Not only did Saturday Night Live dip into the formerly coke filled mind of Al Franken for some political attacks, but it also crossed a line in human decency with an attack on Gov. Palin’s family. Now sure, they are public figures and in turn fair to criticisms, but what SNL did was beyond civilized. 

A week after a high-profile send-up of Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin on “Saturday Night Live,” the NBC comedy show returned to making fun of the Alaskan governor in a skit where New York Times reporters sought to probe the possibility Palin’s husband, Todd, was having sex with the couple’s own daughters.

“What about the husband?” asked a Times reporter during a mock assignment meeting for the paper. “You know he’s doing those daughters. I mean, come on. It’s Alaska.”

The assignment editor for the Times, portrayed by actor James Franco, responded: “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.”

The skit featured a photo of one reporter and an on-screen message that stated, “In 2009 [reporter] Howland Gwathmey Moss, V was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for his Times series on unproven, yet un-disproven incest in the Palin family. Sadly, he was to die 3 months later, run over by a snow machine, driven by a polar bear.”

The final shot showed an image of a New York Times page, with headlines that included:

“While No Direct Evidence of Incest in Palin Family Emerges, Counter Evidence Remains Agonizingly Elusive” and “In a Small Alaska Town, Doubts Still Linger.”

Either SNL is so bankrupt with new ideas that a sick brainstorming session got carried away and slipped past the filters, or they are suffering from the same Palin derangement syndrome the rest of the mainstream media. Classless. Tasteless. Beyond human decency. 

Oh but they think they were poking fun at the media. 

The sketch seemed to be designed to mock how out of touch journalists from the Big Apple are when it comes to their knowledge of Alaska, with left-leaning, Manhattan-dwelling reporters mistaking a snowmobile for a “baptizing machine,” a crucifix and a NordicTrack exerciser in photographs held up for them.

There are plenty of ways to make fun of reporters, but suggesting an illegal act by the husband of a Republican candidate is not one of them. This “skit” should have ended with a disclaimer from the DNC. Heck it seems like more and more of NBC’s shows and stations should go into every commercial with a disclaimer. 

 Note: The contact link for NBC is here.

This entry was posted on Monday, September 22nd, 2008 at 9:09 am and is filed under 2008, Know Thy Enemy, National, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.