cramer's done this before.
sometimes, he's blamed the ceo for 'lying' to him.
his book "you got screwed" gives "obvious" signs investors should have known to sell the stocks. funny part? cramer's real money posts at the time ignored these. in other words, he'd have been selling WCOM around 8 or 10, i think - while ignoring the "obvious" signs.
his classic "buy these 10 stocks now and for the rest of the year" internet top call of '00? he's said alternately that he didn't really mean buy them til the end of the year, his "take a little off the table" call a month later trumped that and meant to sell all those stocks, and the best one - something pretty close to: he didn't want to give that presentation at all, he 'had' to, and so he had to talk about those stocks.
cramer will periodically state flat-out "i was wrong on this" and take full blame for it. it stands out only among a room of people who NEVER take blame for anything. but he also weasels his way out of his bad calls time and time again, and this time is no different.
the only difference is, since bear stearns is such a nationally known piece, he's going to get a LOT of flak because of his call. and it's well deserved.
final note: since he's talking 'technically', he's got his january 24, 2008 article where he says bear can be taken over. NOT taken under. and that he'd buy it, and buy calls on it (even while he was saying "don't buy financials!!".