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Fact-checking the comedians

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.