Fact-checking the comedians

by Brian McKim & Traci Skene on October 6th, 2009

So… comedians are finally doing their job (at least Fred Armisen is) and what happens? Wolf Blitzer’s Situation Room gets off its ass to do a “fact check” segment (3:48 in length!!) and analyze the veracity of the claims made by an SNL cast member in the show’s opening monologue.

That is a lot of time to devote in a nightly broadcast to the dissection of a comedy sketch. What exactly is going on here?

To our knowledge, no newscast has ever gone to the trouble of fact-checking a comedy sketch before. About any politician of either party. To dredge up an oft-used phrase from a past era, where’s the outrage? Where’s all the talk of a “chilling effect” on free speech? Will it follow? We’re not holding our breath.