"CNBC could be an incredibly powerful tool of illumination," Stewart said, but instead there is "a game that you know is going on but you go on television as a financial network and pretend isn't happening."

"I understand you want to make finance entertaining," the comedian said. "But it's not a . . . game. And when I watch that, I can't tell you how angry that makes me."

"To pretend that this was some sort of crazy once-in-a-lifetime tsunami that nobody could have seen coming is disingenuous at best and criminal at worst," he said.

Network insiders admitted privately that Cramer's appearance on "The Daily Show" was a misfire but said they had been taken aback by the vehemence of Stewart's attacks.