MediaMyopic

What used to be a Saturday Night Live airtime formula of 60 minutes for advertisements, 20 minutes for painfully awkward Amy Poehler skits and 10 minutes for everybody else has shifted slightly over recent weeks. Since reemerging from the writers’ strike, SNL has devoted many of its minutes to igniting the Hillary Clinton campaign. Two weeks ago, Tina Fey returned to Weekend Update to lead a diatribe on Clinton critics. Last Saturday, viewers saw the ‘real’ Hillary – if there is such a thing – earn plenty of face time, while Fred Armisen unfairly portrayed a slow-witted, naive Obama. SNL has done little to mask its political agenda, as of late. Ironically, when Hillary was on top of the polls last fall, she snubbed SNL’s invite to host the fading show. Now that momentum is lost, she is bringing her desperate pitch of ‘change’ to late night television, while the show kowtows to her fizzling campaign. But there’s good news for Obama supporters: SNL stopped churning the laughs years ago.