VTDigger.com has partnered with politifact.com and are now using their honesty lantern to check the state’s facts. In their latest fact-check, looked into a statement made by Agency of Commerce and Community Development Secretary Michael Schirling (formerly Burlington’s top cop) in response to a Saturday Night Live TV comedy sketch that parodied Vermont as “a Caucasian paradise.”  In his press release to Boston.com about the skit, Schirling said: “We invite SNL viewers to Vermont to see all that we have to offer, including our increasingly diverse communities and wide array of tourist destinations including the African American Heritage Trail.

Now is a perfect time to visit or to consider a move here. The leaves are changing and so is Vermont,” he said.

He also noted it was true “we do lack a good hip-hop channel,” plugged real Vermont maple syrup, and even generously sent a free (tax-payer-funded) load of Vermont flannel shirts to the cast of the NYC-based show.

Vtdigger.com dug into that response: The statement that Vermont is becoming increasingly diverse needs further clarification. Schirling does not explain that the increase in Vermont’s racially diverse populations is slight.

[…] The U.S Census information Shirling used showed that Vermont as of 2017 was 94.2 percent white [while] it had been 95 percent white in 2013. Vtdigger explained: From 2013 to 2017, the increase in the African-American population from 1.1 percent to 1.3 percent was not statistically significant. But the percent change in the Asian and Hispanic populations was: Asians went from 1.2 percent of the Vermont population to 1.8 percent, a 0.6 percentage point increase; Hispanics went from 1.5 percent to 1.9 percent, a 0.4 percentage point increase.

They rate his statement Half True.

One commenter on Vtdigger.com’s fact check  wondered:  “Who really cares what SNL spoofs? […] It’s a C-O-M-E-D-Y show, too bad people feel the need to defend VT from a comedy skit.”

Good question. Well, I wonder if the administration’s sensitivity can be traced back to an opinion piece early this summer during Gov. Scott and Sec. Schirling’ splashy roll out of their $10,000 move-to-Vermont scheme. The plan, part of Scott’s Stay to stay and Think!Vermont  promotional programs, targeted young professional people and planned to pay them to move to Vermont and work remotely out of state.

Wall Street Journal columnist Jeff Yang wrote the following in a criticism of the scheme for CNN titled The Problem with Vermont’s bright idea: What’s ironic is how inside the box its “outside the box” thinking really is. Because while Vermont could be taking this moment to bring new diversity to a state that’s the second-whitest in the United States, it’s instead investing in initiatives that could easily end up maintaining the state’s culturally monolithic status. If Vermont had aimed this policy at explicitly encouraging new Americans to migrate to the state (the policy does not), it would be redressing a significant shortfall in the state’s demographics.” [added emphasis]

Sure seems like the SNL joke touched a nerve in the image-conscious Scott administration over their expensive glossy promotional schemes. But if they are still into giving out free flannel shirts — I could use a couple, size large please — I’ll stay right here in Vermont.