We were looking for that SNL "CSPAN" clip in which the billionaire husband and wife who sold Wachovia the "pick-a-pay" mortgage lending disaster Golden West were described as "people who should be shot." (below)
So, naturally, we started at YouTube. And of course we found the clip immediately. And, lo and behold, we also found that it had been uploaded by NBC (we assume) and was really just a clever ad for the NBC.com site where the video was available in a larger format in HD (see graphic below). So we quickly tipped our hat to the new signs of intelligent life at NBC.
And then it got even better. First, the clip on NBC.com was embeddable, which was a vast improvement over the usual network fare and which also meant we could actually use it. (We hope HQ will soon shove this trick down the throats of the folks at CNBC, who have lots of marvelous video that no one ever watches because it's on CNBC.com). The clip we wanted was a long clip, though, and there was no cool editing feature where we could show readers only the 30 seconds that mattered like there is on Hulu.
So, on a lark, we tried Hulu, which we were sure had been yet again shafted by NBC and would be getting the relevant clip by the middle of next week. But no! This time Hulu had the clip we wanted a mere 20 hours after SNL aired. And for all we know it had it immediately.
So a gold star for the folks at NBC Digital, who finally get the Internet. And now on to the clip. (It's funnier if you know the backstory, which is that Herb and Marion Sandler, the billionaire husband and wife who sold mortgage lender Golden West to Wachovia for $24 billion at the peak of the bubble, have since been vilified as scummy predatory lenders who sank Wachovia and triggered the housing bust. Herb Sandler was so angry about the skit that he granted an interview to the AP today to try to clear his name.)
