"Well, I don't know. The Saturday Night Live sketch seems to be just straight forward reporting."Exactly, and that's what's got the lefty and their media lapdogs in such a lather.
“Armisen’s skit passed the first test of comedy: It was funny. But was it true? Was it fact-based? And did it make a point worth making? There’s a thin line between truth and a cheap shot, especially in politics.”This, of course, refers to the SNL Obama skit already fact-checked by CNN and Yahoo. I thought comedy's only test was whether it was funny. I don't remember any such scholarly examinations of the Tina Fey/Sarah Palin skits, or anything done poking fun at George W. Bush...or Republicans dating back to Gerald Ford who was lampooned by Chevy Chase in the 70's.
Red Eye Resurgence: More Demo Viewers Watch Fox At 3am Than CNN at 8pmAnd then there's this:
At a time of tension between their organizations, White House senior adviser David Axelrod met with Fox News chairman and chief executive officer Roger Ailes two weeks ago, sources tell POLITICO.The White House is trying to figure out a way to get Fox News off their backs. Ailes isn't going to back down just because some White House flack comes begging.
The two met privately in Manhattan during the president’s visit to the United Nations.
The two discussed news coverage and the relationship between the organizations.
An FNC spokesperson tells POLITICO that Ailes and Axelrod had a “cordial conversation” over coffee while the president was in town.
This weekend "Saturday Night Live" opened with Fred Armisen as President Obama, delivering an address from the Oval Office. Noting up front that he'd failed to secure the 2016 Olympic Games for Chicago, Armisen's Obama said it was just further proof that his detractors' fears are unfounded: How could he transform the country into something resembling the former Soviet Union or Nazi Germany when he's failed to accomplish anything at all? "When you look at my record," he said, "it's very clear what I've done so far, and that is nothing."Is this going to be the new mainstream media standard? When SNL or any other comic dares to do a tough but funny piece on Obama the media elites will line up to defend him?
But are SNL's accusations of Obama being a do-nothing president accurate? Let's run down the list of the nine promises SNL lampooned President Obama for doing "nothing" on to see where he actually stands.
Why watch Saturday Night Live in L.A. when the twitters from back East say it's weak? Does that mean TV shows now have a New York problem like movies have a Friday problem? Movies: If twitterers don't like on Friday, it will die on Saturday. TV: If the East doesn't like it, it will die in West? Just asking! Not my industry. ...A couple of people I follow on Twitter are in New York, and I noticed some negative tweets regarding SNL coming out last night. It certainly didn't make me want to stay up and watch.
Sarah Palin's visit to "Saturday Night Live" drew the show's highest overnight rating in 14 years.
Last night's telecast, hosted by Josh Brolin and featuring musical guest Adele, averaged a 10.7 rating and 24 share in 56 metered markets, according to Nielsen Media Research. That's the highest overnight 'SNL' average since a 1994 episode that was hosted by Nancy Kerrigan and featured musical guest Aretha Franklin.
Saturday's program also included appearances by Alec Baldwin, Mark Wahlberg, Oliver Stone and -- once again reprising her role as Palin -- Tina Fey. But it was the much-anticipated visit by the real Alaska governor that gave the show its biggest overnight rating in more than a decade. The numbers also make "SNL" the third-highest-rated show of last week, after ABC's "Dancing With the Stars" and CBS' "CSI."
John McCain's peace summit visit to CBS' "Late Show" gave David Letterman his highest viewership in nearly three years.
The Thursday night telecast was seen by 6.5 million viewers, and received a 1.7 rating in the adult demo. That's the largest audience for the show since December, 2005, when Oprah Winfrey appeared. "Late Show" also topped Jay Leno's "Tonight Show" (4.6 million viewers) by 43%, and Leno had Joe Biden as a guest.
NEW YORK (CNN) — Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin made her debut on NBC's late-night comedy show "Saturday Night Live" — appearing in the opening skit and during a segment that parodies current events.
In both skits, she delivered her lines with a straight face but mostly played the comic foil to the show's cast of mischief-makers.
The opening bit featured former SNL cast member Tina Fey reprising her role as the Alaska governor at a mock press conference.
Fey has impersonated the governor in three prior SNL skits.
The piece then cut to a shot of Palin watching Fey's performance on a television monitor with the show's executive producer Lorne Michaels.
"I just didn't think it was a realistic depiction of the way my press conferences would have gone," she said.
"Why couldn't we have done the '30 Rock' sketch that I wrote?" she asked, referring to the NBC comedy which stars Fey.
"Honestly, not enough people know that show," Michaels responds.
Later, Alec Baldwin — Fey's '30 Rock' co-star and an outspoken liberal — turned up, mistook Palin for Fey, and tried to convince Michaels not to let Fey appear on the show with the governor. He snapped his fingers, trying to remember the nickname some had given Palin.
"Caribou Barbie," Palin reminded him.
Baldwin, still oblivious that he was talking to the governor, continued: "You want her, our Tina, to go out there and stand there with that horrible woman," he asked. "What do you have to say for yourself?"
Michaels points out he was standing next to the real thing himself.
"Forgive me, I must say this," Baldwin backtracked. "You are way hotter in person. I mean seriously. I mean, I can't believe they let her play you."
Palin laughed and responded that Baldwin's brother, Stephen, was her favorite. Stephen Baldwin, also an actor, is a Christian conservative with his own ministry.
Palin then took the podium and told the reporters she was not going to take any of their questions.
She then uttered the signature line that opens the show every weekend: "Live from New York, it's Saturday Night."
Later in the show, Palin appeared on the 'Weekend Update' segment that skewers items in the news.
"I've been thinking it over and I'm not going to do the piece we rehearsed," she told Weekend Update co-anchor Seth Meyers. "My gut is telling me it might be a bad idea for the campaign."
Segment host Amy Poehler said she would do the part — and launched into a hilarious rap about being Sarah Palin. Among her backup dancers was a cast member who impersonated Palin's husband, Todd.
Palin grooved along to the music, even raising her hands when Poehler sang "All the mavericks in the house, put your hands up/ All the plumbers in the house, put your pants up."
The plumber reference was meant to invoke the now-famous Joe "the Plumber" Wurzelbacher, who Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain has held up as a small business owner who will see his taxes rise if his Democratic rival, Sen. Barack Obama, wins the election.
The video was later reposted and a spokesman explained "upon review we caught certain elements in the sketch that didn't meet our standards. We took it down and made some minor changes."SNL finally got a sketch right and the Dems and their liberal activist money machines complained. Poof, down the memory hole.
In an interview with Gold, the show's executive producer, Lorne Michaels, said the Sandlers were distraught but had not demanded the changes. He noted the "People who should be shot" line was deleted as was a reference to their "corrupt activities."
But a comparison of the two versions shows that actually a little more than that was cut. What also was excised was any mention of the involvement of Massachusetts' Rep. Frank in the Sandler subprime mess.
Frank is the influential chairman of the House Financial Services Committee and an ardent political protector of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which participated in the subprime problem.
In the original skit Sandler addresses Frank, saying, "And thank you Congressman Frank as well as many Republicans for helping block Congressional oversight of our corrupt activities."
To which Frank replies enthusiastically, "Not at all!"
All that's gone in the new version, which Show Tracker has posted here.
That's too bad for Frank's Republican opponent in the House election next month for the Bay State's Fourth District, which includes Brookline and Newton. Frank's opponent is little-known Republican Earl Henry Sholley, who could use any embarrassing ammunition like the SNL sketch.
Nevermind any grand policy proposals. Sholley's still trying to get Frank to agree to simple public debates. Frank dismisses his GOP challenger, saying he simply can't make the dates Sholley has suggested. And that's that.
A “Saturday Night Live” skit that skewered President Bush, Democrats, homebuyers and subprime lenders for their roles in the mortgage meltdown was removed from the program’s website because it “didn’t meet out standards,” a spokesman for the show said Tuesday. An edited version of the skit will be re-posted online soon, the spokesman said.
The skit, a parody of a C-SPAN news conference, ridiculed subprime borrowers, housing speculators and Herbert and Marion Sandler, the real-life couple who built Golden West Financial into a subprime lending powerhouse and sold it to Wachovia before the subprime collapse. At one point in the skit, the Herb Sandler character says he made $24 billion off the subprime boom. Graphics then appear labeling the Sandlers as “People who should be shot.”
“Upon review, we caught certain elements in the sketch that didn’t meet our standards,” a spokesman for the program said in an E-mail message Tuesday. “We took it down and made some minor changes and it will be back online soon.”
For while Bush exits the White House a pariah, Stone hopes that W. – a $30 million project funded partly with Chinese money because no big Hollywood studio would touch it – will salvage a career that has been taking on water for more than a decade. Indeed, Stone’s previous movie about an American president, Nixon, cost $44 million to make and recouped barely a third of that at the American box office. This time, Stone is betting that the saleability of Bush’s failures will serve to guarantee his own success.
Before the debate last night I updated by Twitter and Facebook status: "Rope-a-dope tonight. And Sarah is not the dope." My liberal friends went into full fury mode asking what I meant (they thought I was belittling Joe). I wasn't. I was belittling them.I must admit that after reading the reviews of Couric's multiple interviews and the daily drip of "gotcha" questions that were being released, even I was beginning to doubt whether St. Paul Sarah or Katie Couric Sarah would show up. I was glad to see the Sarah Barracuda from St. Paul on that stage last night.
Many of my friends on the left expected her to fall on her face. They zapped their popcorn (wait, they probably don't use microwaves... do they?) and scripted in their minds how they might work Tina Fey if they were a writer for SNL. They slapped together quick drinking games to down a shot for every gaffe uttered by Governor Mooseburger. By the end of the night they were stone cold sober and Tina Fey was looking for a new job. In short, their expectations were shattered.
One of the biggest concerns in the McCain campaign after the St. Paul was "expectations". How do you top that awesome speech from Alaska's shining star? You can't. The only way to beat expectations is to lower them again. But how?
Have the liberals do it for us. Did Katie Couric win the election for John McCain?
If you had to put a physical height on the hurdle that Palin had to clear last night... how high was it? I reasonably estimated the height at 2 inches. She basically had to show up and not get sick on camera. Mission accomplished.
In fact, she exceeded expectations, which for conservatives, was all important. Conservatives have invested a lot in Governor Palin. She made it cool to be conservative again. She made it acceptable to vote for Senator McCain. She rallied the base and brought out the crowds in force.
Returning to Cardozo: "customer satisfaction with a product is influenced by the effort expended to acquire the product." Conservatives have been spending herculean efforts to get her and McCain elected. But after Gibson and Couric we had some serious questions in our minds. Did we buy lemon?
Palin proved us wrong, buoyed the faith of everyone on the right, and simultaneously smacked down her liberal detractors last night. Thanks Katie Couric.
Biden talked to Gwen. Palin talked to me. Slam dunk Palin
One of the people in Frank Luntz' focus group said basically the same thing. That's important. Americans don't want to be talked over, they want to be talked to. Another of Luntz' folks said that he felt like this was another 9/11 moment in which Palin was calling Americans together to solve our problems.
Here's what columnist and blogger Don Surber had to say:Republican Sarah Palin flicks off Democrat Joe Biden’s talking points.
The moose hunter bags another one.
Biden has veered off the facts into Daily Kos land. Biden saying Republican John McCain was wrong on the war.
Two words: The Surge.
Palin has sliced this guy bad. She shows he knows nothing about energy, the economy and the war. Every answer he has is Bush, Bush, Bush.
He’s scripted. She’s not.
Biden’s lying. She’s not.
I don’t know if she can still save McCain, but she got game.
Line of the night: Doggone it, Joe.
UPDATE: The shot of the night, after the debate, she took a sleeping Trig and perched him on her shoulder. Not fair but them’s the breaks.
Former Gov. Mitt Romney said Monday that the McCain campaign's reluctance to make vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin available to the press has been a strategic error.
During an interview on MSNBC's "Morning Joe," the Belmont Republican was asked whether the Alaska governor's recent interviews were bringing down the GOP ticket. Conservative syndicated columnist Kathleen Parker wrote last week that Palin should step down as McCain's running mate.
Romney did not say whether Palin was hurting the GOP's chances. He did, however, criticize the McCain campaign's media strategy.
"Holding Sarah Palin to just three interviews and microscopically focusing on each interview I think has been a mistake," Romney said. "I think they'd be a lot wiser to let Sarah Palin be Sarah Palin. Let her talk to the media, let her talk to people."
Palin's limited availability to the press has been repeatedly criticized by Democrats.
Romney, who was on McCain's running mate short list, said that, ultimately, Palin's "maverick" credentials will boost the GOP ticket in November.
"Look she wasn't selected by John McCain because she's an expert on foreign policy; John McCain's the expert on foreign policy," Romney said. "She was selected because she's a maverick. She's a person who identified with people in homes across America...She's an executive and a governor, and that brings a lot to John McCain's ticket."
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