This one's gonna leave marks. On Monday's Full Frontal, Samantha Bee pointedly criticized the news media for giving Donald Trump hundreds of millions of dollars worth of free publicity, taking special aim at NBC. At the Emmys on Sunday, Jimmy Kimmel blamed NBC's The Apprentice and its producer for launching Trump's candidacy, and Bee agreed that by keeping Trump's reality show while Trump was peddling his "birther" conspiracy, "NBC tacitly condoned a race-baiting demagogue." But then she took the unusual step of singling out her peers in late-night comedy, namely Saturday Night Live and The Tonight Show.
"To their credit, NBC did sever ties with Trump after he called Mexicans 'rapists' — if by severing ties you mean inviting him on their flagship comedy programs to show millions of Americans what a fun guy he is," Bee said. She showed a clip of Trump on SNL, asking why he was hosting the show, and she responded for him: "I don't know. I guess because ratings matter more than brown people? Sure, he's making life palpably dangerous for Muslims and immigrants, but hey, he's good entertainment!"
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