Well Isn’t That Special
The two NBC affiliates near me, licensed for Hartford VT and Plattsburgh NY respectively, aired the first five seconds of last night’s Saturday Night Live, which featured Al Sharpton as host, and then cut it off for a “Best of Steve Martin” clip show. A scrolling message at the bottom of the screen simply stated that they would not be airing the live episode.
My first reaction was to assume the decision was based on dislike of Sharpton. Sure, Sharpton’s a jerk, but if our sensitive whitebread backwater can handle 2 feet of snow, we can handle some racially-tinged late-night humor.
(Just as I typed that, another avalanche of snow fell off my roof, shaking the whole house. Yikes.)
Then I found this CNN article, which informed me that for fear of “equal time” regulations, affiliates in states where Sharpton has managed to get on the Democratic presidential primary ballot aren’t showing the episode. New Hampshire is one such state. Hence, any NBC affiiliate that might get one pathetic flicker of reception in the Granite State couldn’t show SNL.
Thank you, campaign regulators. I look forward to the egalitarian utopia that will inevitably be brought about by preventing snowbound people from watching silly sketch comedy.