Visionary Jon Stewart?

Posted by Michael Skye on Mar 13, 2009 in News, Visionaries, Visionary Culture

I choose not to own a television, but I was turned on to comedian Jon Stewart’s conflict with CNBC Mad Money’s Jim Cramer. Jon Stewart has been criticizing CNBC for being largely complicit with the companies involved in the economic meltdown, and took special issue with Cramer’s advising people to continue to invest in Bear Stearn, the first big, over-leveraged investment brokerage to go down last year.

They’ve both been doing a lot of trash talk about each other recently (admittedly, they both get paid to entertain). Jon’s used his comedian skills to shame Cramer and CNBC, and when news came out the Cramer was to appear on Stewart’s The Daily Show, Cramer was obviously nervous.

It was obvious that Stewart could have used his position and charisma to humiliate or attack Cramer in front of millions, which is typically how such conflicts go (such is the positionary style of a Bill O’Reilly, an Ann Coulter, a Michael Moore, a Sean Hannity, a Rush Limbaugh, etc.). Instead, Stewart called Jim Cramer to rise to a higher level of responsibility, and no doubt, Cramer felt honored, even if embarrassed.

Here’s the exchange:

My point is not who is right or wrong. My point is the manner in which Jon Stewart used his power, and the result, which is the kind of result that few of his peers tend to create. Many talking heads take a position in a way that results in their “adversary” only becoming more adversarial, more positionary, more reactive, more entrenched. A skillful demonstration by Stewart of honor, courage and compassion.

News networks tend to dramaticize (my word) conflict in a positionary way: this person one, and this person lost (Example from CNN), which doesn’t help us to move forward to create a world that really works. Instead, it leads viewers to take positions and get caught up in the positionary drama of fighting against, rather than the visionary drama of standing for. In my view, Stewart was an example for pundits around the world. And Cramer, for his part had the courage to look at himself honestly and step up. That’s not “losing” in my book. Kudos to Cramer. Let’s see how he evolves his show as a result.