State Of Affairs: SNL’s Gov. Sanford And John Edwards Suggest Tiger Woods Coverage Is Race-Based

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by Joe Coscarelli | 9:27 am, December 13th, 2009

» 3 comments

It was a bipartisan cheaters’ party in the opening sketch of Saturday Night Live this week, as the show used a familiar avenue to take on the Tiger Woods fiasco: politics. The C-SPAN segment featured Gov. Mark Sanford, Sen. John Ensign, and former Sen. John Edwards analyzing the media coverage of the golfer’s infidelity, and even suggesting that the public’s double standard is racial. Extramarital for everyone!

The “orgy” of “excessive” and “lurid” media coverage that Tiger’s affairs received, the politicians note, has “completely overshadowed” coverage of their own cheating scandals. And then the trusted SNL political angle: “Like Tiger Woods we have broken our marriage vows, but in addition, as elected officials, we have also violated the public’s trust. It’s a pretty big deal, yet it seems like the media couldn’t care less,” says Sen. Ensign. The others agree.

And though they each trade scandalous details — cover stories, hush money, a love child! — they remain incredulous about the lack of press coverage compared to Mr. Woods. Maybe it’s the number of women, they suggest, before one of the strangest lines in the clip: “Evidence of our other affairs is out there if the media would bother to look!” Is that so? Or is that funny?

But the clip also takes another sobering turn when it is suggested that the double press standard is racial: “We pray this isn’t about race. Our nation has seen too much of that.”

Like this season’s Obama and China opening, it’s almost as if SNL is deciding that making political or social statements outweighs their responsibility to make people laugh with their weekend sketch-comedy show. The entire thing sounds so much more like a dinner party polemic than jokes. Maybe it’s to be lauded, but it seems like a questionable direction, and judging by this clip, it’s getting more serious as the weeks go on. See for yourself:

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raphael-a

Hey Joe.
I think they were kidding about the racism charge. Or else you think that the reason why Obama was on 17 Newsweek and Time covers while McCain was on 2 was also due to racism. (Hint. Both Obama and Tiger sell more copy than others.)
The other reality I hypothesize is that the Tiger story was one of squeaky clean mega-icon’s fall from grace; whereas a cheating politician just doesn’t phase anyone anymore.
Just as SNL character Dieter said of a winning song, “It had a good beat and was easy to dance to,” I wouldn’t read too much into an SNL sketch other than if “it worked and it was funny.”
But then again, I don’t get paid to be a “media deconstrictionist,” a job I always dreamed of having when I was a kid.
dailyraphirmations.com
raphael-a

Make that “media deconstructionist.”
(Although your analysis was very constrictive.)
dailyraphirmations.com
ireenawagner

I think the point of the opening sketch wasn’t to show the under-reporting of the politicians affair’s but to satire the over-reporting of the Tiger’s affair’s. The point of the sketch was to say that Tiger’s affair coverage belongs in the gossip and entertainment magazine, and not front and center on the major news networks, as much as it has been and to say that the National Enquirer is a news outlet is absurd. They are a gossip magazine, and if any of the major news outlets ever based their report on gossip then I would hope it would be the last report of their career.
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