Hillary Clinton's new momentum has political junkies fixated on the influence of popular culture on politics. Gushing videos by supporters of Barack Obama prevailed on YouTube until a satirical late-night TV comedy skit made Clinton seem victimized by reporters. In the MSNBC debate just before the Ohio and Texas primaries, Clinton made a rather awkward reference to the Saturday Night Live skit. Suggesting that she was getting tougher questions than Barack Obama, she asked if the reporters didn't want to get him a pillow. Did that influence news coverage of the campaign? How important was it for Clinton to laugh at herself with Jon Stewart? Have TV and movie portrayals of black and women presidents helped to make possible what used to happen only in fiction?
Saturday Night Live, Hillary Clinton, and Pop Culture and Politics
Credits
Guests:
- James Poniewozik - chief television critic for the New York Times - @poniewozik
- Leslie Savan - Contributor, Guardian America
- John Ridley - Screenwriter, Director and Novelist; "Let It Fall"
- Robert Thompson - Professor of Television and Popular Culture at Syracuse University