One of Fox News Channel’s most detested and most mocked co-hosts, “The Five” co-host Jessica Tarlov, had to apologize live on air for what she characterized as her poisonous behavior, admitting that most of cable news is a flaming dumpster fire of nonsense, lies, and venomous emotions.
That came when Tarlov was speaking to a man named Larry Sabato, who is both the founder and director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia. During their discussion, Tarlov asked Sabato what subject most infuriated him, and he replied that the cable news dumpster fire is what really gets him mad.
Explaining as much during his discussion with Tarlov, which came during his appearance on the Prof G podcast, which Tarlov co-hosts, Sabato noted that social media is toxic enough, but cable news amplifies it in all the worst ways. He said, “I watch more TV news than I ever have before. TV funnels what’s selling on social media, I think, more than the reverse. That makes me rage.”
Tarlov, for her part, admitted both that cable news is a disaster and that she has played a role in making that happen. She said, commenting on the poison-spreading aspect of cable news, “It does.” Tarlov then apologized for her role in pushing that along, saying, “As someone who’s on cable news, I apologize to the entire world for what we export.”
Sabato chuckled at Tarlov’s admission, and then noted that social media has made already contentious political problems all the worse and the discussions around them even more venomous than they otherwise would be. He said, commenting on that problem, “There’s nothing we can do about social media.”
Continuing, and elaborating on that problem, he seemed to foist the blame mainly on social media, saying, “The one thing I’ve been waiting for that I was promised as a young person was a time machine. We still don’t have one, cause I’d love to go back and make it impossible to create social media. I don’t know how I do it, but I would try to do that.”
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Commenting on a related matter in a series of emailed comments to the Daily Beast, Sabato accused President Donald Trump of unfairly targeting schools and public-facing parts of the private sectors like media organizations, saying that they want to just keep their heads down but Trump will target them eventually.
Beginning that hand-wringing and pearl-clutching commentary about what President Trump is up to, Sabato claimed, “I’ve personally seen the effects of Trump’s intimidation of media companies, law firms, and yes, universities.” He added, “The solution they’ve adopted seems to be, ‘Let’s keep our heads down, stick to a lot of both-sides coverage, and then Trump will target others.’ It hasn’t dawned on some that Trump will eventually get around to slamming them too, as well as misusing the power of government to exact revenge.”
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video