Fundamentals of Interactive Journalism

Saturday Night Live opened on a political note again this weekend when Darrell Hammond took on John McCain, but the September 20th opener had a twist: Al Franken added some finishing touches to the opening script.

Politico reported on Saturday that although head writer Seth Meyers wrote the opener, Mr. Franken helped polish the final draft.

A spokesman for Mr. Franken’s Senate campaign said he did not write any of the scripts, but admitted Mr. Franken did play a role in that show.

Mr. Franken worked as a writer for SNL for 15 years, from 1975-1980 and then from 1985-1995. After leaving the show, he has written several books, including “Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right” and “The Truth (With Jokes)” and he also hosted a show for Air America Radio called “The Al Franken Show.” He is currently running for the Senate, against Sen. Norm Coleman, for the seat of Mr. Franken’s late friend, Paul Wellstone.

Although Mr. Franken has a history with SNL, the show is still recovering from the attack last week that its opening sketch about Sarah Palin and Hillary Clinton was biased. According to The New York Times on September 16th, Mr. Meyers said they always tried to be fair in all their sketches, and tried not to attack any one candidate.

Mr. Meyers puts a lot of faith in being fair, since he also said the writing staff is looking forward to this Friday’s debate, because it provides the perfect opportunity to make jokes at the expense of both sides.

But Mr. McCain’s advisor, Carly Fiorina, appeared on MSNBC and called the Tina Fey-Sarah Palin sketch “sexist.”

Mr. Meyers shouldn’t have to fend off these attacks given that he writes a comedy show, not one dedicated to hard news. But given his attitude about fairness, he might have avoided any future controversy by not asking Mr. Franken to help write the opening sketch about Mr. McCain’s recent habit of stretching the truth, which has been reported fairly in the mainstream media, including the NY Times.

SNL has always had a history of being irreverent, and has arguably become famous for its impersonations of presidents and presidential candidates. Some of SNL’s impersonations have created new reputations, especially Chevy Chase’s repeated history of falling down as former President Gerald Ford. Apparently President Ford was a former football star. Did anyone know that?

Biased? Judge for yourself: here are both the Tina Fey-Sarah Palin sketch and the September 20th cold open with Darrell Hammond.

Update: I wrote this a few weeks ago, but had trouble posting. The article links are still correct, but Tina Fey is going to be on Letterman tonight to talk about how she came up with her impression. In the meantime, New York magazine named her the second-best political impersonator of all time. Arguments? Also, another reason to hope for an Obama victory, Tina Fey said she is “leaving earth” if John McCain is elected!