Update: 'Saturday Night Live' says bailout skit 'didn't meet our standards'

Update: A "Saturday Night Live" skit that skewered President Bush, Democrats, homebuyers and subprime lenders for their roles in the mortgage meltdown was removed from the program's website because it "didn't meet out standards," a spokesman for the show said Tuesday. An edited version of the skit will be re-posted online soon, the spokesman said.

The skit, a parody of a C-SPAN news conference, ridiculed subprime borrowers, housing speculators and Herb and Marion Sandler, the real-life couple who built Golden West Financial into a subprime lending powerhouse and sold it to Wachovia before the subprime collapse. At one point in the skit, the Herb Sandler character says he made $24 billion off the subprime boom. Graphics then appear labeling the Sandlers as "People who should be shot."

"Upon review, we caught certain elements in the sketch that didn't meet our standards," a spokesman for the program said in an e-mail message today. "We took it down and made some minor changes, and it will be back online soon."

Conservative blogger Michele Malkin, who called the skit "hilarious, dead-on, and surprisingly honest," reports that the Sandlers, prominent donors to liberal causes, were "seething over the skit" before it was removed from the "SNL" website.

The blog Hot Air is also chasing the disappearing video, and readers on that blog found the video last night on You Tube -- although by Tuesday morning the You Tube video had been removed "due to a copywright claim by NBC Universal." The video was still available, however, on the site snlbailout.com, which also links to media coverage of the skit and its disappearance.

On the message board at the "Saturday Night Live" website, commenters were accusing the program of self-censorship for removing the video. "Wow -- I'm genuinely scared by your censorship of the CSPAN bailout video," wrote commenter Dan. He added, "Are you really that evil?"

Another commenter on the show's website, Jack H, wrote, "If this skit is being censored for political purposes, that is truly sad.   My friends said there was more truth in the skit than a Democratic press conference regarding the matter.  Who was offended and threatened SNL/NBC???   This is worse than BANNING BOOKS."

My original post about the SNL skit appears below, unedited, with links that no longer work.

===

From time to time over the last 30 years or so, "Saturday Night Live" has done some pretty good political analysis wrapped in sketch humor. This weekend was one of those times. If you have seven minutes, watch this weekend's SNL take on the bailout. It starts to get good about halfway through.

Two cents: In addition to being pretty funny, the skit makes two strong political points that are frustratingly absent in much of the bailout coverage. First, the blame game: Both political parties have mortgage mud and housing bubble goo all over them. Yes, Republicans tried to throw a rope around Fannie Mae, and Democrats stopped them. Well, some Democrats wanted to stop predatory lending, but couldn't get much Republican help. But that argument misses the larger point: Both parties were happy with "financial innovation" on Wall Street and expanded levels of homeownership. Both parties worshiped at the altar of Alan Greenspan, never questioning the big-picture policies (low interest rates, crazy mortgage loans, unregulated credit markets) that got us here.

The second political point, equally obvious and equally missing from most recent coverage, is that the current crisis has its roots in the housing bubble. And the housing bubble drew on willing participation from millions of Americans who wanted more house than they could afford and in many cases tried to play the housing market for profit. It's all in the skit.

--Peter Viles

Your thoughts? Comments? E-mail story tips to Peter Viles.

Comments

[Uncle Billy Isn't Skittish]

How come there's a big void in the middle of the post? Did you have an embedded video there? Any idea where to view the skit?

[peteviles]

Uncle Billy writes, "How come there's a big void in the middle of the post? Did you have an embedded video there?"

Thanks, UB. Yes, the video is embedded in there. It takes a few seconds to load. I've watched it on two browsers (Safari and Firefox), but maybe it doesn't work on all browers. I'll add a link into the post to, from the words "this weekend's SNL take".

Pete

[moppy]

That was funny.

Finally SNL got something right. That show hasn't been funny in years. Now if they only started making fun of Obama, but really making fun of him. Not going to happen.

[Uncle Billy Is Skittish]

Doesn't work in IE 7

I saw the video on Greg Mankiw's blog. Pretty funny/sad. Weird they have the same unfounded intuition that I do -- that Soros looms large in this situation. Maybe others understand how exactly. Is it as simple as: Soros broke the bank of england, so we should automatically implicate him in the crash of world economies?

[Pat]

Embedded Video does not work on IE7, but does work on Firefox. I guess this means you must be a Mac man.

[Fred]

humor aside,
The bailout passed and it is now time to clean house. Our so-called representative do not represent us and need to be removed. I am calling for the immediate removal of Dodd, Feinstein, Boxer, and Pellosi - followed by others. I am a democrat. Republicans - you are expected to clean up your side of this mess.
Both sides have let us down like none before them. We need to send a strong message to the financial industry - you may have stuck us with this bill, but we will ensure that you pay for this mess in the long run. All of your high salaries are gone with more regulations than you can imagine, if you do succeed, we will tax you to death.

[Giacomo]

Frank: You left out Maxine Waters -- one of the chief defenders of Fannie's corrupt management.

check out these clips from 2004 Fannie / Freddie hearings -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yga7TlsA-1A

[Giacomo]

It was uncommon political courage, coming from SNL. It certainly wasn't pandering to their fan base!

I see some Democratic supporters are ready to take HALF the blame on their party. That's some chutzpah! In reality, the genesis of the problems we're now having lies in the notion that Americans are somehow entitled to home ownership, irregardless of their earning power or productivity -- an idea promoted by the Democratic party. Look back at FDR (New Deal) and LBJ (the Great Society) as prime movers. Freddie and Fannie were transformed -- largely by Dem-controlled administrations and Congresses -- into a public trough in the name of "affordable housing."

[Noodle]

Is this it? I was able to watch this on IE7/Vista:
http://www.nbc.com/Saturday_Night_Live/
video/clips/c-span-bailout/727521/

[MyLessThanPrimeBeef]

Soros was implicated becuase he proclaimed this was the end of the 60 year cycle, which when I last looked, included Republican and Democratic presidents and congresses.

He got in the way of party hacks trying to blame one party or the other.

But that sad truth is that money and therefore corruption is ideology-free, but we are too thinking-challenged to know that, even when it was naked, when the machine had its clothes removed, in front of our eyes like last week.

[D]

Scary

http://money.cnn.com/2008/09/30/magazines/
fortune/varchaver_derivatives_short.fortune/index.htm?
postversion=2008093012

[Nelcisco]

I could'nt get the skit, but in response to willing participation of millions of Amricans, there's a difference between a customer & a client, customer is always right and the merchant services the customer according to his/her needs and wants.
A client however hires a professional who's an expert in his/her field to guide them thru the process. Example:As a client OJ had to do what his dream team attorneys said because they were the experts and he was in trouble.In this case its the sales process between the mortgage consultant/loan officer and the borrower. Of course the borrower wants more house than what he can afford but, its always up to the wisdom of the mortgage pro to guide his clients to a conclusion thats best for them. I think we put too much blame on borrowers that didn't know a 1003 application from a Good Faith Estimate, let alone numbers, Truth in Lending disclosures, Transmittal Summery etc.
Hell, it took me 3 deals and a couple of months to really begin to get my arms around this, so how would the borrower know this during the processing & eventually at signing????

Banks needed to take full responsibility for their own demise.

[The Long View]

Dear Peter and Friends,

Yes, Greenspan was a disaster, but not because he cut interest rates too low as many believe, and is often repeated.

Some believe, as I do, the he actually kept rates too high during most of the 90's, the spread between rates and inflation not at historic lows by any measure. This helped contribute to the tech bubble, by keeping investment out of housing and house prices lagged for years.

Do you know anyone who put 20% down and got a fixed rate mortgage around 5% or less who has let their home go into foreclosure, thus causing the current financial crisis? (Let's say for argument that there are very few at most.) Low rates have nothing to do with the current meltdown.

It was the loosening of lending standards, lack of regulation, and uncreditworthy buyers who received loans with rates much too low given their lack of investment in the property.

This also answers why prices on the westside have stayed relatively strong, ie; because the loan to value ratios are still very low for the vast majority of owners.
The ratio of homes to listings is still below 1%. And wealthy people see this and decide that this is the safest place to buy, even if prices do fall in the near term.

[latesummer2009]

Thank god for SNL in times like these. Everyone needs a little humor during a crisis. Unfortunately, they are poking fun at a serious problem. Foreclosures and house declines are the heart of the matter. Untill someone addresses this, we are in a downward spiral.

Foreclosures now creeping into Santa Monica, one of the epicenters of the housing boom. 136 to date.

http://www.westsideremeltdown.blogspot.com

[Maggie Knowles]

Peter wrote: "And the housing bubble drew on willing participation from millions of Americans who wanted more house than they could afford and in many cases tried to play the housing market for profit."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
good argument for regulation, too bad we didn't have any.

[buz]

Hilarious. Surprised SNL made fun of Democrats and their base.

[DaveO]

It appears that NBC has pulled the skit. Link to a writeup at the end.

It would be nice if the LATimes would look into this...

http://hotair.com/archives/2008/10/06/
whered-the-snl-bailout-skit-go/

[Jeremy]

I can't believe that they took the video down. It seems like that it is no where to be found on the net. I guess BIG brother is at it again.

[Scott]

Why did SNL remove the clip? I sat through the Palin/Biden one, now I want to see humor about the left. What a bunch of crap.

[CA]

I think that this is a scary country when freedom of speech is played with! Have you checked out that NBC has pulled this clip and it can no longer be found on the Internet! America please speak out!!!

[lisa shaull]

This Skit was removed! All of the other skits from this week are up and the archive for the last year. SNL has spoofed everyone over the years including presidents. Who has enough power to get this censored? Do we live in a media censored state?

[D]

I guess you didn't realize it was Herbert and Marion Sandler from Golden West Financial since it wasn't in your original blog

[shashindra]

But that sad truth is that money and therefore corruption is ideology-free, but we are too thinking-challenged to know that, even when it was naked, when the machine had its clothes removed, in front of our eyes like last week.

[Mike M]

Wow! It IS gone! The skit was just too close to the bone, (see transcript at embed link w/name ). All the sand leaked out to reveal all the turds are floating to the top so now all the liberals are claiming they never played in it...

To be fair though however, it did suggest with a sub title under the Sandlers "People who should be shot". Hey - just edit that out and put it back up NBC!

[Kate]

Peter wrote: "And the housing bubble drew on willing participation from millions of Americans who wanted more house than they could afford and in many cases tried to play the housing market for profit."

Except for many homeowners the mortgage was affordable until property taxes skyrocketed (thanks to so little federal funds for cities), sales taxes skyrocketed, health care costs skyrocketed, gas and food prices skyrocketed, jobs were lost, wages were cut, etc. etc. Sure, some homeowners are to blame, but most are not. Let's remember who the crooks in this heist really are.