: richard hawthorne

richard hawthorne — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 18:11:18 +0000

Jeff Zucker shouldn’t be crying about John Stewart’s comments to Jim Cramer – Stewart was right-on. Zucker should questioning his own judgment. Jim Cramer has hit a new low with his many past comments i,e, “This sub-prime crap doesn’t amount to anything more than a pimple on an elephants butt. You can take all of this sub-prime crap and write it down to zero. It’s all way over-blown.”

Jim Cramer is the new Jerry Springer of financial reporting – a “money-honey want-to-be, but of the wrong gender.” Zucker should have his head examined for keeping Cramer around and Steward was well justified.

By: peter thom

peter thom — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 17:45:25 +0000

Like those correspondents whom Colbert skewered face-to-face along with Bush, this CNBC guy just doesn’t get it. Just as those correspondents had not fact checked the storyline Bush et al. told to get us into Iraq, the CNBC guys and gals didn’t fact check the tall tales spun by the financial companies’ spokespeople. Krugman, Nouriel, Lewis and Grant were prominent skeptics on over-leveraging. Were any of them interviewed on CNBC before the debacle? Cramer is not a journalist. He is an entertainer, a clown, really. He was never reality-based. That he came to represent CNBC is telling.

By: NBC CEO Jeff Zucker: Jon Stewart Was “Incredibly Unfair” to CNBC [MediaMemo] | heave-ho.org

Wed, 18 Mar 2009 17:29:38 +0000

[...] View post: NBC CEO Jeff Zucker: Jon Stewart Was “Incredibly Unfair” to CNBC [MediaMemo] [...]

By: Eric Welch

Eric Welch — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 16:34:29 +0000

I have to agree with the other commenters. John Stewart was dead on. As a journalist myself, it really felt good to have Stewart take on CNBC and their cozy relationship with the big wigs Cramer kept whining about as having lied to him.

Oh, no! Someone in business LIED? Say it isn’t so. When I used to cover the local Chamber of Commerce in the town where I worked for nine years, I used to joke about walking in and waiting for the first person to lie to me.

And this nonsense about newspapers is really funny. Wall Street discovered newspapers as a source of revenue they could squeeze until they failed. And that’s exactly what they have done to them. Newspapers played a large role in their own demise for sure, but Wall Street is by and large responsible for the destruction of the newspaper industry. Glad I got out when the getting was good.

Ben Bagdikian saw it coming long before it happened, and wrote about it in the mid-80s with his book “Media Monopoly.”

By: dave mcclure

dave mcclure — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 15:38:16 +0000

sorry, totally unfair my ass.

live by the sword, die by the sword.

Cramer gets props for coming on the show, but he also deserved every bit of that… and CNBC even more so.

comment of the evening by Stewart in response to Cramer suggesting they do “Fast Money” because there’s a market for it: “… well there’s a market for Cocaine & Hookers too!!!”

‘zactly.

By: Dave Barnes

Dave Barnes — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 14:39:58 +0000

“totally” unfair.
Oh my, a satirist who is not fair.
Perhaps Jeff should read some Swift to gain a broader perspective.
Or. Mad Magazine.