While our blog is mostly focused on collaboration and online community, we do stray every now and then to keep things fresh and in perspective. Personally, I’m absolutely disgusted that NBC has apparently removed a very funny skit from NBC.com and Hulu. The skit was from this past Saturday and is a press conference with George Bush, Nancy Pelosi, Barney Frank, George Soros, and a bunch of random people who were affected by the financial crisis. It is by far one of the funniest SNL skits I have ever seen. Here is a link to a site where you can watch it. Mashable, which is a very prominent blog, has a post with more information on NBC and conjecture on why the skit was pulled.
My issue here is the decision to pull this skit is obviously politically motivated and completely one-sided (this is speculation on my part and there is no proof available). NBC has been glaringly quiet about the whole thing. I have no political ax to grind here. However, NBC should treat both sides equally. They don’t seem to have any problem leaving skits on the sites that are directed at the Republicans or Sarah Palin (which are also hysterical). The skit in question here is spot-on and is very revealing in a satirical way about how this crisis came to be and who is to blame. I think it is shameful that NBC seems to have caved and pulled this particular skit while leaving other ones. As a shareholder of GE, I am really angry. I hope you go watch the video to at least see what the hubub is about.
Update: My colleague Luke has suggested to me that the reason for the skit being pulled might also be as follows: The skit refers to a real-life couple (The Sandlers) who made a pile of money selling their loans to Wachovia, and the caption during the skit says “People who should be shot” or something like that. Since this is an incitement to violence, NBC was forced to pull the skit. I’m not sure I buy it but this is the current speculation. Again, this is not confirmed by NBC as far as I know.
Update2: The video is now on the NBC site here. I don’t know what happened but will update if I can figure it out.
Update3: Per Mcclain’s comments and what we’ve seen, it does appear that the “These people should be shot” caption is the reason the video was pulled. They have removed it from the clip that is on NBC.com and Hulu. It is interesting that NBC didn’t choose to fess up that this was the reason or offer some apology. Perhaps they did. In any case, I’m glad it is back and that political pressure was not the culprit.
October 13, 2008 at 11:50 am |
Luke, as usual is spot on. They yanked it because of the “shoot these people” tag, that’s not quite up to passing S&P at any network. I don’t get the loony-tunes conspiracy idea – does it really make sense that GE/NBC would yank something because it’s anti-liberal? And last time I checked, Hulu was 50% owned by Murdoch/Fox. So, let me get this straight, something created by the cast of SNL bashing Dems is too much for their corporate parent? Puh-leez.