SNL insists it's not boosting Clinton Nick Juliano

Published: Friday March 14, 2008



|

Print This Email This Writers said to prefer Obama, producers donate 10K to Clinton A sketch on Saturday Night Live before this month's Texas and Ohio primaries was seen by some as shifting the campaign narrative in favor of Senator Hillary Clinton. The long-running comedy show dinged the news media for its perceived bias in favor of Barack Obama, and, subsequently, many reporters appeared to grow more adversarial towards the upstart candidate. Clinton herself frequently invoked the sketch, which parodied a recent Democratic debate, and Obama joked that he was going to call the show's creator, Lorne Michaels, to complain. The same week the debate sketch aired, former SNL head writer Tina Fey returned to host the show. During its weekend update segment she delivered an impassioned defense of Clinton, taking on perception that Clinton is a "bitch." Fey described herself the same way and declared: "Bitches get stuff done. ... It's not too late. Texas and Ohio, get on board. Bitch is the new black." Michaels and other writes and producers on the show defended their neutrality to the Los Angeles Times Thursday. "I can assure you that there's no agenda," Michaels said, "that there's only a reaction to what's going in the world." Michaels has donated to candidates of both parties, including Republican nominee John McCain. On the Democratic side, though, his pick is already gone from the race -- the SNL creator donated $4,600 to Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT) last year, although half of that was for a now-nonexistent general election campaign, according to a RAW STORY review of campaign finance records. Among SNL's cadre of still-active writers and producers listed on the Internet Movie Database, only one was found to have donated to Obama's campaign, according to the review. Seth Myers, one of the show's head writers, gave Obama $1,000 in January. Michaels and writer Jim Downey, who created most of the show's political sketches, tell the New York Times that most of the staff, like Myers, favor Obama. The sketches that seemed to benefit Clinton were aired because they were funny. Im sensitive to the suggestion that were in the service of Hillary Clinton this year, Michaels told the Times. That obviously is not the case. He added, We dont lay down for anybody. Clinton appeared on the show March 1, but she delivered lines written by the show's staff, not her own aides, during the brief appearance. Obama made his own cameo on SNL around Halloween. While the SNL writers are said to favor Obama, a review of the producers' political donations shows a decided Clinton bent. Producers have donated more than $10,000 to Clinton's presidential and Senate campaigns in recent years. Robert Smigel, who writes SNL's TV Funhouse animated skits, and his wife, Michelle, have donated at least $5,100 to Clinton's various campaigns, according to a search of the Center for Responsive Politics database. For his part, Obama's not worried about the perceived bias. "Frankly, Barack Obama knows he's good enough, smart enough and, gosh darn it, he's won more states, more votes and more delegates, and that's what probably matters more anyway," Obama spokesman Bill Burton quipped to the LA Times, à la Stuart Smalley. Since its inception in 1975, SNL has skewered politicians from Gerald Ford, played as a bumbling klutz by Chevy Chase, to the "strategery"-formulating George W. Bush perfected by Will Ferrell. Amy Poehler, whose portrayal of Hillary Clinton has been seen as a boon for the former First Lady, tells the LA Times the show tries to be against "whoever is winning." Whatever roll the show played in reviving Clinton's campaign before the Texas and Ohio primaries, the intensified interest on politics has certainly helped boost ratings. The Feb. 23 episode, the first broadcast after the writer's strike ended which sported the debate sketch, attracted 7.5 million viewers, the most the show has garnered in a year. "We're hoping for a dead tie in the delegates so it, like, goes on for another year," Meyers joked to the LA Times. "They have to postpone the general election." Researchers Muriel Kane and Michael Petrelis contributed to this report. According to campaign finance database NewsMeat, the following SNL producers donated to Clinton's presidential or Senate campaigns: Samantha Scharff -- $500 on Jan. 10, 2008

Marci Klein -- $2,000 on Aug. 16, 2007

James Signorelli -- $1,000 on Aug. 16, 2007

Lauren Leeds -- $4,600 (for primary and general elections) on Dec. 31, 2007

Lauren Leeds -- $2,000 on Aug. 10, 2006.

Hillary Clinton mentioned the following SNL sketch several times on the campaign trail after it aired Feb. 23: During the same episode, Tina Fey said Clinton would "get stuff done":



The next week, Clinton appeared on the show to deliver its famous, "Live from New York," line:







