Saturday Night Live 2018 finale kicked off with a Donald Trump skit that had the president questioning whether poking at him should be legal. Trump tweeted on Sunday morning that he thinks the late-night comedy institution's right to make fun of elected officials should be "tested in courts," implying that the program "can't be legal."
"A REAL scandal is the one sided coverage, hour by hour, of networks like NBC & Democrat spin machines like Saturday Night Live,” Trump wrote. “It is all nothing less than unfair news coverage and Dem commercials. Should be tested in courts, can’t be legal? Only defame & belittle! Collusion?”
If he's questioning NBC's right to provide uneven airtime to Democratic ideas, he's out of luck. The fairness doctrine was abolished all the way back in 1987. Also, the equal-time rule (which requires television stations to give equal time to political candidates who request it) doesn't apply here either, and it would be exceedingly difficult for a sitting president to win a defamation case against a comedy show like SNL.
If you're curious, the skit that got him riled up was a parody of It's A Wonderful Life that showed a version of the United States where Trump was never president. Check it out up top.
