The Young Turks

About

The Young Turks is a pop culture and political commentary web series on YouTube, known for the left-wing, progressive stance of the show's co-hosts Cenk Uygur and Ana Kasparian. The show is named after a colloquial expression for progressive revolutionaries, which references the Young Turks 20th century political political reform movement in the Ottoman Empire.

History

Radio Show

In 2002, Turkish American political commentator Cenk Uygur began hosting the show The Young Turks on Sirius Satellite Radio. In 2005, the show broadcast a 99-hour-long "filibuster" held in protest of the Samuel Alito Supreme Court nomination in the United States. On November 19th, 2010, The Young Turks held their last show on the Sirius network.

YouTube Channel

On December 21st, 2005, The Young Turks YouTube channel was launched, with the first episode titled "The Young Turks Deal w/ a Stupid Conservative Caller" (shown below). On December 20th, 2007, the channel released a video titled "Kate Moss sex tape and Jennifer Love Hewitt Playboy?", in which hosts Uygur and Ana Kasparian discuss various celebrity gossip stories (shown below, right). Within nine years, the episode received upwards of 3.9 million views and 700 comments.

On June 26th, 2008, the show released an episode titled "Mini Me Sex Tape – You Know You Wanna Watch!", featuring a discussion about a recently released sex tape starring actor Verne Troyer (shown below, left). In eight years, the video garnered upwards of 3.7 million views and 350 comments. On November 16th, 2009, the show released an episode discussing a woman who orgasms "300 times a day," accumulating more than 28 million views and 5,800 comments in seven years (shown below, right).

On October 6th, 2010, an episode titled "What Are Chicken Nuggets Made Of?" was released, in which the hosts discuss a viral photograph of "mechanically separated chicken" (shown below, left). Within six years, the video gained over 12.2 million views and 2,600 comments. On July 18th, 2012, the show published a discussion about a man with the world's largest penis, garnering upwards of 15 million views and 14,500 comments in four years (shown below, right). On July 3rd, 2013, a show about the Hawthorne police dog shooting was released, gathering more than 7.2 million views and 72,000 comments over three years.

On June 4th, 2014, the channel published a documentary titled Spent: Looking For Change, a film about the financial hardships of working class Americans (shown below, left). In two years, the documentary accumulated upwards of 12.1 million views and 2,500 comments. On December 16th, 2015, an episode criticizing Donald Trump's performance at a Republican presidential debate was release, which gained over 4.2 million views and 16,700 comments in one year.

Documentary

On April 7th, 2015, a crowdfunded^[7] documentary about the series titled Mad as Hell was released on DVD, which outlines the history of the show's creation.

Controversies

Armenian Genocide Denial

The Young Turks host Cenk Uygur has been accused of denying the Armenian Genocide based on an article about the genocide titled "Historical Fact or Falsehood" published in 1991.^[3] Uygur's co-host Ana Kasparian has defended Uygur, claiming he has since changed his mind about the event. On May 13th, 2013, Uygur participated in an "ask me anything" (AMA) post on /r/IAmA,^[5] where he did not answer the top-voted question asking "Why do you deny the Armenian Genocide?" On April 22nd, 2016, Uygur posted a public retraction of the 1991 article, which was later removed from the site.^[6]

2016 Republican National Convention

During the 2016 Republican National Convention, hosts Uygur and Kasparian engaged in a loud argument with Alex Jones after he appeared on the show, during which Kasparian referred to Jones as a "fat fuck" (shown below).

Reception

In 2009, received an award in the Political category at the Podcast Awards and the Best Political News Site at the Mashable Open Web Awards. In 2011, The Young Turks were awarded in the News category at the Shorty Awards and the News and Political Series category at the Webby Awards. In April 2013, the show claimed to be the "world's largest online news network" after reached over 1 billion views on YouTube.^[2] By July 2014, the channel reached 2 billion views.

Search Interest

External References