My Zen Arcade

The thing is, you twit, Stewart’s show is supposed to be FUNNY!  While he does news and reporting much better, at times, than the MSM, you can’t go two minutes without a laugh.  You can’t forget the entire show is, at its heart, a gag.  Fart jokes and all.
As Jon put it once while being criticized in the same way (on hardball?): The lead-in to our show is a show about puppets making prank calls!
Jon never EVER suggests you risk your entire life savings on a guess.
Does he affect opinions?  Yes, almost certainly.  Just like any good comedian.  But also like any comedian, his goal is to get you to think (while laughing).  Cramer and his ilk took a responsibility and a trust placed in them and turned it into money for themselves regardless as to what might happen to the public.  So, thats hardly the same thing, is it.

Cramer v. Stewart – Megan McArdle

Ultimately, I find Stewart disturbing because in some sense he’s doing exactly what Cramer is–making powerful statements, and then when he gets called on him, retreating into the claim that well, you can’t really expect him to act as if he were being taken seriously. Jim Cramer, whose stockpicking acumen seems slightly worse than your average monkey with a dartboard, frequently issues recommendations that people act on, then brushes off the failures with a shrug.