MSNBC host Joe Scarborough on Thursday assailed Quentin Tarantino as a “pornographer of violence” and a “despicable human being,” arguing that the Academy Award-winning filmmaker was every bit as insensitive after the December massacre in Newtown, Conn. as anyone affiliated with the National Rifle Association.
“Here’s a guy right after Newtown that was unbelievably insensitive as anybody in the NRA. The things he said afterwards, just as insensitive,” Scarborough said on his eponymous program, “Morning Joe.” “And yet, this man was the toast of Hollywood despite the graphic violence in all of his movies including the last one that, again, was just praised to high heavens. He is a pornographer of violence. He has made hundreds of millions of dollars for people in Hollywood by being a pornographer of violence, by coarsing America’s culture, by bloodying America’s culture. And yet, he is still praised. When are we culturally going to start calling out people like this?”
Tarantino’s latest film, the shoot-em-up western “Django Unchained,” was released mere weeks after the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary, but the director has not hidden his annoyance with the criticism he’s faced from some during the ongoing national debate over gun violence.
“I just think you know there’s violence in the world, tragedies happen, blame the playmakers,” Tarantino said shortly after the shooting. “It’s a western. Give me a break.”
Scarborough suggested that President Barack Obama should stand up to Tarantino for making violent movies, and was critical of the media and Hollywood for showering the diretor’s movies with acclaim. “Django Unchained” netted Tarantino his second Oscar for best original screenplay.
“We’ll be glad to run the clips here every day of what a despicable human being he was after Newtown,” Scarborough continued.
It was hardly the first time Scarborough has lambasted Tarantino for his response to Newtown. In December, the conservative host called the filmmaker a “jackass.”
