Will CNBC vs. Fox Business Network Follow Cramer vs. Stewart?

As the Jim Cramer/Jon Stewart feud grabbed headlines a few weeks ago, I kept wondering what Rupert Murdoch was going to do to leverage Stewart’s blows at Cramer’s and CNBC’s credibility. No one ever talks about his Fox Business Network, and, yet, suddenly, here was an opportunity. Just as MSNBC has positioned itself as the anti-Fox News, FBN (do you ever even see that abbreviation?) could position itself as the anti-CNBC. On his Broadcasting & Cable blog, Ben Grossman quotes a source at FBN claiming it won’t let the opportunity go by. ““We are smart enough not to let this kind of an opportunity pass—it’s not in our DNA,” this source said.

But Grossman, like me, wonders when this will happen. As many headlines as Cramer’s Comedy Central undressing received, we are a nation of incredibly short attention spans, and there may be only weeks, not months, to launch a counter-strategy. In fact, CNN, though not strictly a business news network, already has; I saw a promo about its business coverage the other night that was absolutely aimed at CNBC’s newfound image of being just as irresponsible as some of the disastrous financial institutions it covers. It didn’t name names, but I’d be shocked if the promo I saw was created before the Cramer/Stewart battle made business news networks into headline news.

Meanwhile over at CNBC, from what I can tell, there’s been no great change to “Mad Money”, and, as The New York Times reported on Monday, CNBC is still airing the “In Cramer We Trust” campaign which Stewart villified two weeks ago. Actually, that shouldn’t be surprising to anyone; would CNBC capitulate to the demands of the host of a comedy show on another network? Of course not. When the “In Cramer We Trust” campaign changes, and it will, CNBC will try to slip it under the radar screen, while our attention is directed elsewhere.