In the same way that political blogs pushed back against bad TradMed political reporting and have been coming into their own over the last election cycle, financial blogs are beginning to do the same with regard to financial reporting in the TradMed. It makes me wonder: will CNBC learn anything from their dissection by Jon Stewart last night?

In their own eyes, CNBC’s biggest rival is the Wall Street Journal. CNBC paints themselves as the up-to-the-minute, hipper-and-cooler, high-tech alternative to the old-school, dead tree WSJ — live people, loud people, shouting-over-each-other people, with lots of cool graphics, lots of numbers swinging around the screen, lots of exclusive interviews with Titans Of Industry, and action, action, action–live from the floor!

What they don’t realize, though, is that Jon Stewart’s shot across their bow is going to light up the financial blogosphere, making their "hipper-and-cooler look" appear pretty shallow when compared with good reporting in blogs that aren’t trying to cater to the Masters of The Universe. Calculated Risk is one of my favorite financial sites, but there are plenty more out there, like Bonddad, Econbrowser, and others. Like anything else, it depends on what I’m looking for.

Back in 2007, digby wrote "When people ask me why I think the DC Establishment is like a Village, I send them this link." CNBC, it’s time to decide — are you journalists who report and comment on the markets, or are you just another set of Villagers like the folks in DC?