Simon Lindberg, Cramer vs. Stewart

Since I apparently have one reader (thanks Örjan) I'll start by commenting on his comment on the reaction of Seattle Post Intelligencer not being published anymore. I am not sure what Bonnier is saying about it and I don't have anyone like Dagens Nyheter legend Super Bo Gustavsson to discuss media with here in New York. There are more newspapers than Seattle PI which have stopped printing, and a few more that might go out of business soon, but as a regular news consumer I can't say I've noticed any indignation about it. It's a big story in the media industry news but not in the mass media. There are bigger media news stories in the mass media in the US right now.    

The biggest media related news stories over here have been two separate talk show appearances. Obama going on The Tonight Show was probably in the news in Sweden but I'm not sure Jim Cramer being interviewed by Jon Stewart on The Daily Show was mentioned much back home. Cramer has a show on the financial news channel CNBC where he gives financial advice to his viewers. The Daily Show is a comedy news show on Comedy Central where Stewart and his team of senior correspondents and senior analysts (they are always senior, regardless of topic) are making fun of people who are in the news and the media that covers them. So Stewart was joking about dismal journalism at CNBC, exemplified by Cramer's show Mad Money. Cramer got angry and appeared on a couple of NBC shows to vent his anger at Stewart.

Stewart then invited Cramer to his show and read him the riot act. I guess people were expecting some sort of confrontation, but Cramer took it all lying down and kept saying, "We will try harder". So, once again, Stewart is hailed as a beacon of good journalism although he has a comedy show. A couple of years ago, he contributed to CNN canceling one of its political debate shows and he is often portrayed as one of the most powerful people in media. I should add I am a Stewart fan, if you detected certain subjectivity in my account of these events. Anyhow, Cramer vs Stewart was a bigger story than the newspapers going bust, which is a reminder that media and entertainment are more closely related here than in Sweden. For better and worse, I think.

But hey, this blog is about ME. And I've had a good week. My cousin who lives in LA visited. It seems his part of family got a social gene that my part of the family missed so last week I met a bunch of fun people that I had some fantastic dinners with. My favorite was probably the paella we had Saturday night. My cousin's son, who's at NYU, would say it was hellagood. Here's a better description of it.

It's a good thing my cousin came by and showed me the city, because I have two friends from Sweden visiting this week and I want them to think I know my way around NYC. Fortunately, I've managed to impress them a little already by finding out where all the Swedes meet to watch the crucial World Cup qualifier against Portugal on Saturday. My thanks to the Consulate General for helping me with that information.

I'm pretty unhappy about the weather right now, though. Spring is teasing me. This weekend it was really teasing me with Saturday spent basking in the sun and Sunday spent wearing too little and walking too much. Monday, I woke up with a runny nose and it was freezing outside. What's up with that? Get with it, Weather. This isn't Sweden you know.