Remember that Saturday Night Live video kerfuffle from back in October? NBC yanked, and then edited, its online video of an SNL sketch about the U.S. government’s bailout of financial institutions.

Why? A predatory sub-prime lender named Herbert Sandler got his undies in a twist, because he and his wife were lampooned over a C-SPAN video subtitle reading “People who should be shot.”

Why the fuss? I mean, the sketch had already aired. Plus, it was funny. And just a few weeks earlier, SNL’s yuk-yuks included a character accusing Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin’s husband of having an incestuous relationship with their daughter. You didn’t see Todd Palin crying to his lawyers.

Sandler has been accused of pocketing $2.3 billion while Wachovia Bank collapsed, and for popularizing a Machiavellian mortgage-lending scheme called “Pick-a-Pay.” Sandler sold his World Savings Bank and its Pick-a-Pay loans to Wachovia. Homeowners started defaulting in droves. And the tens of billions in losses spelled the beginning of the end for Wachovia.

Here’s how the New York Times describes it:

Continue reading ‘People Who Should Be Shot? Definitely.’