This summer, NBC Universal publicly fired Donald Trump due to his ugly and bigoted comments about immigrants, saying that they ran counter to its values. Yesterday NBC made a move that has to have any fair-minded person wondering exactly what its values are as the network announced that Trump will host the November 7 edition of “Saturday Night Live.”
This will be Trump’s second trip to Studio 8H; he previously hosted the show in April 2004, just after the premiere of “The Apprentice.” He will be the fourth major-party presidential candidate to host the show, after Jesse Jackson in 1984, Steve Forbes in 1996, and Al Sharpton in 2003. There’s one major difference, though. At the time they came to 30 Rock, Jackson, Forbes, and Sharpton were all longshot candidates. Trump, in contrast, has been leading the Republican field for most of the summer.
When NBC cut ties with Trump in June, it said that “respect and dignity for all people are cornerstones of our values.” In light of Trump’s behavior since he launched his bid to buy the presidency, NBC’s decision to let Trump host “SNL” makes those words ring extremely hollow. This is a man who finds it acceptable to plaster private cell phone numbers on social media. He also finds it acceptable to make ugly and sexist comments about women.
Moreover, he’s been caught not once, not twice, but three times playing songs at his campaign rallies without the artist’s approval. Indeed, the NBC announcement came less than 24 hours after he responded to Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler’s demand that he stop playing “Dream On” at his rallies by taking the stage at a No Labels gathering with the song throbbing in the background. Makes you wonder–is anyone at NBC’s entertainment division paying attention to what’s in the news? Apparently not.
With this decision, NBC is effectively saying that it’s perfectly fine with Trump as host of “SNL” even though he has proven time and again that for him, such things as basic decency are just things in his way. You know what to do, folks. Pester NBC on Facebook and Twitter, and also chime in on the “SNL” Facebook and Twitter feeds.
