Three weeks ago, Saturday Night Live catapulted back into the national consciousness after months of strike-related re-run doldrums. The key to its temporary relevance, of course, was its blatant shilling for Hillary Clinton.
Join me below the fold, won't you?
Its first sketch back from re-runs was a parody of the Texas debate, in which the panelists fawned like schoolgirls and admitted they were in the tank for Obama. And then there was Tina Fey's oft-quoted endorsement during Weekend Update. In case there was any doubt about the show's agenda, the cold-open two weeks ago featured another debate sketch, with mostly the same material, and featured an appearance by Hillary herself...three days before mini-Super Tuesday. (In fairness to SNL, she's long had an open invitation to be on the show and had declined before. It's smart politics on her part to finally accept so close to those do-or-die primaries.)
This past Saturday's cold-open was the last straw. Not content to take jabs at the media or bolster Hillary's virtues, they just flat-out declared Obama to be a total idiot. If you didn't see it, it was 5 minutes straight of President Obama calling Hillary at 3 a.m. to beg for help on how to do his job. (You can view the clip here.)
There have been several diaries on the subject, such as this one and this one. A common refrain in the comments is that SNL doesn't matter because it's not funny or doesn't have the same viewership it used to.
Yet while a lot of people were turning up their noses at SNL, Clinton's meme formed right under them. It's now become widely accepted that the media increased its scrutiny on Obama as a result of SNL.
Here's David Brauer of MinnPost.com:
This weekend, "Saturday Night Live" had its third post-strike show, and for the third consecutive week poked Barack Obama and propped up a Hillary Clinton campaign meme.
...
The usual political japery? Perhaps — except some news organizations credit SNL for shaming the media into tougher coverage of Obama.
...
Over the next seven days [after the Feb. 23 debate sketch], the Project for Excellence in Journalism (PEJ) calculated that Obama was a dominant or significant factor in 69 percent of news stories — a campaign-season high — many of them negative. The epitome: the New York Times' Feb. 29 headline: "Are the media giving Obama a free ride?"
And just for kicks, here's a right-winger's repetition of the meme (from NewsBusters), along with some shockingly succinct analysis:
However, there's no denying that since "SNL" has returned to the airwaves, press members have indeed pointed to these skits as having turned the tide on campaign coverage. In fact, there's no doubt that in the past couple of weeks, the media have been scrutinizing the junior senator from Illinois in a manner not seen throughout 2007 and the early part of this year.
And the key point is this:
In fact, one could make the case that since it is presented as a parody, and the viewer's defenses are indeed down as a result of being in "entertain me" mode, the message is actually more powerful than if "SNL" was playing it straight.
In other words, criticism made in the guide of "humor" tends to have more staying power. Political satire distills complicated issues in a way the average person can understand talk about with friends or co-workers. Hey, it's not mean ol' Pat Buchanan complaining about Obama, it's SNL, your trusted source of hip political satire for 30+ years!
Anyone who dismisses SNL's impact so glibly is either deluding themselves or doesn't understand SNL's impact on pop culture. It doesn't matter if only 5 or 6 million people watch SNL when it's broadcast. Its messages reach far more than that by seeping into the popular and political discourse.
Sure, only 6 million people watched the Feb. 23 show. But millions more were exposed to the "media anti-Clinton bias" meme by its subsequent discussion on shows like Hardball, and most explicitly, her freaking citation of it during the Ohio debate!. And untold millions more have been affected by SNL if indeed the media altered its behavior to "prove" their fairness to SNL. (And gosh, it's not like you can't sway the media by accusing them of bias; the republicans have only managed to neuter and completely re-make the MSM this way.)
Bottom line: dismiss SNL's impact at your own peril. Even an injured animal can still strike. Or deliver Texas for you.
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