Friedman: Cramer is better in print

Marketwatch media columnist Jon Friedman, whose column last year about “Mad Money” host Jim Cramer sparked a bevy of reader e-mails, returns again to Cramer on Friday and notes that his writing in New York magazine is much more palatable.

Friedman wrote, “I much prefer Cramer’s Dr. Jekyll incarnation, as the restrained, informative author of New York magazine’s column, ‘The Bottom Line.’ When you read one of his pieces on investing, the word that jumps out is ‘authentic.’ He sure knows his stuff. The difference between him and a lot of the so-called media ‘experts’ (many of whom regularly chat on CNBC, by the way) is that he offers a rare, practical perspective.

“Any schnooks can go on TV and crow about their occasional stock market victories. What’s actually more instructive for the viewers is hearing the war stories of an investor who has rebounded after losing money. It’s similar to a boxer who gets knocked down but comes back and heroically wins a bout. Cramer can take a punch.”

Later, Friedman added, “Among magazine business journalists, perhaps only Allan Sloan of Newsweek can rival Cramer. On that score, I wonder why Time, which has been fortifying its columnist ranks, hasn’t poached Cramer already. (Or perhaps it’s simply that Cramer’s allegiance is an example of the loyalty that New York writers reserve for its editor, Adam Moss).”

Read more here.