The Best Parts - Way Updated Like Glenn Greenwald Would Do

The Full, unedited interview can be found at TPM. Or here at HuffPo (which says it's uncensored)

Wonkette:

Here’s a major chunk of the big Jon Stewart-Jim Cramer Daily Show interview that aired earlier tonight. “Devastating” is just not the right word. It’s hard to remember the last time a teevee interview left us in such a state of stunned silence. As is often the case, Stewart interrupts his guest way too frequently given the breadth of his questions. But you can’t just cast this aside as some popular fake news comedy show host pulling a stunt for ratings. It’s the most ruthlessly honest, sobering conversation — from both sides — you’re likely to see on any show. Good. And note the lack of shouting.

Sullivan:

This was, in my view, a real cultural moment. It was a storming of the Bastille. It was, as Fallows notes, journalism.

Stewart - that little comic with the Droopy voice for Lieberman - is actually becoming an accidental activist. Why he matters, is why South Park matters. ... what Stewart has done is rip off that little band-aid of faux solidarity for a modicum of ethical and moral accountability.

Now, I know Jim Cramer a little. The reason he crumbled last night, I think, is because deep down, he knows Stewart's right. He isn't that television clown all the way down. And deeper down, he knows it's not all a game - not now they've run off with grandpa's retirement money.

It's not enough any more, guys, to make fantastic errors and then to carry on authoritatively as if nothing just happened. You will be called on it. In some ways, the blogosphere is to MSM punditry what Stewart is to Cramer: an insistent and vulgar demand for some responsibility, some moral and ethical accountabilty for previous decisions and pronouncements.

Braver, please. And louder.

Political Wire

Jon Stewart proved himself to be far more than a comedian last night. He's a cultural phenomenon

Political Animal

YOU WILL LIKE HIM WHEN HE'S ANGRY.... In 2004, Jon Stewart appeared on CNN's "Crossfire," and explained that the show was "hurting America." He wasn't kidding. The brutal appearance exposed the show as something of a farce; CNN's executives ended up agreeing with Stewart; and three months later, CNN announced that "Crossfire" was finished.

With that history in mind, CNBC should feel awfully nervous right now.

... as Alex Koppelman noted, it was "a riveting half-hour, something almost completely unlike anything else ever seen on television."

Watching the evisceration, I couldn't help but wonder why it takes a comedian on Comedy Central to do the kind of interview the non-fake news shows ought to be doing. When the media establishment marvels at Jon Stewart's popularity, they tend to think it's his humor. It's not. It's because he calls "bullsh*t" when most major media players won't. He did so last night, and it made for important viewing.