And what’s more democratic than preventing your opposition from speaking?
As if to prove my recent post about the totalitarian thrust of the recent Democratic candidates’ “debate,” aka socialist infomercial and the disturbing number of Democratic supporters who are falling into lockstep, here come Move-On.Org and a Hispanic advocacy group to demand that NBC rescind an invitation to Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump to host the November episode of “Saturday Night Live.”
Of course they are. These are the same people who shouted down Republican or conservative speakers in college, or got their spineless school administrator to ding any commencement speaker who would challenge the cant they absorbed from their leftist professors. Hillary Clinton was gleefully accepted by her corrupted Democratic supporters as a SNL guest this month, but having both parties’ frontrunners get TV exposure on the same prestige venue is what so many progressives hate and fear—an even playing field. Here’s part of the petition on Move-On:
By inviting Donald Trump to host Saturday Night Live, NBC is demonstrating that it doesn’t care about its Latino and pro-immigrant viewers. It is providing a platform for Trump’s insulting attacks on immigrants and calling it entertainment — something we do not find funny. It is shameful for NBC to allow Donald Trump to host Saturday Night Live, a comedy show, when one of the main policies he has promised would rip apart millions of immigrant and Latino families. NBC cannot bill hateful rhetoric as comedy, much less entertainment. Tell NBC to drop Donald Trump as host of Saturday Night Live!
No, you anti-democracy hypocrites, by inviting Donald Trump to host Saturday Night Live, NBC is demonstrating that it cares about ratings, which will be terrific even if every Hispanic and pro-open borders ignoramus boycotts the show, which, of course, they won’t—how could they complain afterwards? I could argue just as logically that having Hillary on the show shows contempt for every American who resents being lied to—constantly. This is a stunt that SNL has periodically engaged in to pump up ratings; with the arguable exception of Rudy Giuliani, none of the pols who have appeared on the show have been more than bearable. Moreover, banning repulsive celebrities would limit the show to the members of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, Donny and Marie. and maybe George Clooney. Alec Baldwin has hosted 16 times! Lindsay Lohan? Paris Hilton?
I couldn’t care less what the principle-free juveniles at Move-On find funny. As a stage director, I can say with some authority that Trump is 10 times the performer that Hillary is, though I think he’s making a mistake offering himself up to be jeered by a partisan mob. We all know, however, that the demands for Trump to be pulled aren’t about the show, but the Left’s preference for intimidating, bullying and silencing opposing voices, often because all they have to offer in rebuttal is emotion and their own ugly rhetoric.
I didn’t watch Clinton, and I won’t watch Trump, since both of them make me depressed and ill. Nobody, however, that I can ever respect would try to pressure SNL to keep either off the air for political reasons. That’s un-American, nothing less. Kudos to the show for giving Trump exposure after inviting Hillary, but this is his city, he was well-received once before, even accepting that there is that ratings calculation.
Too much of the Left only believes in free speech and expression that it approves of. It’s irresponsible to empower nascent totalitarians like this.
[ Notice of correction: The original version of the post incorrectly stated that Hillary had hosted the show. She had not; she appeared in one sketch. Ethics Alarms regrets the error. Thanks to Jan Chapman for catching it.]
Ethics Alarms 
Could these people not find better reasons to oppose Trump, like you have?
It is almost as if their real problem is not with Trump, but with America itself.
By inviting Hillary Clinton to host Saturday Night Live, NBC has demonstrated that it doesn’t care about it’s American veterans or it’s American citizen viewers. It is providing a platform for Clinton’s ignoring attacks on our embassy and ambassador and calling it entertainment — something we do not find funny. It is shameful for NBC to allow Hillary Clinton to host Saturday Night Live, a comedy show, when one of the main actions she is responsible for ripped apart the very fabric of our diplomatic efforts to keep Americans safe from terrorism. NBC cannot bill deceit, lawlessness and callus disregard for state secrets , as acceptable much less entertainment. Tell NBC they should have dropped Hillary Clinton as host of Saturday Night Live!
If NBC caves in to these neo-fascists, I will be truly depressed but not surprised. Trump can be very funny sometimes when he isn’t being a jerk. Hillary on the other hand is hopeless.
Money talks, and I doubt these petitioners have the money.
Hillary did not host SNL, but appeared in one sketch and introduced a musical number. Miley Cyrus hosted the show. Although her treatment was overall positive, they did take some digs, such as on the LGBT issue. Don’t know if there would be such an uproar if Trump played a less significant role. No one seemed to object when Sarah Palin appeared on the show, but then she had not alienated the groups that Trump has. Personally I think it would be interesting to see him on the show, as they would probably be lampooning him the whole time without him even being aware of it. You’re right–it’s all about ratings and this broohaha will only drive them up.
The only clip I saw was with Hillary, but I should have known…it would be crazy to expose her to a hosting gig. The one slit protects her.
Thanks, Jan…I’ll fix it.
On Moving On, a transcript (mine) of a portion of a serious comedy show, BBC Radio 4’s “News Quiz Extra,” first broadcast 10/6, that informs knowledgeably and satirically on currently deep and complex matters as well as silly, trivial issues. I copied it out specifically for its final “punch line.”
[speaker] “Definition of War Crime: It has to be a grave breach of the Geneva Convention; it has to run contrary to the statutes of the International Criminal Court; and, this is crucial, it has to not be admitted by the United States of America.
[host] Briefly, this is of the U.S. bombing killing 22 in a hospital in the Afghan city of Kunduz, a hospital controlled by MSF (Medicins sans Frontieres, Doctors Without Borders) and entirely in their care, without any protection under international law. The big question is whether it’s a war crime; there are strict definitions of what constitutes a war crime such as bombing Syria quite brutally, quite thoroughly. All you need to do is appoint a minor civil servant to head an inquiry about something that happens and then, six or seven years later, everyone will be going ‘what was that inquiry all about’, ‘I’d forgotten about that’ Let’s all just move on.'”
The studio audience got it; the listeners got it.
The idiom “let’s move on” has now entered international English defined as a deliberate attempt by a person or group in power to cover up a misdeed. It’s not just about our Hillary any more.
I disagree. I think calling for NBC to stick to their stated principles rather than blatantly and inexplicably abandoning them for ratings makes sense. How is it that Trump was apparently toxic enough for NBC to feel the need to cancel not only The Apprentice but also the Miss Universe pageant, but he’s perfectly fine to host their flagship comedy show? It doesn’t make any sense, and smacks of the network trying to have it both ways.
Bad, BAD analogies. You don’t seem to see the difference between a pure business decision for profit and ratings—those are NBC’s principles, you know, and censoring for content. Trump was making misogynist comments, and that made NBC hosting the pageant risky and toxic from a business perspective. He couldn’t host the Apprentice while he was running for President; and even if he could, it politicized a non-political show….and it wasn’t doing that great anyway. But SNL believes that Trump is ratings gold. The decisions are not inconsistent in any way. Nor is Trump himself being censored by cutting the pageant. Move-On wants Trump banned because of his political speech, and SNL has never done that, once an invitation has been offered. To dump him would be a breach of integrity.
I guess you could be more wrong, but I don’t know how.
This is a bizarre comment that contains no rationality whatever. Is NBC a pro-illegal migration activist channel? If not, exactly what principle are they standing up for were they to exclude Trump on that basis? Certainly not the principle that reasonable people may disagree about a subject!
Since when did standing up for principles include silencing those who disagree with them? Since when did NBC’s “principles,” whatever they are, become holy writ, and since when NBC become fidei defensor? I must’ve missed that somewhere.
If we assume NBC (and I think this assumption is reasonable) buys liberal cant lock, stock and barrel, what if every TV network established a set of “principles” like this and excluded people based on them? What we’d have is a kind of de facto self-censorship that would exclude people of interest to over half the country. That’s the inevitable conclusion of the argument you have attempted to advance, and I truly hope that’s not what you’d like to see.
Furthermore, as Jack pointed out, what about the principle of making money for your stockholders? Is NBC’s political principles so out front and immutable that they would willingly make a huge percentage of the potential audience feel unwelcome by refusing to allow anyone who disagreed with them appear on one of their shows? If Trump is unsuitable based on his positions for a SNL appearance, surely every Republican member of Congress is unsuitable to appear, or even be mentioned, on NBC’s news broadcast. After all, they all violate, to a greater or lesser degree than Trump, the assumed “principles” of NBC, do they not?
Did you even think, just for a second, about what you appear to be advocating? I’m guessing you didn’t. If you did, well, then may I recommend a famous saying usually attributed to Abe Lincoln by way of advice: “Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.”
Glenn, did you miss the part where I specifically said that NBC violated their stated principles? Did you miss the part where I specifically said what those stated principles were, namely, that they explicitly said Trump’s comments on immigrants were unacceptable?
Allow me to respond with my own advice: Make sure you actually read and comprehend someone’s comments before writing such a pretentious and over-emotional reply to them.
But what “stated principles” are you talking about? NBC hosts the pageant, and Trump owns it. They thought it would hurt their business to have Trump as a partner. SNL isn’t Trump. Banning him as a host based on what he said would be like banning a Miss USA contestant because she was a Birther. The so-called principles would dictate canning SNL because Lorne Michaels was endorsed Isis.
As I said, bad analogy.
“Trump was making misogynist comments, and that made NBC hosting the pageant risky and toxic from a business perspective”
That’s not why they fired him, though; their statement specifically said it was his comments about immigrants, not his comments on women, which caused them to make their decision. But I suppose you could still argue that those are more relevant to his participation in the Miss Universe pageant than to hosting SNL.
I would argue that, and I also would argue that NBC was wrong…which means that it still wasn’t “principled.” Just risk averse. Being consistent in being cowardly is not integrity.