Controversial streamer Hasan Piker ribbed Fox News host Jessica Tarlov during a panel discussion at Crooked Media’s Crooked Con on Friday.
Piker and Tarlov were joined on stage by host Jon Lovett, MSNBC’s Symone Sanders Townsend, and Tim Miller of The Bulwark. At one point during the conversation, Tarlov was discussing the appeal of Fox News.
“And Fox captures that—that there are people who have kind of like a shared core set of values, maybe, but they’re not taking themselves that seriously. They’re not scolding each other. Like, it also matters in the quality of the programming. It looks great. Our graphics are beautiful. Our lighting is fantastic. Are you making a face?” Tarlov said, turning to Piker — who has stirred past controversy with statements calling the U.S. the world’s “top terrorist” and once said, “Give Saudi Arabia a nuke so they can do 9/11 2.”
“Look, I’m your Fedayeen. I am your biggest die-hard fan. But no, I don’t think the Fox News graphics are beautiful. I respect what you do, especially because if I had to sit next to Jesse Watters and Greg Butfeld the entire time, I would kill myself. The fact that you have been able to successfully sit in that room every day and just white-knuckle through J.C. Watters’ snide-ass remarks is impressive,” Piker replied.
“Thank you. And it is nice to be amongst my people, which I’m usually not—cautiously weaving through here. But my point, and bring it up, and you don’t have to love our graphics, even though they’re copied in every movie and things like that, it’s like the official look of it,” Tarlov replied.
“The PR people love Jessica. She is a favorite of the Fox PR folks,” Sanders Townsend quipped.
“Nothing is taken that seriously. And that’s not the case in liberal media. And that doesn’t mean you’re not talking about serious things, but there’s this feeling like it is not the end of the world in every topic that you’re discussing. And this idea that we can just go and show up in conservative spaces or come for an hour—and you have to be open to those kinds of things—doesn’t capture how hard it is for people who vote like me and some of the things that I think, to genuinely form bonds and interact on an ongoing basis with people who you disagree with,’ Tarlov continued, adding:
An hour, two hours, three hours is not getting to know the other side. Living amongst them and spending time with them is. And I think that’s why I’m able to do my job and have a reasonable therapy bill—like not insane, but… We know each other like the family that it looks like, which is dysfunctional, but it’s still a family. And people who watch the show—and we have 20% Democratic viewership—still get that. Sorry, it’s not maybe not the answer you guys wanted. Actually, I do want to…
“You’re not getting a lot of claps because you’re defending Fox News in this room,” Piker replied.
Watch the clip above.
