Jon Stewart vs. Jim Cramer: 'Basic Cable Personality Clash Skirmish'
Perhaps the most fraught and exciting public spectacle of 2009 so far is the feud between Comedy Central's "The Daily Show" and CNBC, particularly the sniping between Jon Stewart and "Mad Money" host Jim Cramer. It's not exactly a fair fight — it's kind of like the old Looney Tunes cartoon with Bugs Bunny as the unflappable matador, taking on an increasingly outraged bull. Perhaps it's not fair to emphasize "The Daily Show's" coverage, but the clips tend to speak for themselves. "The Daily Show" fired the opening shot on March 4, with a much-posted takedown of CNBC's failures to anticipate the stock market crash: