Los Angeles Times
By Meredith Blake
October 27, 2015
Just
a few months ago, NBC fired Donald Trump. Now it's giving him a coveted
hosting slot on "Saturday Night Live" — to a growing chorus of
criticism.
Latino
advocacy groups, joined by Hollywood celebrities and others, are
calling on NBC to disinvite Trump from his Nov. 7 appearance, citing
inflammatory remarks Trump
made about Mexican immigrants in the speech announcing his White House
run in June.
"We
are appalled that you would enable Trump's hateful speech for nothing
[more] than a ratings ploy," the National Hispanic Leadership Agenda, a
coalition of 40 civil
rights and policy organizations, said in a letter to "SNL" executive
producer Lorne Michaels and NBCUniversal Chief Executive Stephen Burke.
A
social media campaign called #RacismIsntFunny has drawn support from
celebrities including John Leguizamo, Margaret Cho and Al Madrigal, and
petitions on MoveOn.org
and Change.org have gathered 370,000 signatures protesting the Trump
appearance.
"There's
no question that this issue has struck a nerve in the Latino community
and beyond, and there is growing energy and intensity," said Janet
Murguía, president of
the National Council of La Raza, a Latino advocacy organization.
NBC declined to comment on the matter Monday.
The
network initially distanced itself from Trump, who declared his
candidacy in June in a speech in which he described Mexican immigrants
as "rapists" who were bringing
drugs and crime across the border. Within days, NBC fired Trump as host
of "The Celebrity Apprentice" and ended its involvement with his Miss
USA and Miss Universe pageants, citing his "recent derogatory
statements."
But
as Trump's insurgent campaign gained momentum over the summer, the real
estate tycoon has blossomed into a media sensation with a Midas touch
for ratings. "The Tonight
Show Starring Jimmy Fallon" got its best Friday night ratings in 18
months with Trump's Sept. 11 visit. A few weeks later, Trump delivered
CBS' "The Late Show With Stephen Colbert" its biggest audience since its
Sept. 8 premiere.
In
addition to his "Tonight" visit, Trump has called into "Morning Joe" on
cable sister network MSNBC and on Monday sat for a "town hall"
moderated by Matt Lauer on "Today."
There's
no question that this issue has struck a nerve in the Latino community
and beyond, and there is growing energy and intensity.
- Janet Murguía, president of the National Council of La Raza
As
Trump's profile has risen, NBC's public rhetoric also appears to have
softened. In August, Entertainment Chairman Bob Greenblatt told
reporters at the Television Critics
Assn. press tour that Trump would "absolutely not" be back on "The
Celebrity Apprentice" but was otherwise full of praise for the
billionaire, calling him "a lovely guy" and "very much a collaborator."
Trump's relationship with the network dates to 2004, when
"The Apprentice" premiered.
While
these other media appearances have drawn little controversy, Trump's
scheduled visit to "Saturday Night Live" is generating much more flak
because it's seen by his
detractors as a cynical ratings ploy that could benefit his political
campaign and potentially validate his views on immigration.
"'SNL'
has become one of the most highly coveted platforms for candidates
looking to connect with the American public," Murguía said. "It's
appalling for a show to showcase
a man whose campaign has been built on bigotry and demagoguery for the
sake of buzz and ratings."
Ratings
are a reliable factor in booking guest hosts, so it's likely that a
potential "Trump bump" influenced NBC's decision. As Trump joked the
first time he hosted in
2004, "It's great to be here at 'Saturday Night Live,' but I'll be
completely honest. It's even better for 'Saturday Night Live' that I'm
here. Nobody's bigger than me, nobody's better than me, I'm a ratings
machine."
Hosting
"SNL" provides the latest example of Trump's ability to command media
attention, which has provided an enormous part of his success since he
declared his candidacy
in June. Many of his rivals will spend tens of millions of dollars on
advertising in the next few months to become better known among voters
and spread their campaign message. Trump has been able to accomplish
those goals largely for free.
"I
thought I'd have $25 million spent by now on ads," Trump said in a
recent interview with Fortune. "Do you know how much I've spent? Zero.
Because I haven't had to."
Other
candidates can only bite their tongues in frustration. None have
publicly condemned NBC's willingness to have Trump host the popular
comedy show, and complaining
about it would be unlikely to help them. Republican rival Sen. Marco
Rubio brushed off the "SNL" protests, saying, "If you don't like it,
don't watch the show."
Candidates
usually welcome the chance to appear on shows like "SNL," in part
because doing so enables them to reach the wide audience of potential
voters who don't regularly
watch the cable news channels and Sunday morning public affairs
programs that carry most political news.
The
ability to laugh at oneself also can help make a candidate more
attractive to voters. Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director of the Annenberg
Public Policy Center at the
University of Pennsylvania, argues that when politicians ridicule
themselves on "SNL," it can take the bite out of the parody.
"When
you're starting to be effectively parodied, one way you defuse that is
to parody yourself. You can come off as charming, as not taking yourself
too seriously, which
is clearly a problem with Trump," she said. "The potential political
advantage of it is enormous."
Another
factor in the growing outcry may be that it is exceptionally rare for
an active presidential candidate to host the show. Cameos by
presidential and vice presidential
candidates have long been woven into the fabric of "SNL" — think Sarah
Palin in 2008 or Hillary Rodham Clinton this month — and many
politicians, including Sen. John McCain and former New York Mayor Rudy
Giuliani, have hosted the show.
But
the last time a candidate hosted while in the middle of an active
campaign was in December 2003, when Democratic long-shot Al Sharpton
played the role of emcee. Because
of concerns about the Federal Communication Commission's "equal time"
rule, several affiliates declined to carry the original broadcast of the
episode.
"SNL"
has also come under fire for lack of diversity in its cast, which has
become an additional point of contention with Latino activists.
In
its four decades on the air, "Saturday Night Live" has had just two
Latino cast members, both of them men: Horatio Sanz, who is of Chilean
descent, and Fred Armisen,
whose mother came from Venezuela.
Latino
groups had been pushing "SNL" to address the imbalance long before the
Trump dust-up and will continue to do so, Murguía promised.
"This
incident is a reflection of how far we have yet to go to achieve full
representation within this industry," she said. "I don't think our
concerns are going away
any time soon."
For more information, go to: www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com
No comments:
Post a Comment