Dan Savage Asks A Great Question

Dan Savage makes an excellent point in The Slog (the blog of The Stranger) and one that deserves an answer from NBC. For the record, if I can stay awake, I'm planning to watch SNL too.

Palin on SNL
posted by Dan Savage on October 18 at 13:31 PM

Why didn’t NBC insist on Palin sitting down for a real, substantive interview—or, better still, calling a full press conference—as a condition of Palin appearing on SNL tonight? Candidates don’t go on Letterman, Leno, SNL, The Daily Show, et al, to take a break from the campaign trail. Comedy programs are stops on the campaign trail. Palin is running from the press, refusing to answer any questions, lying her ass off on the stump, and attacking the people who could call her on those lies—reporters, news anchors, cable news networks—at her rallies. So why the fuck should NBC allow Palin to reap the political rewards of an appearance on SNL if Palin isn’t willing (or able) to answer questions from NBC news reporters?

NBC’s negotiations should with the McCain/Palin campaign should have gone like this:

MCCAIN CAMP: “We want Palin to go on SNL, and show Americans that she’s got a sense of humor about herself.”

NBC: “Of course you do, and we’d love to have her on the show—after she grants an open-ended, no-preconditions interview to Brian Williams.”

Yes, yes: the news and entertainment divisions at NBC are separate entities—blah blah blah—it would be an unprecedented development for the news and entertainment divisions to work together on this, to stand together, and use their combined power and influence to hold Palin accountable. But Palin’s refusal to answer questions or hold press conferences is also unprecedented. Extraordinary times, extraordinary measures.

Allowing Palin to appear on SNL while she stonewalls and attacks the media is a betrayal of NBC’s news division and of NBC’s viewers by NBC’s entertainment division—but, um, I’ll watch SNL tonight, of course.