-Caveat Lector-

Tuesday December 21 04:26 PM EST

NBC Flip-Flops on "Saturday Night Live"
Seems like NBC's got this whole holiday thing backwards--in what should be
the season of giving, the Peacock network is taking back its holiday gift to
the Anti-Defamation League.
Just last week, a network executive promised the ADL that NBC would remove a
controversial skit from the December 4 Saturday Night Live for any future
airings of the episode.

The ADL, a group that has been fighting anti-Semitism since 1913, had
complained that "And So This Is Hanukkah" sketch, featuring parodies of pop
stars singing holiday songs, was offensive. The group particulary fumed over
a mock Britney Spears singing that Christians have forgiven Jews for "having
killed our Lord." ADL national director Abraham Foxman wrote a letter to the
network saying the skit's gags "represented anti-Semitic stereotypes at their
worst." He called SNL's "lame attempt" at humor "unacceptable."

That prompted NBC's Rosalyn Weinman to write Foxman back with the promise
that the "problematic" skit would be cut from reruns. (SNL executive producer
Lorne Michaels, however, reportedly did not go along with Weinman, and said
the decision to excise the sketch was "still under discussion.")

But after the news broke that the bit would be edited out, some SNL viewers
called in to say they weren't really offended. So Weinman, the network's vice
president of broadcast standards, issued a statement Monday saying she had
changed her mind. "We have reviewed the viewer response to the 'And So This
Is Hanukkah' sketch and have decided that it will air again unedited.

"Today's environment makes our judgment calls in these situations
increasingly difficult because we must find a balance between being
politically correct and being funny in a non-hurtful way."

Weinman says the decision to do a 180 was hers and hers alone.

For his part, Foxman was saddened by NBC's about-face. "We find selected
portions of the skit offensive and not funny...We, too, have heard from
viewers, most of whom are avid SNL fans, who, nevertheless, believed a fine
line was crossed."

The SNL incident is the second time in a month that NBC has waffled over
content matter. Earlier this season, the network decided to delete the word
"tamale" from an already-filmed episode of Will & Grace after Hispanic groups
objected to its use in a scene between a white woman and her Latina
housekeeper.

When the episode was repeated a few weeks ago, "tamale" was edited back into
the dialogue.

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