Public Biography
Jane Certain is an American broadcast journalist, commentator, and the co-host of “Point/Counterpoint,” the long-running opinion segment on NBC’s Saturday Night Live Weekend Update. She has appeared on the program since 1977, delivering reasoned, carefully structured arguments on matters of public policy that are, without exception, immediately followed by her co-host Dan Acrid calling her a name.
Ms. Certain holds a Bachelor of Arts in political science from Wellesley College (1968) and a Master of Public Administration from the Maxwell School at Syracuse University (1971). She began her career as a reporter for WBZ-TV in Boston, where she covered municipal government with a precision that her station manager described as “technically flawless and commercially devastating.” She joined NBC in 1975 and was assigned to Weekend Update in 1977, where she was paired with Mr. Acrid for a segment the network described in internal documents as “a measured exchange of ideas.”
The format of “Point/Counterpoint” is simple: Ms. Certain delivers a two-minute argument on a topic of national concern — healthcare, foreign policy, the federal budget, the ethics of zoning reform — with the composure and rhetorical discipline of someone who believes that public discourse can still function. Mr. Acrid then delivers a rebuttal that begins with “Jane, you ignorant slut” and proceeds from there. This has happened approximately 1,400 times. Ms. Certain has never once responded to the opening salvo. She has never flinched, blinked at an irregular interval, or adjusted her posture. A 2019 study by the MIT Media Lab’s Nonverbal Communication Group found that her physiological response to being called an ignorant slut is statistically indistinguishable from her physiological response to being handed a glass of water.
The segment has been the subject of extensive academic analysis. Dr. Priscilla Kwan of the Columbia School of Journalism described it in a 2022 monograph as “the single most durable model of asymmetric discourse in American media,” noting that Ms. Certain’s arguments have been cited in fourteen federal court briefs while Mr. Acrid’s rebuttals have been cited in none, although one was entered into the Congressional Record by a senator who later said he had been “making a point about decorum.” The Brookings Institution named “Point/Counterpoint” one of the “Ten Most Consequential Failures of Deliberative Democracy” in 2020, a designation that Ms. Certain accepted on behalf of the segment with characteristic grace and Mr. Acrid accepted by calling the Brookings Institution a name.
Ms. Certain is the author of The Case for Composure: Why I Have Never Raised My Voice and What It Has Cost Me (Knopf, 2018), which spent four weeks on the New York Times bestseller list and was reviewed by Mr. Acrid on air in a segment that the FCC declined to fine but described as “regrettable.” She serves on the boards of the Council on Foreign Relations, the National Press Club, and the American Society for Conflict Resolution, which gave her its Lifetime Achievement Award in 2021 in a ceremony Mr. Acrid was not invited to but attended anyway.
She lives in Manhattan and maintains what her colleagues describe as “an atmosphere of professional calm that borders on the geological.”
Notable Statements
- “I believe that if we approach this issue with the seriousness it deserves—” (the remainder of this statement was not audible)
- “The American public deserves a conversation about healthcare that rises above—” (see above)
- “I have never dignified it with a response, and I do not intend to begin now.” — The New Yorker, 2020
- “You get used to it by the four-hundredth time. By the eight-hundredth time, you achieve a kind of peace. I am now somewhere past the twelve-hundredth time, and I would describe my emotional state as igneous.” — Vanity Fair, 2023