Trump tantrumed and threated to have SNL taken off the air after a Christmas sketch based on the Russia scandal and him never becoming president.
The sketch was a parody of It’s A Wonderful Life and showed Trump in deep trouble. Trump wished that he had never been president. Michael Cohen said that Trump directed him to do everything. Robert Mueller still knew that Trump had been president and knew everything that he did, and what must have bothered Trump most is the point that the country would be better off without him.
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Trump responded to the sketch by threatening legal action and taking SNL off the air:
A REAL scandal is the one sided coverage, hour by hour, of networks like NBC & Democrat spin machines like Saturday Night Live. It is all nothing less than unfair news coverage and Dem commercials. Should be tested in courts, can’t be legal? Only defame & belittle! Collusion?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 16, 2018
SNL Is Not News Coverage
Trump is a public figure, which means that it is legal to parody and satirize him. Trump has no legal recourse against comedy that he doesn’t like. Secondly, the entire SNL sketch was based on the news itself. All the major points came straight out of the news. They were exaggerated for laughs, but most of the elements of that sketch happened.
Trump can’t sue NBC and Saturday Night Live. He can’t get SNL taken off the air, or force them to give him equal time on a comedy show. If Trump wants to bring back the Fairness Doctrine, that would be great. It wouldn’t apply to SNL, but it would put Fox News and conservative talk radio out of business tomorrow.
Donald Trump first impulse is always undemocratic. The president’s outburst against SNL is funny but is also a warning sign that this president despises freedom and democracy.
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Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
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