Tarantino Gets It Twisted

Quentin Tarantino just doesn't get it.

In an online conversation with Bill Maher, the filmmaker praised Fox News for putting Democratic strategist Jessica Tarlov on "The Five." Tarantino said that Tarlov has one of the "hardest jobs" in television, having to appear each day on the right-wing channel's top-rated show and counter the talking points of her Donald Trump-supporting colleagues.

But, soon after, the conversation with Maher took a turn. While giving kudos to Tarlov and Fox News, Tarantino questioned MSNBC's commitment to ideological diversity: "How come," he asked, "there isn’t that person on MSNBC?"

To be clear, there are plenty of conservatives who are staples on the progressive news channel: Nicolle Wallace, the former White House communications director under George W. Bush; Michael Steele, the former chair of the Republican National Committee; Tim Miller, the former communications director for Jeb Bush; Charlie Sykes, the longtime conservative talk show host; and Amanda Carpenter, the former communications director for Ted Cruz, to name a few.

Tarantino is aware that some of these conservatives are MSNBC regulars. He just seems to think that they all have transformed into liberal talking heads.

"They'll say Nicolle Wallace. But no, you turned her," Tarantino declared. "You turned her a decade ago. A decade ago!"

"Michael Steele! I love him. But no, you turned him," Tarantino added. "He switched sides a long time ago."

The truth is that Wallace, Steele, and the stable of conservatives on MSNBC have not "turned" into left wingers. They have simply chosen not to align with Trump's dangerous lies. Rather than promote his toxic rhetoric and poison the public discourse, they have stood up to their former party and spoken out against the damaging behavior exhibited by its current luminaries.

Does that mean they aren't conservatives who might prefer the governing principles of the old GOP, such as advocating for a small government and paying down the national debt? No. It means that they have chosen honesty over deception, unlike the vast majority of today’s Republican Party and right-wing media.

What Tarantino seems to want is for MSNBC to feature MAGA Republicans. In making the argument, however, Tarantino stumbled — perhaps inadvertently — on one of the key challenges confronting television news networks.

Given Trump’s propensity to lie and warp the truth, hiring his supporters as analysts effectively means paying people to mislead the public. To defend Trump requires refusing to acknowledge reality. It requires advancing bad-faith arguments. Would it be good practice for a news network to actually pay for that? Of course not.

That is why when NBCUniversal News Group did try to hire former RNC chair Ronna McDaniel as a paid analyst, the company was roundly criticized, including by its own anchors. There are glaring ethical problems associated with handing a microphone to a dishonest political operative. Broadcasting lies does indeed carry consequences.

Which is all to say that while it might be tempting to equate a Democratic strategist like Tarlov with a Trump-supporting Republican, doing so is tremendously misguided. There is no equating the two — and Tarantino should know better.