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Fairness in Politics and Humor | 09/28/2008 6:22 am

Tina Fey Nails Palin. Again. Saturday Night Live Interview Skit with Amy Poehler as Katie Couric (VIDEOS)

Katie Couric’s interviews with the Vice Presidential candidate last week … and Sarah Palin’s performances in them … were highly controversial. Yet in the midst of the drama of the financial crisis, they played somewhat under the general news cycle radar.  However, last night’s Saturday Night Live brought the Couric-Palin interviews front and center through a skit starring Tina Fey and Amy Poehler that was devastating in its breathtaking evisceration of the Vice Presidential candidate’s answers to Couric’s questions.

Below you’ll find videos of both the real Katic Couric - Sarah Palin interviews in which the correspondant asks Palin to explain why Alaska’s proximity to Russia gave her foriegn policy credibility and the Saturday Night Live skit (complete with an embedded ad thanks to NBC Universal’s use of revenue-generating HULU versus You Tube…sorry).  

Here are our questions: Was Palin’s performance with Couric Vice Presidential?  Was Couric fair in her questioning? Was SNL’s portrayal fair?  And as a comedy show, does SNL have a mandate to be "fair" anyway?  And, no matter what side you come down on l’affair Palin, how talented is Tina Fey?

Original Couric-Palin Interviews (click on-screen text prompt at end of first interview to go to second interview, which includes at the end a Kissinger video on direct negotiation with Iran):

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

191 Reader Comments (so far…) Sign In or Register to comment

Step away from the BLOG!
Was referring to Bella’s “Wal-Mart Moms” wherever that came form don’t know.
By Step away from the BLOG! on 09/29/2008 1:18 am
Sandbee (FB) 54
I might feel out classed by a family like that but not by Palin who steals money while in office by claiming money for travel when at home, getting small town deeply in debt and not getting her daughter education while missing regular school.
By Sandbee (FB) 54 on 09/28/2008 11:33 am
Belinda Joy
Tina Fey and Sarah Palin are sooooooo funny! Everything they say makes me laugh, they are such great actresses.
By Belinda Joy on 09/28/2008 10:21 am
Susan B
Well put!
By Susan B on 09/28/2008 1:06 pm
Marianne Schnall
Hi - wanted to share my Huffington Post article: Renowned Women Speak Out on Palin and the Election Featuring exclusive remarks from Isabel Allende, Joan Blades, Eve Ensler, Melissa Etheridge, Gloria Feldt, Kim Gandy, Elizabeth Lesser, Courtney Martin, Kathy Najimy, Amy Richards, Deborah Siegel, Eleanor Smeal, Gloria Steinem, Loung Ung, Alice Walker, Jody Williams, Marie Wilson http://www.huffingtonpost.com/marianne-schnall/renowned-women-speak-out_…
By Marianne Schnall on 09/28/2008 11:04 am
Ky McQueen
LMAO!!!! Tina Fey is Hilarious!
By Ky McQueen on 09/28/2008 11:04 am
Sandbee (FB) 54
Tina Fey does Palin so, so well, just hope she doesn’t have much need for it after November.
By Sandbee (FB) 54 on 09/28/2008 12:46 pm
Sherrie Crews
Turns out that HIcks, Walmart Moms’s are the backbone of this country.” By Bella Mia on 09/28/2008 10:26 am And those are the very ones that Bush and re-Bush have forsaken and sent even deeper into poverty with their economic policies.
By Sherrie Crews on 09/28/2008 12:58 pm
Buh- Bye
Fey and Poehler are hysterical!
By Buh- Bye on 09/28/2008 1:02 pm
Diana T
Tina Fey will get the Emmy for best comedy performance. I can’t imagine the preparation it has taken for her to imitate Palin’s voice and gestures as well as that. Of course, it’s fair to do this. I used to stay up during the Bush/Gore campaign just to see what SNL was going to do next. Will Farrell still does the most credible George Bush I’ve ever seen, with the subtle nuances. They had Clinton and Cheney, and the situations were hilarious. As far as Couric’s interviews with Palin, they were fair and pointed, which is what they are supposed to be. Have you ever seen Couric or Barbara Walters going “easy” on a personality because they may to “fragile” to take it? Nonsense! It is painfully obvious that Sarah Palin is not prepared to be VP, and all the rote learning in the world will not change this fact. She is clearly out of her depth. And, I think the fact McCain chose her out of all the very capable Republican women he could have chosen reflects his utter disdain, not only for women, but also for the tenous condition our nation is in right now.
By Diana T on 09/28/2008 1:05 pm
Bella Mia
Why are important statements being cut out of the interviews. The Couric and Gibson are both unethical when they violate the ethical principle of candor - taking out those statements that others WANT to hear. Palin gave very lucid and complex answers that were deliberately edited out. That is journalistic malpractice. It’s one of the reasons that the Republicans consistently get a bigger bounce from the their conventions because it is one of the rare times that the public is able to view Republicans without the distortions of the media. Through C-Span, I enjoyed watching multiple black speakers at the this years Republican convention which included a pastor, and several black business owners - the media did not allow that to be broadcast. The Hispanic speakers and business owners were equally as passionate about their support of the Republican party and it’s principles of economic freedom, and responsibility. As far as ready to be presidential - Biden has been voted as the most wasteful spender in Washington by a citizen’s watchdog group, and Obama the third most wasteful in terms of earmarks. That should disqualify them both right there. Democrats ALWAYS raise taxes - it’s who they are, it’s what they do. Palin and both knows how to cut wasteful spending, - that makes her a political savant compared to all these other clowns. We’ve now had two of the biggest crises in American history, both started during the Clinton administration. Bill’s chickens are coming home to roost.
By Bella Mia on 09/28/2008 1:26 pm
Susan B
Palin, a “political savant”?! Savant is defined as a person with detailed knowledge in some specialized field (as in science or literature.) I don’t think she’s quite there yet. Idiot savant, perhaps. Bella, how do you know that the Couric and Gibson interviews deliberately edited out “lucid and complex” answers by Palin? Did you witness the entire interviews first-hand? Or are you merely assuming as much? If you have access to the uncut interviews, I’d love to see them. So would Fox News, I’d imagine. The economic woes we are facing today are primarily due to the failed policies of “trickle-down economics,” which really took hold during the Reagan years. But there’s plenty of blame to be shared by the succeeding administrations and legislatures, too.
By Susan B on 09/28/2008 2:32 pm
Jennifer Dooley
Medically it means severe Mental Retardation, so maybe?
By Jennifer Dooley on 09/28/2008 6:59 pm
DeBúrca obj
Pretty funny… you say they edited out Palins “lucid” answers? And how do you know this and what were the questions asked? Also, if her “lucid” answers were edited out yet they still managed to fill hours with incoherant bumble… that is amazing! And Palin left her tiny town of Wasilla in debt… she is such a great financial wiz… and she is being sued as we type over the hockey stadium she had built on land they didn’t even own!
By DeBúrca obj on 09/28/2008 6:21 pm
Step away from the BLOG!
Bella, How about adding links to backups for all your wild assertions? Palin wrecked the economy of the itty bitty town she managed: In Philly….Noisy Protestors against Palin: This will Build.. She’s an idiot this country cannot afford: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3oNukjPtSc4&feature=related Alaska women against Palin http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dStP_ouJYHg Recal Palin efforts heating up: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/251/story/53183.html Bush/Cheney/McHoover/McPain Banana Republicans: http://pundits.thehill.com/2008/09/26/the-bush-cheney-mccain-palin-banan… McCain’s suspension bridge to nowhere, Risks wrecking the country before even taking office: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/28/opinion/28rich.html?ei=5070&emc=eta1 LA Times: While Mayor Palin insisted that Jesus, dinosaurs/PEOPLE co-existed, ie dinosaurs extinct 65M years earlier as every 6 year old who saw Jurrassic Park knows: http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-palinreligion28-2008sep28,0,3… http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/28/palin-claimed-dinosaurs-a_n_130… Right Leaning Time Magazine on Palin’s “Foreign Policy” follies: http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1845116,00.html Right Leaning Daily Post “Calls Rise Among GOP for Palin step down” http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2008/09/27/2008-09-27_calls_ris… From Seattle: Can Palin give a coherent answer? http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/380748_palinonoline27.html NYT IT’S THE DERIVATIVES THAT UNDID AIG NOT SUB PRIME BUT GOP ALWAYS WANTS TO BLAME THE POOR http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/28/business/28melt.html?th&emc=th NO WAY NO HOW NO SARAH PALIN! http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/NO-Sarah-Palin FOR THE FIRST TIME IN 72 YEARS THE RECORD ENDORSES A DEMOCRAT FOR PRESIDENT; http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080928/A_NEWS0801/… NYT DISMISSES MCCAIN AS IMPULSIVE http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/28/nyt-op-ed-dismisses-mccai_n_130… OBAMA WON THE DEBATE: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/26/debate-reviews-go-to-obam_n_129… Why Mad Dog Palin was selected. If she is so able and bright why won’t the GOP let her speak? http://www.alternet.org/election08/100551/mad_dog_palin_/ McCain taking the country down with him: http://www.alternet.org/election08/100669/for_mccain%2C_%27country_first… McCain’s team many sordid ties to gambling industry, McCains gambling problems: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/28/us/politics/28gambling-web.html?_r=1&h… http://www.truthout.org/092808A Palin accepts gifts from mining industry Washington Post investigation: http://voices.washingtonpost.com/washingtonpostinvestigations/2008/09/_w… BANKS ROB PEOPLE. THANKS GOP! http://www.truthout.org/092408R Freddy Mac money trail leads to McCain “Mr Deregulation” who proposed MORE tax breaks for the very rich, and LESS deregulation in the Bailout which are the causes of our problems http://www.truthout.org/092808Z Latest Gallup Poll 50% Obama, 42% for McHoover: http://www.gallup.com/poll/110740/Gallup-Daily-Obama-Moves-50-42-Lead.as…
By Step away from the BLOG! on 09/28/2008 7:36 pm