How to Survive Fox News as a Resident Liberal – Washingtonian.com

Sean Hannity was trying to contain an increasingly screechy debate about the Trump family on a recent episode of his eponymous Fox News show. His two guests were discussing the protests at a New York preschool attended by PresidentTrumps grandson. If I went after the Obama kids, I would probably have groups of people wanting me fired, Hannity said. Wait a minute

But red hot conservative rabble-rouser Tomi Lahren from TheBlaze wouldnt let it rest. Sean, if you go after Beyonc, youll have groups of people wanting you fired, Lahren told Hannity. Lets be honest.

Jessica Tarlov, one of a rotating cast of liberals who regularly appears on Hannity, punched back harder: Whats your problem with Beyonc?

You might not recognize Tarlovs name, but if you watch enough Fox News, youve seen her. Shes the lefty liberal the networks fans love to hatein a fond way, she insiststen times a week: as a fixture on the networks Saturday lineupand the millennial brunette in the Hollywood Squares of Fox panel programming.

Which also means Tarlov isone of the few liberal voices reliably in the Presidents ear. Inthe same moment scandal has demanded a Fox leadership upheaval, Trumps Twitter-dialoguing with what he watches has caused even more viewers to tunein. Ratings are through the roof, like epic, Tarlov says.Fox News continues to bethe most-watched cable network in America, which means Tarlov is one of Americas most-watched villains.

When I meet her at the Hay-Adams Hotel, Tarlov iswearing the same dark denim dress and the same high Fox hair she was in 25 minutes ago when she was talking about the Republican healthcare proposal on air. (I would never go on a first date coming straight from Fox, because its never going to look like this again.) The camera, though, missed the little touches. Her earrings in the shape of small sunglasses, the candy-covered Swatch she wears, her Adidas hi-topsunder the table.

Tarlov, 33, has been popping up on Fox for about two years now, long enough to see the chyron below her name change from Democratic Strategist to Senior Director of Market Research for Bustle, a news and lifestylesite catering to women. It was her old boss from her consulting days, fellow Fox contributor and Bloomberg pollster Doug Schoen, who emailed buddies at Newsmax and CNBC about booking his minion on their shows. Tarlovs first at-bat was a 2013 segment withKristen Soltis Anderson.Eventually, Fox called and kept calling.

Much to the chagrin of the Fox viewer, she says. You again? Yeah. Me again.

Despite growing up in Tribecasurrounded by show businessfather Mark is a film producer, momJudy Robertsis a writerTarlov didnt grow up wanting to be on camera. My sister is the TV person in the family, she says of younger sisterMolly, an actress fromthe MTV series Awkward. Tarlov took theacademic path instead: undergrad at leafy Bryn Mawr College, followed-up by a public policy degree from the London School of Economics. It was through Schoen, who Tarlov had met through her grandparents years earlier, that she ended up running social media for Boris Johnsons re-election campaign for mayor of London.

He has an appeal to people like nothing youve ever seen, very similar to how cultish people got about Trump, Tarlov says of Johnson, who is now the UKs foreign secretary. It was weird. Hed do something really embarrassing andhed get a poll bump. He could survive an Access Hollywood tape, too.

Tarlov sees her role, and the role of other longtime liberals at Fox like Juan Williams and Julie Roginsky, as a negotiation. To make information that the audience and even your co-panelists dont want to hear palatable and maybe also see the rightness in it is the trick, she says. You cant take yourself so seriously that youre like a harpy, just like yelling all the time. You cant do any of that.

Her formula is simple: smile when the anchor says your name, giggle or laugh when you can, and data, data, data. I am acutely aware of the fact that Im a solo rider, she says. If Im not prepared, I will lose in spectacular fashion. There are also the choices most viewers will never know about, like the decision to forego the Doctor that befits the Ph.D. she received at LSE.

I thought it was a little Doogie Howser, she says. I didnt want to fiteven though I guess I dosome liberal, elitist, ivory tower persona thats been created.

But even under all that conservative camouflage, haters find a way. After a Tucker Carlson Tonight segment on fake news, radio host and conspiracy theoristAlex Jones called her the 8-foot arrogant Brunhilda. After asecond face-off with Lahren, again on Hannity, conservative web host Mark Dice called her a liberal lunatic with fewer Twitter followers than Glad (shes since overtaken the best-selling trash bags). Her Twitter feed is a sea of nastiness, she says, and shes right. Viewers seem to hate her vocal fry as much as they hate her politics.

But there are conservatives who have watched me go from you-are-super-scared-to-be-on-TV to as comfortable as I am now who will defend me if they see people going after me, she notices, online and in real life.

Shes a level-headed liberal and opposition voice, Lahren says on the afternoonafter their thirdshowdown in as many weeks. When Hannity watched the two women bonding in the green room back in February, says Lahren, The first thing he said to us was Remember, you guys have to fight in a minute.

Viewers are responding to the segments between her and Tarlov, Lahren thinks, because theyre playful, but not a catfight. Tarlov is adept at deflecting unanswerable questionswith humor (A lot of handbags, she responded when Tucker Carlson asked where democratic consultants were stashing money after the election)and smart enough to get in on the jokes people tell at her expense. She callsthe video Mark Dice made about herreally mean, but its really funny. To promote an upcoming podcast appearance, Tarlov quipped: If my voice annoys you, thisll be rough.

Trickier to throw off course, though, are her liberal detractors. While Tarlovcan be a relentless advocate for whatshe calls the liberal way of life (and once asked Trump campaign spokesperson Katrina Pierson to explain what she meant by family values 7 times in 60seconds), there are those who think thatDemocrats who go on Fox are sellouts or shills.Tarlov lands an answer that sounds somewhere between a reason and a rationalization.

They think if youre there, you must be like Joe Manchin, like a faux kind of Democrat, which the self-described Hillary-hawkis not. I think it is so much more valuable to be a strong voice for liberalism in that environment than to potentially risk having someone else come on, because that segment is going to get filmed.

Its an interesting time to be atFox. The networks political ascendancy has been marred by whats happened within the organization since last summer, when former hosts Gretchen Carlson and Megyn Kelly, among many others, publicly accused the channels founder,Roger Ailes, of sexual harassment.

Tarlov, who learned about the allegations when everyone else did, says she heard no warning grumblings. And while she never had any issue herself,shes bullish about the new regime.I know how great Bill Shine and Suzanne Scott are now, who are at the helm of it, and [the owners] theMurdochs, as well, you know they run a ton of successful companies, she says. And the sons its widelyyou know, theyre more liberal than Rupert Murdoch or than the organization maybe was run before.

So what does it feels like to be a resident liberalon Fox right now, knowingthat Donald Trumpis watching each night, maybe in his bathrobe?He doesnt own a bathrobe, Tarlov deadpans, except all the bathrobes hes been photographed in.

But then she gets serious: It feels really special and such a unique opportunity. Because when President Obama was president, he wasnt ever watching Fox News.

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How to Survive Fox News as a Resident Liberal - Washingtonian.com