Your Honor, we the blogosphere, find the defendant guilty!

So the judgments are in and the majority opinion is Jon Stewart of the Daily Show won the exchange with Jim Cramer of CNBC’s Mad Money.  It was at times an awkward encounter but thoroughly entertaining. However, I am still a little disappointed in the aftermath.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m a big fan of the Daily Show, I watch it well… almost daily.  To hoist the brunt of our frustrations onto Cramer and CNBC seems almost unfair.

But what’s not so clear is why a comedian doing what is essentially an entertainment show had to bring to light what is at best negligence and at worst complicity on behalf of the business media with regard to their bullish stance in the run-up to this financial debacle.  On some of the Sunday morning news shows comparisons were being drawn to the political media’s behavior in the days prior to the Iraq War.

The public cannot make informed decisions on the proper way to move forward during these trying times if we cannot count upon an engaged and honest media apparatus.

Commercial media is much too heavily weighted toward entertainment news.  Obviously, this is because many “news” companies are essentially extensions of entertainment companies.   Consequently, they do an awesome job of preparing the public to be consumers of entertainment products and news (or is it really news?)  Where they fall short is helping us understand and cope with the realities of wider world.  If “news” companies did a better job educating consumers on real issues and how they impact our everyday lives, they would expand the audience of their “news” products. 

We have all grown up in an era of hyper commercialism and media scandal.  I think we are pretty good at understanding the complexities of Hollywood life.  That is why show’s like SNL, the Daily Show and the Colbert Report which do such a great job of lampooning a lot of the idiocy which the “traditional” media seems to ignore, continue to thrive.  I don’t know whether to laugh or cry.

I couldn’t help but be tickled when I read the description of the Chinese Navy’s weapon of choice during the latest incident in the South China Sea. 

However, more to the point, are U.S.-Chinese relations improving in the 21st century?  There is no question, our economies are heavily entangled.  Are our ideals as heavily opposed?