Apparently Daily Show host Jon Stewart isn't quite done with his Jim Cramer-bashing -- but in this case, he has a point. Dykstra filed for bankruptcy last week and then followed that up with a CNBC interview that made Sarah Palin's Katie Couric adventure look like the Gettysburg Address.

Stewart dug up a clip of Cramer lavishing praise on the former New York Met as "one of the great ones" in the investment business.

Jon Stewart has devoted a considerable amount of airtime to bashing CNBC and its pundits for not doing more to warn the public about the stupidity and incompetence that led to disasters for retirement portfolios.

Now NBC Universal CEO Jeff Zucker is firing back, calling Stewart's attacks "incredibly unfair" and "completely out of line." He said that "everyone wants to find a scapegoat" and believes that blaming the financial media for the meltdown is "absurd."

Ask not for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for Jon Stewart.

Stewart, whose "Daily Show with Jon Stewart" returned to the air yesterday, has been supportive of the striking writers. Nonetheless, he apparently is annoyed with the Writers Guild of America. During his show, Stewart mentioned that his production company tried to reach the same deal with the guild that David Letterman's Worldwide Pants received and was turned down.

Apparently, the guild wants to present a united front against the media conglomerates, including Comedy Central's corporate parent Viacom Inc. (NYSE: VIA), Walt Disney Co.(NYSE: DIS)'s ABC, General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE)'s NBC and Time Warner Inc. (NYSE: TWX). That's why Jay Leno and Jimmy Kimmel are being forced to appear as guests on each other's programs and why the Golden Globes were canceled by NBC.

Fans of Comedy Central's left-leaning The Daily Show (this means you, Mom and Dad), rejoice! Jon Stewart will remain the show's host through at least 2010. The affable anchor has signed a two-year contract extension that keeps him in the employ of the Viacom (NYSE: VIA) network through 2010. His previous contract was set to expire at the end of next year.

In other news, fans of Stewart can review his Daily career, beginning in 1999, as Comedy Central has launched a standalone website for the program, featuring video clips dating back to January 11, 1999, when Stewart first took over the reins. Seriously, does anyone remember when rigid pretty-boy Craig Kilborn hosted the thing? It seems now as though The Daily Show and Stewart were simultaneously formed. The website also features episode synopses, games, and additional features.

Stewart will also continue to serve in a executive producing and writing role.

In addition to South Park, The Daily Show is the cable network's longest-running original series that is still on the air. It spawned a very successful spin-off -- The Colbert Report -- which itself may have spawned our next Commander in Chief. Referring to Colbert's (fake?) declaration of his candidacy earlier this week, Stewart was quoted by The Associated Press as joking: "I look forward to using this [contract] extension to having great fun at President Colbert's expense."

Beth Gaston Moon is an analyst at Schaeffer's Investment Research.

Real Time Economics reports that Viacom Inc.'s (NYSE: VIA) Daily Show host Jon Stewart asked former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan a very interesting question: "Why do we have a Fed?"

Greenspan: "You're raising a very fundamental question."
Stewart: "I am? Should I leave?"
Greenspan: "No. Stay for a while. Since you got your Emmy, you're qualified."

Greenspan's serious answer: "What a sound money system does is to stabilize all the elements in it, and reduces the uncertainty that people confront." Greenspan's answer continued to discuss some of the history.

For the second time in three years, The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, which hands out those coveted little gold Oscar statues, has selected satirist Jon Stewart to fill the nerve-wracking position of host. Stewart hosted the grand affair in 2006 and earned mixed reviews ... some said his particular brand of humor failed to connect with the target audience, while others thought it not biting enough.

I thought Stewart was far-and-away the best part of that particular year's broadcast, with the possible exception of Three 6 Mafia's live performance of the Oscar-winning "It's Hard Out Here For a Pimp." (Click here for a look at Stewart's monologue from the 2006 Oscar broadcast.) Last year, comedienne and daytime talk-show host Ellen DeGeneres assumed the thankless task.

An Associated Press report indicates that producer of the Oscar telecast, Gil Cates, described Stewart as smart, quick and funny, not to mention a great guy. (He failed to add that it will be intriguing to have an expert in political satire hosting during an election year). The liberal long-time host of The Daily Show has taken home 9 Emmys for the "fake" news show and has previously served as master of ceremonies for the Grammy awards and Saturday Night Live, not to mention Elmopalooza.

Always ready with a witticism, the diminutive Stewart noted that he was honored to be asked for a repeat performance, because the third time, after all, is the charm. The Oscars ceremony, the 80th of its kind, will be held February 24th at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood. They will be televised on Walt Disney's (NYSE: DIS) ABC Network, which has a contract with the Academy through 2014.

Beth Gaston Moon is an analyst at Schaeffer's Investment Research.

News Corp.'s (NYSE: NWS) Fox News Channel (FNC) has admitted defeat in the field of political satire. That's because, according to MediaBistro, it will shut down its short-lived attempt to satirize Viacom Inc.'s (NYSE: VIA) Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert.

The TV news satire show which airs Sunday nights, first aired February 18 with more than 1.4 million viewers. But it has fallen back to an average of 258,000 viewers in its last 10 airings -- while still leading its time slot in every airing except one. FNC will air the final show September 16.

What happened? I don't really know why FNC is canceling the show if it was so successful. And since I've only seen a few clips, I can say that I found those clips to be unfunny. I think Stewart and Colbert satirize what passes for "fair and balanced" reporting on FNC.

And I think it would be pretty hard for any media outlet to do a good job of both creating the object of satire and to make viewers laugh at a satire of the satire of that object.

Peter Cohan is President of Peter S. Cohan & Associates, a management consulting and venture capital firm. He also teaches management at Babson College and edits The Cohan Letter. He has no financial interest in News Corp. or Viacom.

This post is part of our Battle of the Brands feature. Let us know which brand you prefer, and watch out for more Battle of the Brands posts.

The battle between CNN and Fox News isn't a question of liberals and conservatives. That debate was settled long ago and the conservatives won.

News Corp. (NYSE: NWS) makes a ton of money from Fox News, which continues to dominate. Its ratings have rebounded after slipping last year. CNN parent Time Warner Inc. (NYSE: TWX) launched Headline Prime in 2005 as a Fox without Bill O'Reilly, complete with rabid right-wing talk show hosts like Glenn Beck.

One night for fun, I decided to compare O'Reilly and Beck. Boy was I lucky. I picked a night to DVR their shows when both hosts were at the the top of their games.

On his program, Beck railed against all sorts of people bent on destroying the America, including filmmaker Michael Moore, anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan, comedian Rosie O'Donnell, and pop star Elton John.

Elton John? Rocket Man? I was shocked too.

Apparently, Sir Elton is the "high priest of hypocrisy," according to Beck. The singer had a 60th birthday party at St. John the Divine, a big church in New York. Seems John, who has little use for religion, made some changes to the church building for the concert, including removing the pews. To make matters worse, John showed a background of a burning church at his show the next day at Madison Square Garden. Oh yeah, that was on a Sunday.

All of this was too much for the talk show host to take.

"If he wants to drop a few million to desecrate your church than who am I to judge, right? Wrong!" he said of the pop star.

Question for people who post large chunks of their favorite TV shows on YouTube: do you think you're going to get sued?

Now that Viacom Inc. (NYSE:VIA) is suing Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) for $1 billion that's not a far-fetched scenario. Google has tried and failed to cut deals with other big content providers. Unless Google pulls off a miracle, it's probably a matter of time before another big media company joins Viacom and another one after that

Although people hated the music industry's campaign against Napster and other file-sharing services, the message got out that you should pay for music that you download. Why is video sharing any different? Billionaire blogger Mark Cuban, a critic of YouTube, called the site "a haven for pirates." It's hard to disagree.

It took me 20, maybe 30 seconds surfing YouTube clips from "Daily Show with Jon Stewart," "The Colbert Report." "American Idol", "Lost" and" Family Guy" that would probably give lawyers from big media a fit. Reuters came to the same conclusion. YouTube can be that oblivious.

Many of the YouTube clips I found were multi-minute chunks of hit shows. They were the funny moments, the highlights that fans enjoy. Some were as long as 15 minutes. Media companies would be insane to give that away for free. How is that legal?

Legal experts are divided over whether Viacom has a case against Google, according to The New York Times. The safe harbor provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act may offer Google protection against people posting videos they don't own. As Melly Alazarki pointed out yesterday, the DMCA was enacted during the Internet's Stone Age. Copyright holders have to flag objectionable content and ask sites like YouTube to take it down.

By the time that happens, the illegal content has spread to every corner of the Web. Remember it was still wrong to post other people's conent in the first place.

Some sort of balance has to be struck that doesn't stifle creativity and respects the rights of copyright holders. But if YouTube is to survive, it will have to figure a way to stop pirated content and punish those who post it.

So party on, YouTubers. The fun may not last.