Comments on: Too Hot for PBS! Tina Fey's Excised Palin Jokes

By: wtblanchard

wtblanchard — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 21:23:03 +0000

http://www.pbs.org/mark-twain-prize/pdf/Tina_Fey_Acceptance.pdf

By: dodonna

dodonna — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 19:37:03 +0000

The thing that most people writing about this seem to have missed is that the broadcast version made *plenty* of references to Palin. I fully expected to spend my Monday morning fielding angry calls.

I don’t pretend to know the motivations behind the specific editing decisions that were made, but judging by comments made within the broadcast version, it sounds as if the actual event ran a half hour or so longer than the 90-minute time slot allotted for it in the PBS hardfeed.

By: Dollerhide

Dollerhide — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 18:11:37 +0000

Hmm. Maybe they just have a policy about only broadcasting the *funny* jokes…?

By: mjwilstein

mjwilstein — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 16:57:17 +0000

Also, if you missed Alec Baldwin’s Mark Twain impression you can watch that clip here:
http://bit.ly/dB8fw9

By: charlieromeobravo

charlieromeobravo — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 16:40:40 +0000

I doubt it if only because Obama doesn’t generally respond to that kind of thing so the media doesn’t get up in arms about it. If Tina Fey had made some scathing remarks about him, she would have been like the 50th person to do so this week.
.
Palin on the other hand, reacts to every criticism, real, perceived or close enough to make hay with. I can see how PBS might be feeling paranoid after the last election and killed two birds with one stone by cutting that bit out of her speech.

By: luckyjackaubrey

luckyjackaubrey — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 16:07:34 +0000

While I agree with your assessment, this is what makes me sad:

If PBS had cut a comedian’s incendiary remarks about Obama, this would be making the blog circuit, quickly escalating to the cable news jawing matches. Within hours, the White House press secretary would be trying lamely to defuse it and, within days, multiple people people would be fired and funding would be pulled. And this would all fuel the anti-media talking points of the blowhards for another cycle.

But, canted the other way, people see it and say, “Yeah, I can see that.”