CNBC's Cramer tells viewer last week to stick with Bear Stearns stock

Business and Media Institute’s Jeff Poor writes Monday about how CNBC “Mad Money” host Jim Cramer told a viewer last week to keep his money in Bear Stearns’ stock when it was trading above $60. The company was sold Monday for $2 a share.

Poor wrote, “But, on March 11, Cramer told an e-mailer not to sell the beleaguered investment bank’s stock on his show’s Web site:

‘Dear Jim: Should I be worried aboutBear Stearns in terms of liquidity and get my money out of there? –Peter

“Cramer says: ‘No! No! No! Bear Stearns is not in trouble. If anything, they’re more likely to be taken over. Don’t move your money from Bear.’

“On Jan. 17, 2007, Bear was trading at its high of $171.51 a share. Since then, it has been racked by the mortgage turmoil. On March 11, when Cramer posted the e-mail and his response, the stock closed at $62.97. As of 10:00 a.m. on March 17, the stock was trading at $3.72 a share.

“Cramer frequently appears on ‘NBC Nightly News’ and ‘Today.’ On the January 22 ‘Nightly News,’ Cramer was referred to by his colleague Carl Quintanilla as ‘one of the most influential voices on Wall Street.'”

Read more here. And here’s a video of Cramer defending what he said.