Photo: Rosalind O’Connor/NBC
A couple of weeks ago, an activist accosted Alec Baldwin in a coffee shop, phone-camera first, demanding the actor speak out on behalf of Palestine — right there, on the spot. As Baldwin demurred, the activist needled and provoked him with deeply personal insults until the actor smacked the phone out of his hand. It’s only a slightly heightened microcosm of what it must feel like at this moment to be anyone with a high-profile platform as the world’s biggest, most combustible, hardest-to-civilly-argue-over news story drags on into its eighth month.
Since Saturday Night Live has provided a running commentary of topical comedy for 49 years, the show is saddled with unfair expectations…
