Thank You Jon Stewart

I'm sure that many of you reading this have been reveling in Jon Stewart's take-down of banks, speculators, and financial commentators this week on The Daily Show. I have too. I think my favorite part was from last night's floor-wiping spectacular with Jim Cramer.

"Listen, you knew what the banks were doing, yet were touting it for months and months, the entire network was. For now to pretend that this was some sort of crazy, once-in-a-lifetime tsunami that nobody could have seen coming is disingenuous at best and criminal at worst."

Exactly. You go, Jon!

Of course, he's taking a lot of flak about this from various sides - even the New York Times was a bit of a scold in their article today. So we at ACORN are taking a minute to thank Jon Stewart and The Daily Show for actually staying on this story and taking some of the biggest culprits to task.

And we'd like you to join with us and send him a thank you message as well. In a few days, we're going to deliver a big "Thank You" directly to The Daily Show's HQ in New York with all the messages.

Can you take a minute to send Jon Stewart a message right now?

Here's his initial salvo against Rick Santelli, who recently called foreclosure victims "losers" on his show.

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

CNBC Gives Financial Advice

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Important Things w/ Demetri Martin

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Not to toot our own horns or anything, but we did see this coming way back in summer of 2006. As the problem raced towards a crescendo and the predatory practices of the subprime industry grew to engulf most of the financial sector, ACORN issued a report called The Impending Rate Shock (PDF) that said these practices "pose a huge threat to the security of individual homeowners and entire neighborhoods." Of course, we made a mistake of scale: they posed a threat not just to neighborhoods, but to the entirety of the world's economy.

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Jim Cramer Battle

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Jon's angry. We're angry. We're angry at the financial institutions who got us into this mess and we're angry at the regulators and media who looked the other way. Jon's looking out for us, so let's have his back while he's under attack from those who would rather blame the crisis on hard working Americans. Let's make sure he hears our thanks.

Here's last night's episode with Jim Cramer for those who missed it.

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Jim Cramer Pt. 2

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Comments

[Athena123]

Yes, I agree. Thank you thank you thank you Jon Stewart. It is absurd but true that the only watchdogs of our democracy appear to be journalists who are also comedians. I say "journalist" because no matter what Stewart says, that is indeed what he is. He is the ONLY one making anyone accountable for what they say and do. Why isn't CNN on this bandwagon???? Because they are too afraid of losing sponsors or access. I have always been a huge CNN fan - still am to some extent - but they are losing credibility with me. We always seem to be able to count on Stewart, and to some extent Colbert, to tell us the truth.

[schicklett3]

The CNBC Family isn't allowed to comment on the story. Period.
Makes me LOL!
Jon Stewart fans always have his back, but, we really don't have to do anything. Jon backs up everything he says with news clips and words right from the horses mouths.
There is never any room for doubt where Jon Stewart is concerned.

[GHARDY]

Why do I hear crickets, nothing from, Olbermann, Maddow, Matthews, or Morning Joke and Meek-ah.
Nothing on the side show, nothing on countdown what's up NBC, MSNBC, CNBC not reporting when you are the NEWS. CNN is having a field day with this, hope Stewart get's a chance to shine the light on them too.

[maribelle1963]

Just watched the Santelli/CNBC take down for the second time, and it's even more devastating on second viewing. Far more important than the Cramer thing, cause frankly, Cramer is a soft target compared to Santelli and the whole network.

I now get why Santelli canceled and Cramer came on instead--he was offered up as a sacrificial lamb. It's easy to make fun of a guy with goofy sound effects and clownish gimicks. They did not expect him to be brutalized so badly. Even Keith and Rachel were forbidden from talking about it.

Fascinating stuff. Go, Jon, go.

[ColouredEuropeanObserver]

"Even Keith and Rachel were forbidden from talking about it."
I mean, WUT? waddaya mean forbidden. what kinda of paranoid conspiracy theory is this???

Jon Stewart is brilliant, because he sees through the bullshit so well. Cramer was trying to resell us his bullshit, AGAIN but Stewart saw through it and kept asking the hard questions. sometimes , yes even Stewart let his victims get away, maybe because he doesn't see an upside in pounding his guests, even, or especially from the rightwing side, but in that also he's brilliant, he apperantly he knows when to stop. In those case, I'd really like to see him make the statement: "Okay, I will note that you keep avoiding to answer the question. Moving on ...."

If only ...

[plaidsportcoat]

We love you out here, Bertha! Hope ACORN grows into that mighty oak during the Obama administration. Paying jobs as community organizers = American dream come true.

[devanate]

Jon Stewart rocks! Thanks for demonstrating the power of humor! You have done more good for this country than the sum total of the rest of the media combined. We've got your back Jon!

[Agent420]

Jon is just barely ahead of Robert as my favorite person on TV.

[mmgbizgirl]

It is a shame the he and other comedians have to be the ones digging for the real truth for us.

It's the reason so many news groups are going belly up because people are digging for the truth and the handful of people running newspapers, network and cable news still want to B.S. us and pick and choose what we see and read. They have so underestimated the American People.

Those days are over! Come straight or hang it up because we WILL find the truth in this age of information.

[readytsf]

As is Stewart's motives weren't already suspect, thanks for coming out and removing all doubt as to what he's all about. With friends like you..........

[Agent420]

Kool-Aid, Kool-Aid, tastes great, can't wait.

[cinesimon]

That's right: Jon and Acorn, among many others, work for the people in the community.
And big business and the right wing don't like that, obviously.
I don't believe the Republicans are totally against their community - but there certainly is a big portion when they lie and spew racial hatred at those who're doing nothing more than what real journalists, and real politicians should be doing - informing, education, and helping the community.

It's like food banks being attacked for being commies - for right wing ideology to succeed, they need any form of community support to be outright demonized via lies and distortions - and the outcome can mean allowing poor people to starve.
For the sake of their inflexible ideology, and the rich getting richer.

[helpontheway]

wow

[viewfromuphere]

"coming out and removing all doubt"

well I never had any doubt Jon Stewart was fed up with the media's inablility to ask sensible and tough questions to those have the power to affect large numbers of lives....I knew that after the dust up on Crossfire..another bunch of making a lot of noise but adding no real information to the conversation.

I only wish Stewart had had the president of CNBC in that chair instead of the guy they decided was going to fall on his sword for the network...JIm Cramer....I mean really ....the guy running CNBC ought to have been facing the music. He's the one who unltimately decides how the business was going to be presented, isn't he??

[smileatfear]

Please expound for us on what you think Stewart's motives are. He has called to task a lot of people and networks that led us to believe they had "the answers." They urged the American public to buy stocks in companies they knew were overpriced, urged them to put their 401(k) money into a stock market that was unregulated and ripe for massive fraud and failure. Then as the economy is imploding, home prices are dropping like boulders, and people are losing their jobs by the hundreds of thousands, Rick Santelli gets on the air and calls people who can't pay their mortgages "losers" and "deadbeats." Many of us would have rather it been Santelli that got the Stewart treatment, but he was too much of a coward to go on the Daily Show. He can kick people all over the place when they're down but can't take a little punch back. A true bully. Jon Stewart did us all a favor and that was his motivation.

[Jezreel]

Thank you too, Ms. Lewis for the good work that you do.

[mr lol]

I'd like to thank John Steward for doing what the press should have done, informing the American public of the truth. I would also like to thank Bertha Lewis and ACORN for all the good work they do in communities around the country with their voter registration drives. Good job!.

[Robert Cantor]

Jon Stewart did what the press should have done. BIG QUESTION - why didn't the American press do it?

[UcheJadore]

Thank You Jon!

[Truby]

Stewart is in the unique position where he can say or do anything because it is comedy, it shields him from the wrath of the admen and he uses this to his fullest advantage. Real news (if we ever received it) came to us from people willing to accept that they were just reporters, not gods, millionaires nor franchises and as such they were in their glory finding out what is going on behind the scenes and reporting it, alas they are no more.

[mrpotatoe]

Truby,
You do understand that 'satire' is not 'comedy,' right?
You have launched a wonderful attack ad hominem (attacking tthe person issuing the statement, NOT the statement, is what you just did) -- i.e., Stewart is "only a comedian" and therefore his words somehow have less validity.

Did you know that Jonathan Swift wrote 'Gulliver's Travels' as a satirical social commentary, and not a 'children's' book.?

And what the difference is?

Probably not.

[spartanmom]

I think Truby was likening Stewart to the Medieval court jester.

This is a less well known but better example of Swift's satire

http://art-bin.com/art/omodest.html

For an example of his wit see The Bickerstaff Partridge Papers

http://www.gutenberg.org/catalog/world/readfile?fk_files=851031

[DeloresT]

I remember when Stewart took on Tucker Carlson . Carlson was waiting to joke around and have fun, but Jon would have none of it. It's shameful that the other or so called "real" journalists haven't questioned the folk at CNBC. They would rather blame Obama who has been in office 50 plus days. It's asinine and we shouldn't let them get away with it. Thank God for Jon Stewart.

[Robert Cantor]

Tucker Carlson remembers it do; look around for his comments re JS.

[ConcernedAboutRFuture]

He called him a "hack" if I remember correctly. "Look at you, you're 30 years old and you're wearing a bow tie".... it was priceless.

[schatsie]

Jon was absolutely astounding... I do want to see more repeats...It wasn't just Cramer, it was 99.9% of the financial reporters.­..McClatch­y and The Economist had it right and probaby the Financial Times, but the rest were lemmings following the crumb trail of Wall Street...pathetic wimps all of them...The same people who played the drums for 6 months before the Iraq invasion.... Wonder how many of that 99.9% lost any money...It would be very interesting if they ALL CASHED OUT AT THE TOP....

[Robert Cantor]

In late 2007 I was talking about a coming recession because the housing bubble was deflating; if I saw it did none of the financial experts see it? Am I that good or they that bad? or are they just lying?

[Russycle]

Exactly. I have a good friend who works for Countrywide. I visited her in the fall of 2006 and when she told me about the deals she was making I was appalled. She was writing mortgages where the monthly payment didn't even cover the interest on the loan! It was obvious to me that the whole market was a house of cards and there was a hell of a crash coming. Why couldn't any of these geniuses see it?