Hillary Clinton's Saturday Night Live History May Be Dodgy, But Her Debate Claims are Not

I was surprised to see Hillary Clinton quoting a Saturday Night Live parody as evidence that the media adulation for her opponent had gotten out of hand.

That's because there's plenty of times in the past that SNL portrayals of Clinton have not been as flattering or advantageous to her current position. Leave aside the raft of Bill Clinton horndog skteches which have filled the show over the past ten years; Obama made one of his most notable media appearanced last year, during a sketch about a Hlloween party at the Clinton home.

One thing she did get right, according to our political fact-checking Web site Politifact: She has been asked the first question at many Democratic debates. We found she was asked the first question in five of the six Democratic debates this year; what remains an open question, is whether that's such a bad thing.

As our site says: "it’s funny that Clinton would complain about getting the first question all the time because it wasn’t too long ago that there were so many Democratic contenders, many were complaining about not getting enough questions. Besides, in a debate format, isn’t it a good thing to go first?"

Check out the 2007 SNL skit about Halloween at the Clinton home:

If they were right last week, does that mean they were right a year ago, too?

Comments

[Chuck Welch]

"If they were right last week, does that mean they were right a year ago, too?"

That sounds like the fallacy of false dilemma. (But it has been a long time since logic class.)

Different writers, different times. They could have been right last week, and wrong a year ago. Right a year ago and wrong last week. Or right a year and right last week.

[Eric Deggans]

Yes, that's true, of course. I'm just pointing out that trying to make a literal point about media coverage using the fact that Saturday Night Live did a sketch seems a little absurd...

[Chuck Welch]

I don't know. At times SNL parody coverage has been closer to reality than what we have received from many other sources.