In spite of my no news Lenten discipline, I watched the Jon Stewart/Jim Cramer interview and was appalled. First, I was appalled that the single best interrogative interview in years, whether t.v., radio or newspaper, was on a Comedy Channel fake news program that is up front about “selling snake oil.” Second, I was appalled at the facile duplicity of Jim Cramer who clearly understood how to screw the investing public for his own benefit and did so, while, at the same time, doled out misleading, useless financial advice to millions of viewers, and continues to do so. Third, I was appalled that this appears to be symptomatic of the ethos of an enormous sector of the media and corporate financial sectors of society, aided and abetted by twenty years of political leadership from the right, both secular and religious.
Today’s Morning Prayer including this reading from the 5th chapter of Jeremiah:
For scoundrels are found among my people; they take over the goods of others. Like fowlers they set a trap; they catch human beings. Like a cage full of birds, their houses are full of treachery; therefore they have become great and rich, they have grown fat and sleek. They know no limits in deeds of wickedness; they do not judge with justice the cause of the orphan, to make it prosper, and they do not defend the rights of the needy. Shall I not punish them for these things? says the LORD, and shall I not bring retribution on a nation such as this? An appalling and horrible thing has happened in the land: the prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule as the prophets direct; my people love to have it so, but what will you do when the end comes?