In their post-Super Tuesday Redux coverage yesterday, MSNBC’s Brian Williams, Keith Olbermann, and Chris Matthews were discussing Saturday Night Live‘s effect on Hillary’s three-fer victories. Williams noted that Clinton had been invited to guest on SNL several times before finally accepting the invite for this weekend’s pre-primary appearance. Olbermann started to respond when Matthews, too excited too contain himself, began talking over him: “Dare we repeat what Tina Fey said was the new black?” Matthews asked, seeming giddy at the prospect of being able to repeat the b-word on live TV. (Pssst…Tina Fey said “bitch is the new black”! The b-word is “bitch”!) With a loud sigh, Olbermann re-interrupted Matthews: “There’s another word that begins with the same letter as ‘black’ does,” he acknowledged. “Let’s distance ourselves — especially you. Distance yourself as far as you can from that.”
You can watch the strangely telling episode here.
Megan Garber is an assistant editor at the Nieman Journalism Lab at Harvard University. She was formerly a CJR staff writer.