Tina Fey

Bartiromo Interview of Prince Alwaleed: SNL Skit Begging To Happen
By Mark Finkelstein | November 24, 2008 | 3:29 PM EST

Update 11-25 8:20 AM: Morning Joe Makes SNL References -- see discussion at foot.

Call it "The Wild 'n Crazy Guy–Billionaire Style."  Maria Bartiromo's interview of Saudi Prince Alwaleed, the largest shareholder of Citigroup, is literally a Saturday Night Live skit waiting—begging—to happen.

CNBC's Bartiromo conducted the interview by remote this afternoon. When the camera went to the prince in Riyadh, you might have expected to find him in a TV studio, or perhaps in his business office, maybe even in one of his palace rooms.  But no, there he was sitting outdoors, apparently by his stables, with seated camels and sleek horses very visible in the background.   And rather than being attired in business or traditional Saudi dress, the Prince was duded up with an open collar, tinted glasses and a scarf warding off the desert's cool night air.  He could be seen occasionally fingering what appeared to be golden worry beads.

View video here.

John McCain Meets Tina Fey's Sarah Palin on 'SNL'
By Noel Sheppard | November 2, 2008 | 1:53 AM EDT

McCain returned to offer some new, last-minute campaign strategies on "Weekend Update" (video embedded below the fold):

New CMI Study Reveals Three Major Media Narratives about Sarah Palin
By Colleen Raezler | October 29, 2008 | 9:00 AM EDT

In a just released study, "A Study in Character Assassination: How the TV Networks Have Portrayed Sarah Palin as Dunce or Demon," CMI analysts found that ABC, CBS and NBC are airing 18 negative stories for every one positive story on Sarah Palin, the Republican vice-presidential candidate. Is it any wonder that polls revealed a 17 percent increase in Palin's unfavorability ratings in just one month?  After examining the TV news coverage of Palin from September 29 to October 12, CMI found that ABC, NBC and CBS news shows ran 69 stories about Palin.  2 stories were positive, 37 were negative and 30 were neutral.  The 2 positive stories were a two-part interview with Palin's parents on the CBS Early Show.  Not one of the major network evening news programs - ABC's World News, NBC's Nightly News, and CBS's Evening News - ran a single positive story about Palin.ABC was hardest on Palin, as 60 percent of its stories on Palin were negative.  NBC came in second, as 54 percent of its stories were negative.  CBS also ran 54 percent negative stories, but also ran the only two positive stories (8 percent).  CMI found that the networks promoted three major narratives about Palin:

Palin Appearance Gives 'SNL' Highest Ratings in 14 Years
By Noel Sheppard | October 19, 2008 | 8:42 PM EDT

The Obama-loving media might hate Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, but according to preliminary estimates, the Alaska governor's guest appearance on NBC's "Saturday Night Live" gave the program its highest ratings in over fourteen years.

Weekend Captionfest II
By NB Staff | October 19, 2008 | 9:47 AM EDT

http://newsbusters.org/static/2008/10/2008-10-18NBCSNLPalinFey.jpg

Sarah Palin [left] and Tina Fey cross paths on the set of Saturday Night Live, October 18, 2008.
Sarah Palin's Guest Appearance on Saturday Night Live
By Noel Sheppard | October 19, 2008 | 12:22 AM EDT

Video of Palin's second appearance -- on the "Weekend Update" segment -- follows below the fold:

NBC Scrubs 'SNL' Anti-Democrat Bailout Skit From Website
By Noel Sheppard | October 7, 2008 | 1:01 AM EDT

UPDATE: YouTube link to deleted video at end of post.

As NewsBusters reported Sunday, NBC's "Saturday Night Live" in its most recent installment did an extraordinary skit which amongst other things accurately blamed Democrats for the current financial crisis.

Early Sunday morning, as is customary for NBC, the video of this sketch was posted at its website. Some time Monday, it was taken down without any explanation.

One possibility is that two of the targets in the skit, the founders of Golden West Financial who were mocked by "SNL" as having made billions selling subprime mortgages to unqualified borrowers, aren't happy with how they were portrayed. As reported by the Associated Press (emphasis added):

MSNBC Again Replays Palin SNL Skit Six Times
By Lyndsi Thomas | October 6, 2008 | 6:32 PM EDT

Tina Fey as Sarah Palin, MSNBC News Live l NewsBusters.orgBetween 6 a.m. and 12 noon on Monday, MSNBC featured six segments which replayed bits from Tina Fey's Saturday Night Live parody of Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin's performance in Thursday's debate. The SNL parody of Democratic vice presidential nominee Joe Biden was only played twice, and both times were during Morning Joe.

This continues a trend that was also seen last Monday morning when MSNBC replayed Tina Fey's parody of Palin's interview with Katie Couric seven times while avoiding Saturday Night Live's parody of Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama.

Along with the free airtime given to Fey's impersonation of Palin came some commentary by the various hosts of both Morning Joe and MSNBC News Live. First, Willie Geist commented that, "Sometimes you watch [Tina Fey] and forget what Sarah Palin actually looks like. She's so dead on."

Palin Bears Brunt of Jokes in 'SNL' VP Debate Skit
By Noel Sheppard | October 5, 2008 | 3:49 AM EDT

It was certainly no surprise that NBC's "Saturday Night Live," in its most recent installment, lampooned Thursday's vice presidential debate between Joe Biden and Sarah Palin.

However, despite doing a nice job of mocking Biden and host Gwen Ifill -- masterfully played by guest Queen Latifah -- the butt of most of the jokes was cleary Palin who was once again portrayed by Tina Fey (video embedded below the fold, photo courtesy Huffington Post):

CNN’s Fareed Zakaria Mind-Reads Palin, Rips Her Qualifications
By Matthew Balan | September 30, 2008 | 1:59 PM EDT

Fareed Zakaria, CNN World Affairs Analyst | NewsBusters.orgCNN world affairs analyst Fareed Zakaria, in a column published in the October 6 issue of Newsweek, condescended towards Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin, labeled her "utterly unqualified to be vice president," and complimented Katie Couric for her "smart question" to the Alaska governor in a recent interview. He later asserted clairvoyantly that "she has never spent a day thinking about any important national or international issue, and this is a hell of a time to start."

As a result of this slam, CNN host Wolf Blitzer interviewed Zakaria on Monday’s The Situation Room, in which the analyst referenced Tina Fey’s nearly word-for-word quotation of Palin from the Couric interview on last Saturday’s SNL program, which was played earlier in the program: "The scary answer was on the economy -- the one you displayed switching back and forth between Saturday Night Live, because it was absolutely clear, that she simply did not understand any of the issues involved. She did not understand the question."

MSNBC Plays Palin SNL Skit Seven Times, Mostly Ignores Obama Parody
By Lyndsi Thomas | September 29, 2008 | 6:36 PM EDT
Tina Fey as Sarah Palin, MSNBC News Live l NewsBusters.orgWith the vice presidential debate only a few days away, MSNBC gave a lot of attention on Monday to what Senator Joe Biden and Governor Sarah Palin are doing to prepare for their one and only debate. Along with this, MSNBC also gave a lot of airtime to Tina Fey's "Saturday Night Live" parody of Palin's interview with CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric, showing clips of the skit seven times between 6:00 a.m. and 12:00 noon. However, only Morning Joe featured "Saturday Night Live's" parody of Senator Barack Obama, and even then the focus was on the portion of the skit which parodied Senator John McCain's "gimmicks."

Of the seven times that MSNBC showed clips from Tina Fey's Palin impersonation, many of them lead into discussion about Palin's lack of foreign policy expertise and comments about how Fey's impersonation could lead to negative effects for McCain's campaign.
Mitchell Uses Tina Fey to Pick On Palin
By Geoffrey Dickens | September 29, 2008 | 12:22 PM EDT

On Monday's "Today" show, NBC's Andrea Mitchell loved Tina Fey's parodying of Sarah Palin on "Saturday Night Live," so much that she played a clip the "30 Rock" star mocking Palin's inexperience, while simultaneously airing an actual clip of Palin being interviewed by Katie Couric, as Mitchell charged: "the reviews have been withering for her interview with Katie Couric, only her third since nominated."

However Mitchell didn't bother to air clips from "SNL" that mocked the Democratic side, most notably one that made fun of Barack Obama's relationship with Tony Rezko.