Okay, I get it. All those involved in Saturday Night Live (SNL) don't particularly care for the notion of Sarah Palin becoming Vice President of the United States of America. Or, at the very least, they think there's a lot of ratings mileage to be had by dumping on this slab of Republican fresh meat. The SNL opening skit from September 13 was very well conceived and excellently executed. To be sure, the Palin/HRC joint appearance skit lambasted Palin, but all the attacks were fair territory on the map of political debate. The September 20 opener for SNL was equally disparaging of the Republican ticket, but again spoke to legitimate areas of concern regarding the fairness and accuracy of political campaign ads.
What is not acceptable is the later skit, accusing Todd Palin of engaging in an incestuous and pedophilic relationship with his daughters. This sort of "humor" is so far outside the bounds of acceptable behavior that it is amazing even NBC couldn't figure it out and axe the skit. Yes, Sarah Palin and to a certain extent Todd have chosen to become public figures and as a result are fair game for what can be expected to be some pretty brutal attacks. The same is not true of their children. The children of political candidates, and indeed all public figures, are private citizens entitled to not only have that right respected but fiercely protected. To accuse Todd Palin of incest with his under age daughters, even in the guise of "humor", makes the attack very personal against those children and attacks them for being involved in two of the strictest taboos our society holds.
If the same sort of filth had been aired charging Barack Obama with engaging in an incestuous relationship with his own young daughters, how long would it have taken before the demand went out to revoke broadcast licenses, fire all those involved, and begin a criminal investigation into possible civil rights violations? Don Imus can report that such a witch hunt would have been fast, furious, and unrelenting.
The story is not even twelve hours old yet, so I will give Barack Obama the benefit of the doubt for the moment, but if he does not quickly come out to publicly and forcefully denounce this skit and the invasion of the privacy and innocence of the Palin daughters I will have no choice but to conlcude that he tacitly endorses this type of comedy in general and the specific attack being made against his political opponent and her family.
That truly would be the sort of change we can believe in from this nation's politicians.
(Strangely, an extensive search of the internet has yet to turn up any trace of video of this SNL skit having been posted. That alone should be a telling incrimination of just how far NBC stepped over the line last night. As soon as the video does become widely available, which it inevitably must, this posting will be updated to include such a link. Lokhi)
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