Cenk Uygur Just Took $4-Mill from a Conservative Source (but He's Still a Better Liberal Than You)

[Stand and Fight]

One thing that's always bothered me about the likes of Rush Limbaugh and Ed Schultz is that they're so bombastic even if they're at opposite sides of the political spectrum. Mike Malloy, Thom Hartmann, and Randi Rhodes fit that mold as well. However, I have been able to occasionally listen to them all -- save that bloviating opiated waste-of-space Limbaugh -- for years occasionally. That all changed last year. I stopped subscribing and listening to The Young Turks when they really ramped up the anti-Hillary/Clintons propaganda last year.

Cenk, as an ex Republican (along with the origin of the name "The Young Turks" being founded on Armenian genocide), has always struck me as a bit full of himself and possessed of that same piously righteous streak as Sanders in that he thinks his liberal view of the world is the only view. Stumbled on this interesting article and wanted to share it given the irony of his taking big money despite its origins. Meanwhile, they continue to wrongly decry Hillary Clinton taking money for speeches and how it's supposedly corrupted her. Maybe they should append that old Catholic honorary, "The Incorruptible" to "The Young Turks"? Mix it in some way? Maybe, "The Incorruptible Green Young Turks - Now with 4 Millions!"?

Here's the lead in to the article followed by an excerpt. There is much more at the link -- including some lively discussion. Enjoy!

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Cenk Uygur Just Took $4-Million from a Conservative Source (but He's Still a Better Liberal Than You)

A group headed by former Republican presidential candidate Buddy Roemer just inked a deal to provide $4-million in seed money to The Young Turks. Roemer is anti-choice, anti-gay marriage, anti-Obamacare and pro-torture, but hey, at least he wants to get money out of politics, which is enough for Cenk to think he's a-okay.

One of the pitfalls of running a for-profit media company that traffics almost entirely in one specific brand of political opinion is that your funding, and where it comes from, becomes especially relevant. If you spend all day espousing what you claim are strongly liberal views, then turn around and take a giant bag of money from, say, a former Republican candidate for president and governor of Louisiana who has worked against a woman's right to choose and in favor of the Defense of Marriage Act, people might accuse you of being a bit hypocritical.

Just a little while ago the Young Turks Network announced that it's inked a deal to get $4-million in seed money from a group run by Buddy Roemer. With the funding comes an option that could double the take for TYT, with the whole thing being made through Roemer's private equity fund, Roemer, Robinson, Melville & Co. Roemer himself is a pretty staunch conservative, despite having been a Democrat for many years and a late-career decision to try running for president as a member of both the Reform and Americans Elect party. In addition to his retrograde views on abortion and gay marriage, he also supported Arizona's draconian crackdown on undocumented immigrants, is pro-torture, and is for the repeal of the ACA, saying that it amounts to government interference in healthcare. In other words, the guy is the furthest thing from a liberal.

But as we know, a large-scale political bent isn't as important or desirable as it used to be. These days it's entirely possible to get away with treating politics like you do everything else: as something that can be split apart and consumed à la carte and on-demand. Pick which issue is most important to you, your personal sine qua non, and ignore everything else. Think drones and kill lists are the most pressing problem facing America right now? Congratulations, you can apparently #StandWithRand and still be taken seriously as a liberal, even though he's kind of a racist asshole. Think NSA spying matters more than anything else in the whole world? Hey, Glenn Greenwald has figured out a way to overcome the cognitive dissonance that should plague you if you choose to align yourself with otherwise repugnant creatures who happen to be anti-surveillance.

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