I’d all but forgotten one of NBC’s previous demonstrations of its solicitude for Al Sharpton: letting him guest-host “Saturday Night Live” at the very time he was running for president in 2003. Brent Bozell denounced it back then:

Lorne Michaels, the long-time boss of “Saturday Night Live,” seemingly could care less whose lives were destroyed. Michaels raved to the New York Times, “He’s the guy who has the great one-liners, who dominates the debates. He just knows who he is and is comfortable with himself.” He told U.S. News & World Report, “I think Americans tend to trust people with a sense of humor.” The problem isn’t that Sharpton is comfortable with himself, although he shouldn’t be. The problem is that so many others who claim to revere racial harmony, rhetorical civility, and the truth are comfortable with Sharpton. Swap races, and imagine a white activist making a career out of falsely accusing blacks of rapes, leading marches that caused mentally unstable whites to kill in fits of rage. Does that reversed composite sound like great hosting material for “Saturday Night Live”? Who next, Lorne Michaels? Abortion clinic bomber Eric Rudolph? I bet he’s “comfortable with himself,” too. […] For “Saturday Night Live” and most of the chuckle-head political culture, livening up dreadful Democratic debates absolves all the horror. There is no need for unrepentant Rev. Sharpton to repent, because no one remembers what he has done.