Jay Rose wrote: “CNBC brings out its Maoist side as Cramer is forced to take back everything contrite he said on Stewart.”

Every time Jim Cramer opens his mouth, he makes himself and NBC’s assorted news outlets look worse.

Cramer’s latest shot in the foot came this morning, during his first appearance on the Today show after his historic on-air spanking from Daily Show host Jon Stewart a week ago.

In a series of statements that read like they were scripted by his CNBC producers, Cramer offered a defense of the channel that he didn’t bother bringing up on the Daily Show, saying Stewart’s broadsides were “naive and misleading” without specifically addressing any of his criticisms Essentially, the CNBC host took back all the admission of mistakes and promises to do better he made on Stewart’s show seven days ago.

In particular, Cramer and host Meredith Vieira never addressed embarrassing clips unearthed by Stewart showing the CNBC host describing how he used to manipulate markets as a hedge fund manager in ways he never talks about on his TV show. Or clips Stewart unearthed before his appearance on the show displaying a history of bad calls and cozying up to corporate titans.

Full Story: TampaBay.com

(via Jay Rosen)