Sep
2008
On the episode of Saturday Night Live that aired on September 20th, there was a sketch about the New York Times sending their writers to Alaska to sniff out as much as they can about Governor Palin.
Host James Franco is playing the assignments editor and pitching the assignment to his staff. As they are going over possible angles, the following exchange happens:
Reporter: What about the husband? You know he’s doing those daughters. I mean, come on. It’s Alaska.
Assignments Editor: He very well could be. Admittedly, there is no evidence of that, but on the other hand, there is no convincing evidence to the contrary. And these are just some of the lingering questions about Governor Palin.
At the end of the sketch, the reporter that asked this question is shown on the cover of the New York Times with the headline “While No Direct Evidence of Incest in Palin Family Emerges, Counter Evidence Remains Agonizingly Elusive” and “In a Small Alaska Town, Doubts Still Linger.” It seems that some people are taking great offense to this portion of the sketch, and it has made it on to Fox News.
The article goes on about how maybe this whole sketch was about how the staff of the paper is out of touch with anything west of the Hudson river, however the rest of the article goes on and on about how this is harkening back to the rumors earlier this month that Governor Palin is not the mother of her youngest son, Trig and so on.
If the sketch had only pointed out about things about politics, I would say they have a case, but the sketch really was just focused on how New Yorkers fear what they don’t understand, which was pretty much anything.
- None of the writers in the sketch knew how to drive a stick… none had drivers licenses… they all thought they would get around by taxi.
- One writer stated he would need the number of two psychoanalysts while there to continue his treatment, but he was informed in all of Alaska there was only one licensed doctor for that. He paniced.
- None of them could identify a shotgun or a snowmobile.
- Two writers dropped out when they discovered there was no Thai delivery food.
- One writer was positive he would be attacked by a polar bear, but he was assured there was none in the area where they would be. (it was later revealed he was killed by a polar bear)
In the most damning moment of the sketch proving this was more about New Yorkers, and how out of touch with reality the paper was, the sketch was dated as events happening on Septmber 8th. One writer was reluctant to go because he didn’t want to leave a story he was working on about Lehman Brothers facing potential financial problems. He was informed by the editor that it could wait, Lehman Brothers would still be there when he got back.
This sketch was clearly about the the out of touch nature of the newspaper itself, and I felt it got the point across fairly well. As for the Palin/incest joke, yes, this scenario has been floated by some bloggers, but that’s what SNL has been doing for 34 seasons and that’s touching on current events. Palin is in the news, the paternity of Trig has been in the news, this makes the subject fair game to them. If you don’t like it, well, I don’t know what to tell you except to not watch SNL.
Here is the part of the Fox News story that made me laugh out loud, though. First off they use a very accusatory tone about how the video fo the sketch is not available on the NBC website.
Now, some bloggers are urging protests of the show be sent to producer Lorne Michaels. The video was not posted on the SNL Web site.
Well, I went and looked, and only five sketches were posted from this week’s episode. Yes, the sketch in question is missing, but so was the one I actually thought was the funniest of the episode, “The Cougar’s Den” about older women obsessed with younger men. Wow… NBC must have received protests from The Cougar Coalition to not post that sketch.
The article then had the following note tacked on the end:
Editor’s Note: When this story was originally published at 12:07 pm ET, the video was available on YouTube. It has since been removed and a notice posted that NBC Universal has issued a copyright claim. Many other SNL videos remain on YouTube.
Yes, it is true that the video was removed over a copyright notice, but so are dozens of other SNL videos removed in the same manner every day. Yes, there are some others on the site, but they honestly go up so fast, I doubt anyone could keep up with taking them down. However, the way Fox News said it made me think back to the “Admittedly, there is no evidence of that, but on the other hand, there is no convincing evidence to the contrary.” line from the sketch. There is no evidence this was removed due to pressure, it was just removed over the usual copyright issues.
I think everyone needs to just take a step back, take a deep breath and relax. Remember, this is a comedy show, and SNL has a long history of picking on anyone and everything. I will admit that in the first two episodes of this season there has not yet been an Obama sketch, but I think that is partially due to them lacking a strong Obama impersonator. They attempted using Fred Armissan last season, and, well, to be honest, he sucked. I am sure his turn is coming.
There are so many bigger issues in this election, why get worked up over a joke on a sketch comedy show known for pushing boundaries? It’s beyond me.


Ina follow-up to
There has been a lot of coverage in the media, especially in the UK, that the identity of well-known graffiti artist
His works, such as the 
The New York Times ran a piece this weekend entitled “
The New York Times, as well as others, are now enjoying making analogies that blogging has turned into “the digital-era sweatshop”, or that what we do should be called “
The
With the keynote over, and bloggers filling pages with their obvious disgust with a job poorly done, Ms. Lacy finally decided to address her critics via
This will be my final post on “GizmodoGate”, (yes, I made that the name… this was needing of a “Gate” <em>edit:I didn’t mean first anywhere… I figured SOMEONE had said it, I just hadn’t seen it, much to my surprise</em>) as it is obvious that they have their heads to far up their own hindquarters to care what anyone in the world says about them.
While watching the
So, did I just complain here? No, I didn’t. I did send a note via the BBC America website to express my disappointment that their anchor would lower himself to such a low-brow comment. I don’t expect an apology, nor would I want one, but if matters such as this aren’t brought to the attention of those in charge, then it will continue to happen more and more.
“Jamie Lynn Spears is pregnant!”
The media never ceases to amaze me.
Okay, look, there are certain things I really never want to hear about ANYONE, let alone a senator.
Okay, maybe not good things, but things still end.
For those three of you who have not heard of this pillar of the “news” community… well, I have included one of their most famous covers for you to enjoy. “BAT CHILD FOUND IN CAVE” is the first time I really remember ever noticing the magazine, and, oddly, most people also point to that cover as the one they remember.
reɪdʒ



