Mad As Hell (2014) - full transcript

[ Man ]
I don't know why,
but I've always had...

what I think
other people would call
delusions of grandeur.

[ Laughs ]

I always thought
that if I'm gonna be
a talk show host,

of course I should be
the top talk show host.

I should be the biggest
talk show host in the country.

You could take
the so-called best host on TV,

and I don't view them
as competition. Um--

[ Man #2 ]

They don't do what I do.

The way I do it?
I don't think anyone else
does it better.



I don't think
anyone's even close.

I am so mad
I could hardly see straight.

And I seem to be the only one.

I don't understand what the hell
people are thinking.

What's wrong
with the established system?

Fox News is propaganda
for the Republican Party,

MSNBC has become propaganda
for the Democratic Party...

and CNN is propaganda
for both of them.

What the audience
was thirsting for was somebody
to come out and tell the truth.

We're supposed to challenge
the government.

That's the role of the media.

So why did we pick
the "Young Turks" name?

Because it meant
young progressives...

looking to overthrow
the established system,



and that's exactly what
we've been trying to do
on this show,

no matter whether we're
on radio, online or on TV.

So good night, everybody.

[ Steve Oh ]
The guy who sees things
that other people don't see,

who believes things
that no one else believes,

the guy who, some say,
talks too much.

The guy who has exasperated
and inspired me for 30 years,
Cenk Uygur.

Today we are the largest
online news show in the world.

But I want to start
at the beginning.

This isn't just
a story about us.

It's a story
about what can be done.

That when somebody tells you
that something can't be done,
it's not true.

Anything can be done.

Everyone had to do this?
God, it's miserable.

Fuck.

Cenk is a very smart,
opinionated, bombastic,

outgoing personality who has
a lot of opinions and wants to
share them with the whole world.

Right away, um,
I knew he was different.

Most people
either love him or hate him.

And I didn't quite
know where I fell on
that spectrum in the beginning.

I guess my first
really formative memory was that
Cenk was just pretty annoying.

When I first met him, you know,
he was kind of, uh,

I kind of thought he was
kind of a loudmouth,
uh, which he is.

Cenk likes to talk,
and back then,
he liked to fight.

I don't know why,
but ever since
I was a kid,

I've been obsessed
with injustice.

[ Swaluck ] By the time Cenk was
in college, he was really
into this politics thing.

My first impression of Cenk
was he was a complete jackass.

He was the one
that made class impossible
to sit through sometimes,

because you knew
there was gonna be a fight,

and you knew there was
gonna be an argument,

and you knew it was gonna be
total nonsense.

I would say he identified
with the Republicans...

and called himself
a conservative,

even though I don't think
he really knew
what he was talking about.

He was probably
the most conservative person
I knew.

He used to laugh
at the bleeding-heart liberals.

He always liked arguing
conservative principles
in class.

I actually didn't disagree
with some of the stuff
he was saying.

But what I had a problem with
was the way in which he'd
said it was so over the top,

so outrageous, so embarrassing.

He became kind of unbearable.

I mean, I didn't see it,
but he would tell the stories,

and the stories themselves
were unbearable.

I kept raising my hand
and raising my hand,

and in the lunch break,
when the girl
sitting next to me said,

"Why do you
keep raising your hand?

Why do you think
you know something...

that you just need to share
with the rest of the class?"

I said, "Because I think
I'm right, and you guys
need to hear it."

First time I was
on national television
was on CNN.

It was a show hosted
by Greta Van Susteren,
of all people.

They had actually called
for my roommate, because
he was in Georgetown Law,

and they wanted people
in the back row
who could contribute...

as they had their guests on
that were in law school.

Well, I said, "Oh, he's not in,
but I'm perfectly happy
to do it."

They shouldn't be interested
in just winning. They should
be interested in justice.

And-And so the-the guilty
are convicted,

and the innocent go free.
[ Uygur ] Are you interested
in justice, Mr. Cochran?

I mean, you went in there.
You weren't
a court-appointed lawyer.

You represented a person
which a majority of America
thinks is guilty,

and you helped to set him free,
and you did it
for money and fame.

Are you interested in justice?

I'm absolutely interested
in justice,

and perhaps I understand justice
a lot better than you do.

Justice in America is a strong
advocate on both sides...

doing their job, and--
[ Uygur ] It didn't have
to be you.

and a jury decides that.

[ Uygur ]
I never got back
on that show again.

He announced-- because Cenk
likes to make pronouncements
and announcements--

He announced that what he likes
to do is have opinions
and think about things...

and then share them
with the rest of the world.

So what's the perfect job
for that kind of personality?

It's to be a talk show host.
How do you be a talk show host?

Well, you can get a start
on public access television.

Because it's public access,

they're obligated to give
anybody in the community
a slot on their show.

Like, "Really? In America,
they have to give you
your own TV show?"

For free.
It was the most amazing thing.

** [ Eastern News Theme ]

* Young Turk *

** [ Singing In Turkish ]

Hi, welcome to The Young Turk.
I'm your host, Cenk Uygur.

We're live on October 10, 1997.

I fear we have an extraordinary
show for you tonight.

[ Uygur ]
And I remember walking off
that set thinking,

"That's it. This is
what I'm gonna do
the rest of my life."

Who's the one politician
you'd most like to sleep with?

What-- What kind
of TV station is this?

The wild and woolly
Young Turk.

[ Man ] When Cenk was doing
his show, he was also working
as a corporate lawyer...

for a big firm in DC.

[ Uygur ] My job
was to defend corporate officers
on their liability litigation.

So when a CEO
screwed someone over,

screwed their own company over,
screwed investors over,

we were there to help them.

[ Dogan ]

I remember within a week, he was
just calling me and being like,
"This job is the worst."

I felt dead when I was doing
that job.

When I do this job,
I feel alive!

[ Uygur ]
I kept daydreaming about
how I could be a talk show host.

[ Koller ] And eventually
he decided that he wanted
to focus on that full time.

I said, "I got a great
business degree, I got
a great law degree,

I got an idea.

Why don't I throw them
in the garbage...

and start a public access show?"

- "Cenk!"
- "Wh-- What?"

"I heard about you! You better
come in here and we're gonna
have a talk right now."

"So I heard you stopped
being a lawyer and now
you're doing TV.

What the hell is TV?
TV ain't nothing!

TV's crap!
It's nonsense!"

We'd go to his house, and we'd
always be uncomfortable,

because he'd be like,
"Kenan, what do you think
of this crazy Cenk?"

His plan was to basically
live off of money
from his friends and family.

And I thought that
was so selfish.

I was, like, "Look, everyone
wants to be a rock star.

Everyone wants
to be a movie star.
You want to do it?

Keep your day job.
How much more do you want
from your parents?"

I thought, "What's the point
of living if you don't follow
your passion?"

So I was not supportive at all.

In fact, I thought
he would kind of suck
as a talk show host.

We do a show basically centered
around the news.

But it's a lot of BS.

The whole point is for me
to yell and scream
and tell you what I think.

The show was-- It was bad.

Uh, I just wanted to say
I don't like your attitude.

But, Norma, I love you,
you know that.

I hope it affects the issues.
I hope I get people
to think like I do.

Okay, no, no, no.
Now, you view it as negative,
I view it as positive.

Doesn't mean
that I'm not doing justice
to the issue.

That's the beauty
of The Young Turk.

I'm getting the sense, Norma,
that you're gonna disagree
with that.

Norma, I still love you!
You know that!

A nose job!

And he loved espousing
his conservative
and Republican principles.

In particular, Cenk
just despised President Clinton.

Bill, that's it. That's enough.

Now, I'm looking for blood.

I hope they prosecute
your sorry ass...

for concealing
subpoenaed documents--

And then, when the Monica
Lewinsky scandal happened,

it was a hoot and a holler
and I was having a good time.

I did not have sexual relations
with that woman.

I just love the thought
of Bill Clinton sneaking out
in the middle of the night...

as Hillary's sleeping--

[ Uygur ]
I didn't have
any problem with it.

The guy's the president
of the United States.

He's the most powerful man
on Earth.

Can't he get a blow job
every once in a while?

But then I thought it was weird
that the Republicans
were taking it so seriously.

And then they said they were
going to impeach him for it.
I said, "What?"

You don't impeach a president
for having an affair.

[ Oh ]
He didn't like Clinton,
but he still defended Clinton...

because he thought
that the attacks were unfair.

[ Uygur ] So I started to get
a little disillusioned
with the Republican Party...

because they didn't really
care about the principles.

They just seemed to care
about vindictive politics.

That's a problem.

What's up, Norma?

Good. How are you?

It has. Norma, don't think
I've forgotten you.

Agreed. See, Norma, you thought
that there was nothing beautiful
about me,

that there was probably nothing
you could agree with me on.

But you were wrong,
weren't you, Norma?

Thank you. Thank you.
I love to hear that.

In a strange way,
I kind of admire Cenk.

Even back then.

You know? He was going
to make his opinion.

He was gonna do
whatever he was gonna do.

He created quite a large, loyal,
but very local following there
in Arlington, Virginia.

They actually were crazy enough
to write a Young Turk song.

And they are here
to perform it live.

[ Audience Cheering ]

It was right out of, like,
Wayne's World.

[ Uygur ]
Sing it for me.
** [ Up-tempo Ska ]

This show is really--
I mean, you're intelligent,
you're good on camera,

and the whole show,
I really like it.

[ Man ] You ought to try to
get this on one of the networks.
Puts Oprah to shame.

Young Turk should be--
You guys gotta go
syndicated here.

Absolutely.
Couldn't agree more.

I promise this show
will go national.

If it's the last thing I do,
this show will go national.

[ Oh ]
Those fans become
very loyal fans...

because they know
that even when he's saying...

something that you completely
and utterly disagree with,

you respect him because you know
that he's saying it
from the heart.

At every point
in-in a show's history,

there comes a time
to take it to the next level.

[ Uygur ]
One day, I read
in Broadcasting and Cable...

that there is some new shows
that they're trying...

at this station in Miami
called WAMi.

[ Man ]
What?

[ Both ]
What's a WAMi?

[ Parrot ]
WAMi 69.

[ Uygur ]
And then I found out one day...

that they were auditioning
for entertainment reporters...

on their main show
called The Times.
I said, "That's it."

[ Koller ]
He got in his car
and drove down to Miami.

[ Dogan ]

Show Time's now.
Here's the new big man
on WAMi's campus, Cenk Uygur.

I had my first interview here
at The Times,

and it was with my favorite
female brad--broadcaster
of all time.

The irrepressibly sexy
Connie Chung.

It's still
a male-dominated profession.

People like you.

[ Mankiewicz ]
He couldn't read the prompter.

He was sweating.
He was nervous.

And you know, it's like,
it's not normal sweat,
it's Turkish sweat, right?

- Back to you, Ben.
- Thank you, Cenk.
Welcome aboard.

Guys, excuse me.

Don't push me.

He was horrible on the air.

I mean, it was a train wreck.

[ Uygur ] Did you relate
with Lester Burnham at all,
or did you--

Of course.
Mm-hmm. How about--

I think everyone
will relate to Lester Burnham.

Uh, what made you
come out and talk about
the ridiculous rumors...

about your, uh--
about the-the gay situation?

I-I-I-- You know,
I've discussed that
about as much as I care to.

[ Mankiewicz ]
Everybody was
incredibly uncomfortable.

So let's kick him back to sales,
or we'll get rid of him.

That was the biggest
gut punch I've ever gotten
in my career or in my life.

I was devastated that night.

I was--
because I was, like, so hopeful!

I had finally made it on air,
on television,
on this station that I liked.

And then it got yanked away
in a day and a half.

God, it hurt.

[ Mankiewicz ]
But you could see
it was well written.

He just had interesting opinions
on everything.

Really interesting opinions.
Different than other people.

I was like,
"No, let's just have him write."

So, uh,
I definitely owed Ben that job.

And we started
writing the show together.

And next thing you know,
I started producing the show.

Next thing you know, I started
doing on-air commentary
on Friday about politics.

Here now, a man never lacking
for an opinion,

Times pundit--
that's what we're calling him--
Cenk Uygur.

Cenk, we're going to start
talking about George Bush.
Is it legit--

[ Mankiewicz ]
When I met him in 1999,
he said he was a Republican.

[ Koller ]
When Ben started
explaining to Cenk...

why some of his so-called
Republican conservative views
were not quite right,

Cenk actually
listened to him.

Friends from New Jersey
were saying this to him
for years,

but he-- he didn't listen
to them as much
as he listened to Ben.

I wanted to be
for Bush since I'm a Republican,

and I voted for John McCain
during the primaries in Florida,
but he lost.

I think you have to be
un-American to vote
against John McCain.

[ Uygur ]
I thought, "This Bush guy
is just not that bright."

Expectations are so low,
all I had to do is say,

"Hi, I'm George W. Bush."
[ Audience Laughs ]

He was scared, because it was
the first time he was ever
gonna vote for a Democrat.

And Ben was like, "I told you.
You're not a Republican."

If he hadn't done that, man, his
credibility would have been shot
for so many years in the future.

I think it would have really
harmed him.

[ Woman ]
Uh-oh, something's happened.

George Bush is
the president-elect
of the United States.

He has won the state of Florida,
according to our projections.

[ Man ] Vice President Al Gore
has called Governor Bush...

and retracted his concession.

[ Uygur ] Al Gore,
for the love of God, stop.

Bush won this election--

I mean stole this election,
fair and square.
Let's be done with it.

I voted for Gore,
but there comes a time
when you gotta bow graciously.

Otherwise, I think
you ruin your chances in 2004.

Our station has been purchased
by the Spanish-speaking network
Univision.

Now to honor the--
our new employers,

The Times has instituted
a brand-new tradition--
the mid-show siesta.

Ah, que bueno.

Maybe this sale thing's
not so bad after all.

[ Uygur ]
We didn't speak Spanish,
so we had to get a new job.

I thought, "I gotta go back
and get my own show."

Cenk came out to LA,
and then he wanted to set up
this company, The Young Turks.

[ Uygur ]
Problem is, again,
on a national level,

it's nearly impossible
to get your own TV show,
so I had to go into radio.

[ Radio Announcer ]
Wouldn't it be great to hear
exactly what you want on radio?

[ Uygur ]
I went and talked
to Sirius Satellite Radio,

and a guy there said, "Make
a couple of audition tapes,
send it to us,

and if we like it,
we'll put you on the air."

And I did it by myself,
and it was pretty good.

So we're at the bar,
and Cenk says
that he's done this show,

and it was okay,
and "it was a little tough
to do on my own."

And I'm like, "Yeah, I'd
love to do a talk show."

And so I asked Ben,
"Hey, do you want to do
a radio show together?"

We sent it to Sirius,
and they said, "All right.
We're gonna put you on."

But if we went
to a radio station,

it was gonna cost
so much money,
we couldn't afford it.

So we set it up
in my living room.

We brought in Jesus
as an intern, but he didn't know
how to do anything either.

You have this idea that,
"I'm gonna do this internship.

It's gonna be at a studio.
It's gonna be fancy.

I'm gonna have to check in."

[ Uygur ] He says that when he
walked in, he's like, "This
is some dude's living room."

I don't know
how serious this is.
This can't be real.

[ Uygur ]
I met Jill Pike
in 2001.

I thought she'd be perfect
for the show.

[ Pike ]
He started talking to me...

about this radio show
that he had created...

and he was hosting
and that it was big.

He was this big talk show host.
And I said, "Oh, really?"

'Cause when I thought
radio show, I thought,
like, big studio,

and, you know,
major microphones.

It literally--
It was almost like two cans
and a wire.

[ Koller ]
I actually was
a radio talk show fan.

I like talk radio.

When I saw that I had a job
that I hated...

and that he was starting up
and needed some help,

I decided, "You know what?
Let me take a chance."

I'll just quit my job,
drive out to LA,

help him do this
and help him start it up.

[ Godoy ]
When I first met Dave,

I realized that he didn't know
more than I did.

Then you find out he has
a degree in geology,

and you're like, "Seriously?
Geology? And you brought him--"

And he has, like, arguably
the worst people skills
in America at various times.

[ Uygur ]
"Your friend
seems a little weird."

And I said, "He is."

So when I moved to LA,
I didn't want any of this
bullshit fooling around.

I want to work as much
as possible so that we can get
this thing off the ground.

[ Uygur ] At some point,
someone at Sirius realizes,

"Oh, these guys have
a radio show on our station.

I wonder if we should
pay them. I wonder
if we should keep them."

[ Koller ] They agreed to give
The Young Turks...

a live daily show
on their political talk channel.

[ Uygur ]
That was a big moment for us.

And so we moved
from my living room
to a really small office,

and it was tiny,
but it got the job done.

[ Man ]
I was brought on as an intern.

I was like, "Well, let's--
any kind of broadcast,
let's see what it is.

It's political? Eh,
I don't care about politics,
but let's see what happens."

[ Uygur ]
Michael is a guy I've known
ever since I moved to LA.

[ Michael ]
We had fun. I enjoyed it.

But I didn't get it.
I didn't know what was going on.

I knew that I was going
over to talk on the radio...

and that this would somehow
segue into something
for all of us.

I mean, that was the idea.

[ Uygur ] I met Wes Clark Jr.
at a fund-raiser for his dad
when his dad was running in '04.

And then I said to him,
"You know what?
You sound great.

So you want to come and guest
host our show once?" And he did.

I just remember thinking,
"What the fuck is
this guy's name?"

Like, 'cause I-- "Chink,"
"Jink," "Zinc," "Sync."

I mean, I didn't--

[ Dennis Miller ]
And your name is... Cenk Uygur.

Nicely done.
I'm sorry, Cenk.
I'm sorry.

Cenk wanted to get on TV
so desperately.

Where was
the political bias?

Where was everybody screaming
about the political bias...

when they savaged Clinton
over Whitewater, which
turned out to be fictional.

And I didn't see the
conservatives complaining
about political bias then.

They went after for Clinton
for eight long years.

[ Audience Applauds ]

Clinton's a great guy.
He never did anything wrong.
We apologize, um--

He got a surplus.
He got us a great government.

He didn't invade
countries illegally.

He just had sex.
And you know what?

I don't mind that.
I'll take that any day.

He's a good match
for you.

So after a couple years of doing
the radio show for Sirius,
Cenk had yet another one...

in his series of epiphanies,
announcements
and pronouncements.

The way to go is not TV, it's
not radio, it's video online.

I had this idea that
I was positive that
the Internet and TV would merge,

and that when they did,
that we should be
right in the middle of it.

[ Pike ] If nobody's gonna
put us on the air, then we'll
put ourselves on the air.

People weren't doing what Cenk
had envisioned at the time.

[ Mankiewicz ]
I was not part
of that conversation.

But I reacted to it
like I think
a lot of people did.

Like, "No, you don't want to do
a show on the Internet.

That means you didn't succeed."

There's nobody, really,
who had an ego.

Well, there was Ben.

[ Mankiewicz ] I thought,
"Okay. I don't really want
to have to do anything for it."

I just wanted
to do the damn show.

I liked doing the show,
but I didn't like all the stuff
that went with it...

and this constant sort of notion
that whatever we were doing
was not enough.

My fellow citizens,
at this hour,

American and coalition
forces are in the early stages
of military operations...

to disarm Iraq, to free
its people, and to defend
the world from grave danger.

When he suggested
attacking Iraq,

when Iraq
had nothing to do with 9/11,
I couldn't believe it.

It was the craziest thing
I'd ever heard.

Forty-three percent
of Americans...

believe that Saddam Hussein was
personally involved with 9/11.

That is the worst failure
of the mainstream press
I have ever seen. Ever seen!

Our original idea was that we'd
talk half about politics,
and half about J.Lo's ass.

That was what we always said.
That was our line.

And then we went to war.

Killed thousands
of American soldiers...

and hundreds of thousands
of-- of Iraqis,

and, like, it seemed
a little ridiculous to spend
half the show on J.Lo's ass.

It is inexcusable
that the people
do not take these--

No, this--
Absolutely it is.

You know, your argument,
Michael, I mean,
I hate to do this.

But it's so tired,
blaming the American people.

[ Pike ]
And the show became much more
heavily focused on politics.

We had, you know, I think what
we thought a higher purpose...

than just sort of, you know,
yammering on and on about,

you know, whatever
we wanted to talk about.

We really have to
investigate why isn't it
a bold-face headline...

on the cover of Time, Newsweek,
New York Times, Washington Post?
[ Uygur ] They don't do it!

You're talking about one story.
The stories that are
in the article...

are never goddamn mentioned
in the goddamn headline!

You know, it's--
it's impossible
to talk to you about it.

No, because--
Here, I'll show you.

I was always playing
the straight man
to Cenk's over-the-top.

"USA Safer, Bush Says."
Okay--

USA Today, you suck balls!

Pretty hard to be
the co-host when one guy
is at that decibel level.

But it was genuine.
He was mad.

Goddamn it, they've failed us!

And if you're not angry
about that, Michael,

and any of you out there,
then you're goddamn wrong!

'Cause you should be angry.

Young Turks.

When they started
torturing people,

it's like, "Oh, this party
has gone from bad to hideous."

Quickly thereafter,
I was embarrassed that
I had ever been a Republican.

If you asked me to
vote for a Republican, I'd say,
"Yeah. Yeah, that's a good one.

[ Laughs ]
That's a good one."

Now Cenk was really obsessed
with being the mouthpiece
for the liberal blogosphere.

Because you're
a Republican prick.

He would come in every day
looking for whatever crap
he could say...

about abuses
that George W. Bush was doing.

Unitary executive doctrine,
uh, in its mildest form...

claims the president has
the power to appoint, control
and remove executive officers...

and interpret the law
as it pertains to his office.

That means one ruler
to rule us all.

The whole fucking country
was designed to avoid that!

His sort of natural bigness,
sort of-- I thought was sort of
taking over the show.

And I'm a bad partner for that.

I sort of withdrew
from his vitriol
when he was getting so angry.

Jill didn't, and they were
starting to bicker more.

I wanted Jill to focus on more
of the pop culture news...

and less of the hard-core
political news.

[ Pike ] But his belief was that
only a select few of people are
really interested in politics,

and you're gonna get a wider
audience if you start talking
about some of the fun stuff.

And I just didn't trust
his vision.

You know, I thought
he was making a judgment on me.

You know, like,
"You're not smart enough
to be on the show,

so we're gonna put you on some
of the more softer content."

[ Uygur ]
She thought she would
rather do the whole show,

or, I think,
not the show at all.

I wanted to prove myself,

you know, that I--
that I was smart and that
I could absolutely,

you know, fill a role
in the political conversation.

And so I decided
to move to Washington, DC,
and just stick with politics.

So you're telling me
that August 15, you're done.
You're going to DC.

Moving
to Washington.
Mm-hmm.

Wow.

I'll be there.

I originally got hired
as a temp here at TYT.

Okay, sounds good.
So it's a win-win
for everyone.

All right. I feel like
I'm in an episode of The Office.

Right around then,
Jill was leaving.

So we decided,
"You know what, Ana?

Why don't we try you on
the other side of the camera?"

This is Ana Kasparian,
if you've never met her before.
Hello.

[ Uygur ]
She wound up
becoming one of our co-hosts,

and as everybody knows,
now is an absolutely integral
part of the show.

You may or may not
agree with that rundown,

but look at it
and change the order
so I can let Jesus know.

Oh, you stole
one of my stories.

We'll see what happens.

Our contract with Sirius
comes up,
and they love the show,

they're going to renew it,
and they're offering us
a quarter of a million dollars,

which is fantastic, more than
we've ever gotten before,
we were really excited about it.

At the very end
of the contract talks,
they say, "Oh, one little thing.

You're not allowed
to do online video.

You're exclusive to us,
and obviously you'll stop that."

And I said,
"I don't want to stop that."

They said, "What are you
gonna do? Turn down
a quarter of a million dollars?

You're gonna do
what we tell you to do."

I have never doubted somebody
more repeatedly through my life
than Cenk.

And I turned it down.

[ Koller ] All those years
when we were not paid
or underpaid or lowly paid.

It was such a grind
working at TYT.

I always had those moments
where you feel like
"What am I still doing here?"

Now, did we think he was crazy?

Not in year one.
Not in year two.

Maybe year five.

Year six, there started
to be like, "Wow, this is
really gonna take a while."

[ Oh ]
Who can do that?

Who can just come
to this country and just say,

"You know, I'm going to be
a talk show host,"
and then just become one?

We didn't believe
in him.

It ain't easy, man.

And if you're ever
pursuing your dream,
and it's against long odds,

there are going to be moments
where you feel alone.

And I guess the only way
to get beyond it
is just to push forward.

How in the world am I gonna
do this without any money?

'Cause we had
to keep doing the show.

We were gonna sell clips
of the show on iTunes, we were
gonna do merchandising.

All these things that never
wound up happening.

Instead, what wound up happening
was YouTube.

YouTube?

Who goes on YouTube?

[ Godoy ] Back in early '06,
you know, video streaming was
just coming to birth,

and the view count
was horrendous initially.

But we had
nothing to compare it to.

The whole idea that we would do
a show and it would be cut up
into YouTube clips,

I was a part of that
when that started happening
on the show.

I wasn't involved
in any of those conversations,
and I didn't buy it.

I didn't believe it.
I didn't care.

I'm like, "Why clips?"
And then after the show,
Cenk was--

gathered everybody around,
talk about what clips to take.

And I'd be like, "Whatever."
I mean, I'm so--
I'm such an idiot.

It's so great. I just--
The whole thing, I missed.

I mean, I was literally a part
of the YouTube revolution,

and I was totally out of it.

You know what you
start with online?

Zero viewers.

Flat-out zero.

You know what
your lead-in is? Zero.

You know what our marketing
budget was? Zero. Okay?

And we all we had
was the TYT army.

Our fans are
really, really supportive
of what we do.

Almost to the point where you
can call them overzealous, and
in a good way. In a good way.

When I heard you guys wanted us
to send videos, I was like,

"Of course!
Of course I need
to send a video."

TYT reports the truth,
even if it's hard to stomach.

And I always felt like
I was getting the real story,
a full-picture story.

For the first time,
politics, you know,

it-it clicked in a way
that it had never before.

They talk about the influence
of money on politics.

They talk about
the actual interests
of the politicians themselves.

You guys care about the facts,
but you also just keep it real.

Cenk keeps it-- nah--

keeps it real...
whatever the hell that means.

Right now, I think the media
is fundamentally broken
in this country...

'cause they don't
serve the audience.

They serve other constituencies,
such as advertisers,
corporate interests, et cetera.

Hence, they're not being honest
with the audience.

This deficit commission,
I mean, it's beyond a joke.

It's a slap across the face to
middle-class Americans, saying,

"We don't give a damn about you.
We're coming for you."

This is class warfare.

You never hear people
in the regular media
talk like that, do you?

Now we're gonna be
this much of a sucker...

that we're gonna sit here
and let them take
more and more from us?

Oh, hell no!

[ Oh ]
This guy, on this little,

brand-new, rinky-dink
Web site called YouTube,

is speaking truth to power.

That is when The Young Turks
really start to gain...

that critical mass
of followers online.

This award is given
to publicly known figures
who tell it like it is.

And is there anyone more
deserving of the Emperor Has No
Clothes Award than Cenk Uygur?

[ Applause ]

[ Oh ]
So the TYT fan base
was growing very rapidly.

It got to a point where whenever
Cenk and I went out somewhere,
someone would recognize Cenk.

Do you mind
if I get a picture?

[ Uygur ]
No. I don't mind at all.
What's your name?

[ Oh ]
Sometimes they'll approach
and say, "Oh, uh, excuse me.

But are you Cenk Uygur,
The Young Turk?"

I'm like, "What?"

I had no idea
about what Cenk was up to...

after we finished that class.

Uh, he was somebody
I didn't really
much think about...

until one day, randomly,
all of a sudden,
there he is.

Is this some kind of joke?

This-- This is
like the biggest scam.

I mean, this was somebody
who was a right-wing kook.

[ Uygur ] Now let's go
in the opposite direction...

and go to hate voice mails
left on The Young Turks
answering machine.

[ Man #1 ] Fuck you,
son of a bitch, motherfuckers,
cocksuckers, fuck you.

[ Man #2 ] Somebody ought
to torture your goddamn ass.

The things that Cenk
has said on the show...

seems to be
more fueled by passion
than the facts sometimes.

My side is right.
The other side is wrong.

And it just was opinion.

I-I don't read
the YouTube comments,

and I never have,
and I never will.

And anybody who reads them
and bases any decision on them
is a fool.

When you argue with people,
and you're against
their beliefs, they get mad.

They don't suddenly say, "Oh,
there's some common ground here
and we'll work it out."

They get pissed off.

That said, when I do read
a comment about me
and it's positive,

I think that's awesome.

[ Lewitinn ]
I think Cenk now is--
he's more entertaining to watch,

especially if you're on
whatever side he's on
at the moment,

and he's your cheerleader,
then it's cool.

[ Kasparian ] For years after
I started at TYT, we were
like this happy little family,

and we did our thing every
single day for, I think, about
three years after I started.

I need people to understand
what's going on.

Okay? Over the last couple
of weeks, for example,

we've been averaging
600,000 views a day.

Beating most of the cable shows
in America,

just on our YouTube channel.

When the YouTube money
started kicking in,
we're like, "Oh, fantastic.

We can actually
grow the show now."

[ Oh ] I could see Cenk's
excitement and enthusiasm,
and I was very happy for him.

At the same time,
I wanted to be part of it.

[ Uygur ]
Steve came on later as our,
uh, chief operating officer.

[ Oh ] He needed someone
to help handle the business side
of the business,

because Cenk did everything.

The network is growing.
There are more and more shows.

There are more
and more employees.

[ Man ] I'll say it's the same
from the YouTube perspective,

when I have to tag title
thumbnail clips,

and it's midnight
and 1:00 AM and stuff.

Like, I'm just trying
not to fall asleep, and, like--

It's just not as good work.
It's just not.

Yeah, I need you--
everybody to buckle up, right?

Because it's gonna be
really hard either way.

And also with the members,
these are people
who are paying.

They're paying because
they want to support us.

So maybe, you know, if we go
in a different direction,

I think that we
may lose some members.

If someone brings good evidence,
I'm the most open-minded man
in America.

Cenk rides the line and goes
back and forth all the way
in either direction...

of being very humble
and being very, uh, confident.

For the life of me,
I can't remember who said it,

but I was talking to a reporter,
and they said,

"So, uh, are you guys
the largest online news show
in the world?"

And I was like,
"Oh, shit. We are." Okay?

And that's fucked up.

Okay?

That's awesome.

That's it.

We're the largest
online news show in the world.

So everybody can tell us
how our ass tastes.

Okay, we fuckin' rock. Okay?

Three hundred million fuckin'
people have watched our show,

which is
un-fucking-believable.

When you walked
in that living room,
if they said to you,

"300 million people
are going to watch
this show one day,"

would you have
believed it?

When Cenk makes a really
big statement, I really think
he does believe it.

He needs that motivation,
he needs to give
a football coach speech.

We are the largest
online news show...

in the fucking world, okay?

We're there right now, okay?

We are one of the largest...

online news commentary shows
on YouTube.

W-Would it have been
better if I came in and said,

"You know, golly gee, wouldn't
it be great if we were the 17th
largest online news show?"

I mean, that would have been
absurd, right?

So we set a high standard,
and we met it.

We're gonna tell everybody...

until everybody writes,
"Young Turks, largest
online news show in the world."

And I-- Like, when I
say things like that,

I don't know whether
to believe it or not,
except apparently it's true.

I don't really believe
those speeches,
but he needs those speeches.

-He gives them all the time.
-I think that's what drives him.

Even though it's not always
true statements,

they're statements
that keep him going and keep him
striving to be the best.

[ Uygur ] We've been
doing this show a long time--

over six years now,
from Sirius Satellite Radio
to YouTube.

And throughout, these Bush guys
scared the hell out of me.

We have made it.
America has survived.

Barack Obama...

is the next president
of the United States of America!

America,
it's good to have you back.

[ Shure ] We were all
just drunk with happiness
the night Barack Obama won.

We felt like
we had accomplished something.

And I'll never
forget that feeling.

It almost makes me well up
thinking about it now.

It was such
an exciting moment.

By people who waited three hours
and four hours...

because they believed that
this time must be different.

[ Uygur ]
Barack Obama is going to agree
to do offshore drilling.

Why is this a terrible idea?

Since then,
what has happened?

The president
has already authorized...

10 more deep-water
drilling expeditions
in the Gulf of Mexico.

Those wells are going
to continue straight ahead.

It isn't just
about offshore drilling.

It isn't about
any single issue.

It's about the fact
that you never fight.

And he's in the process,
actually,

of becoming
a puppet of big business.

This is not
the second or third compromise.

This is the 128th compromise.
In a row.

I have two words for you:
predator drones.

[ Audience Laughs ]

You will never see it coming.

I-- This is not
the Bush administration.

This is
the Obama administration.

It's not that Bush
didn't do this.

It's that Obama has expanded it.

"Change you can believe in."

[ Man ]
It's mass murder when you say,

"We're going to bomb this area
because we believe
a terrorist is there."

Twenty-one women
and 14 children.

Those people were murdered
by President Obama
on his orders.

[ Uygur ]
Look, the system is corrupt.

It has corrupted
the Democratic Party.

I'm-- I'm not going
to support the Democrats.

If anything, I'm going to attack
the Democrats 10 times more.

Because there was the faction
within the progressive movement
that said,

"No, no, no, play nice.

Uh, they will deliver
and they'll win, and they'll do
this and they'll do that."

Well, they didn't,
and they lost.

Now I can't have you
sitting there going,

"Oh, he doesn't
like the Democrats.
He must like the Republicans."

No. That doesn't make any sense.

We have to start
doing it on our own.

And if any politician
doesn't agree with that,
rip them down, man!

Rip them down!
And I don't care
what party they're in.

But if you're hoping
against hope that Obama
will do the right thing...

and the Democratic Party
will do the right thing,

well, that hope
got extinguished tonight.

It's over.

So we had elected
President Obama for change,

and we were so frustrated
that we didn't get that change.

And apparently
he didn't hear us.

So we've got to get to the place
where he actually hears us.

And what does he watch?

What do all the politicians
in Washington watch?

They watch cable news.

Now Cenk had another one
of his series...

of big announcements,
pronouncements and epiphanies.

And now he said,
"Well, the evolution from being
an online video...

is to make a TV show.

How are we gonna get a TV show?
We're gonna get on MSNBC."

It went all around back to 1996
when he thought that he was
going to go straight onto TV.

MSNBC has opened up
its 10:00 time slot.

They are looking for a new host
in that time slot,

and they say they do not have
any leading contenders.

I would like to officially
announce my candidacy
for that spot.

[ Koller ] His idea was to make
a grassroots effort to get
all of our loyal fans...

to pressure MSNBC to hire Cenk.

This is our moment.

They sent in e-mails,
they sent in pictures of them
holding TYT and MSNBC signs.

[ Oh ] Eventually Phil Griffin,
who's the head of MSNBC,
called Cenk for a meeting.

Phil wanted to get Cenk
on the air and try him out
as a guest host.

Participating with us tonight,
Cenk Uygur,

the host of the progressive
talk show, The Young Turks.

Good evening to you both.
Thanks for trying this.

Thank you.

[ Man ] Bring in our panel,
blogger, host of The Young
Turks, Cenk Uygur.

Cenk, I always have
a hard time with your last name.

One of these times,
I'll get it right.

The biggest reason
that Cenk, I believe,
is where he is today...

is because the audience knows
how authentic and sincere...

his commitment
to actually pursuing...

an agenda that moves
this country forward is.

It gives me
great pleasure, Cenk,

to introduce to America
the Youngest Turk,

Prometheus Maximus Uygur,
ladies and gentlemen.

Anyway, congratulations.
[ Man ]
Congratulations.

Thank you so much.

Pro's brought me
a lot of luck,
'cause ever since he was born,

a lot of great things
have happened in my career.

[ Oh ]
Dylan called to see if Cenk
would fill in for him...

while he was out on vacation.

In America Today,
Wall Street is exacting its own
revenge on the Democrats...

by withholding
campaign donations.

[ Oh ] After that,
Cenk started filling in
for Ed Schultz as well.

Welcome back to The Ed Show.

I'm Cenk Uygur, The Young Turk,
sitting in for Ed Schultz.

He'd fill in
for whoever was not there.

[ Oh ]
Cenk was doing great
as a fill-in host,

but it doesn't really count
unless you have a contract,
and he didn't have a contract.

He was not getting paid,
and it just dragged on
and on and on.

[ Makeup Artist ]

Our show and MSNBC.
That's the only game in town.

Wow! No one has offended
the 9/11 victims' families
more than Glenn Beck has.

And so, you know what?
Ground Zero is hallowed ground.

I'm sure conservatives
would agree.

Now normally
that fill-in thing
takes a lot longer,

except we're
murdering it, right?

Like normally, they'd want to
try somebody out forever--

[ Jackson ]
Oh, I see.
to feel comfortable, right?

But they feel a hell
of lot more comfortable...

when you're tripling
CNN's ratings as a fill-in.

Okay? So, we'd have
to fuck it up somehow,

which is entirely possible,
but given this trajectory,

it's the sound
of inevitability.

Right.
Okay.

Cenk, did you see
that hilarious headline?
No. What?

"Ed Schultz Drowns
In Turkish Bath."

[ Uygur ]
Oh, for fuck's sake!
Who wrote that?

Do you get why
that Politico article
is so damaging?

Do you really think
it's that damaging?
No.

It's not damaging.
It's awesome.
No, no, no, listen.

Come on, guys.
Think about it.
If--

Is Ed Schultz
gonna want me
to fill in for him...

if there's articles
about how I did better
than him in the ratings?

That's why I told everybody,
"Do not compare me
to any other MSNBC host."

That's
a terrible idea.

All that's gonna do
is piss off MSNBC.

Because that's not
an interesting lead
that I beat Ed Schultz.

What's interesting is I beat
CNN and Headline News combined.

A fill-in host beats CNN
and Headline News combined.

That's fucking interesting,
right?

Anyway, all right,
we gotta get started.

[ Man ]
Would you define Hamas
as a terrorist organization,

or is everyone
on the side of these guys,
supporting terrorism?

Okay, hold on, Jordan.
Let me answer, right?

Ahmadinejad was elected too.
Is he great?

[ Uygur ]
What am I gonna do?
First of all, he cheated. No.

And it was--
That doesn't mean they're not
a terrorist organization.

Oh, for the love of Christ.
Is this guy ever gonna
let somebody answer?

Our government, my government,
your government.

No, no, no.
Shut up. Shut up. Okay.

Listen. You asked me
a question 28 times.

I'm in the middle of answering
and, "Blah, blah, blah, blah,
blah, blah, blah, blah, blah!"

We're worried about
what MSNBC is gonna think...

because of the way Cenk
handled that interview.

That's the only thing
I'm concerned about.

Because when you, as a host,
tell someone you're interviewing
to shut up--

I mean, of course, if you're
the head of a major network,
that's gonna raise a red flag.

My opinion is that guy
needed a tall glass
of shut-up juice, okay?

And I have zero problems
with telling him
to shut the fuck up.

Because he wouldn't
shut the fuck up.

I started with trying
to have a real conversation
with him, right?

And he wouldn't do it
'cause he's a fucking dick.

In real life
what I would do is say,

"Now shut the fuck up,
and I'm gonna tell you
what it's about."

They don't do that
on television, and that's
why television is boring.

Okay? And Bill O'Reilly
does do it,

and you might think
he's a dick, but he's also
number one on television.

We're just worried
because we're
slight pussies, right?

And we're worried
about MSNBC.
Am I right or wrong?

Can I say
one more thing?
Do you think "shut up" is fine?

One thing that I noticed
is he was really good
at playing the...

"I'm a calm,
levelheaded individual.
[ Hanc ] Yes, yes.

And this individual
over here is getting
outraged and going crazy.

Look at how unreasonable
and illogical he is."
Exactly, exactly.

Right. Now, people
do that trick
all the time.

That was a trap.
Right, that's
a right-wing trick, right?

I don't think
it's that big a deal
to lose your temper over that.

Like, do people
consider it quote, unquote
"unprofessional"?

Because that's just what
we're used to on television.

For everybody--
For all the hosts
to be fucking milquetoast.

To say, "Oh, yes, well, then
let's be very calm and quiet...

and I'll let you roll over me
with a fucking steamroller,

because you
won't shut the fuck up."

And you know, "Blah, blah,
blah, blah, blah," and tell
all your points, okay?

All your points that you
keep repeating without answering
the fucking question.

Well, then
I'm gonna steamroll
your fuckin' ass.

Everybody, earmuff the kids.

Go take your bullshit,
wrap it up and put it
back up your ass!

Sick, sadist fuck!

[ Oh ] So over the years,
Cenk has said many things
on video that are,

to put it lightly,
controversial.

Did we lick your ass enough?

Then we're gonna ask you
have you had it
in the mouth, and then--

Aw, come on.
[ Babbles ]

I'm totally turned on.
[ Grunts ]

I can't believe
you said--
I can't believe I said that.

He would rip anyone,

anyone that he thought
was selling out,

anyone that he thought
was being unfair or unjust.

Our media sucks balls.
They take two giant balls.

As much as you--
And put 'em inside
their mouths at the same time.

And some of those people
who were attacked were people
who worked at MSNBC.

By the way,
I spent all of yesterday
trying to avoid Chris Matthews.

Every time I saw him,
I was like--
[ Oh ] Why?

There's a great chance
he saw one of our clips on him,

which were horrible, right?
[ Laughing ]

We're going to destroy
Chris Matthews.

When the Republicans
were in power, Chris Matthews
sucked up to them.

Now when the Democrats are
in power, he sucks up to them!

No, you idiot,
you're a tool.
You child!

I didn't want to destroy
Chris Matthews.
He made me do it.

[ Oh ] So our concern
was that if MSNBC brass...

ever came across
these videos,

that Cenk's tenure at MSNBC
would be over in a heartbeat.

Assuming that there
were no floating time bombs
on the Internet about me.

[ Hanc ]
Right.

Then, yeah, I would get hired,
because I am gonna get
good ratings next week,

and that's how it works,
and you get hired.

I'm not trying to, like,
be humble or anything.

I'm saying,
there's a million land mines.

They're gonna go off
at some point,

and TV's gonna
get scared, right?

All the shit we've said?
It's fun. It's good.

It's good television.
So television will be scared.

You're not gonna
give it back to
the American people, are you?

They put it every year.
Every single year that comes
out of our paycheck!

We put it in,
and you're saying
we were suckers!

[ Mimics Phone Ringing ]
He wants to talk to you?

Yeah.
[ Mimics Phone Ringing ]

[ Mimics Phone Ringing ]
[ Laughs ]

Is there any chance
you'll ever do Olbermann?

I'd be kinda scared to fill in
for Olbermann. I know that's
a funny thing to say.

Even though it has
light parts of the show,

it's so serious,
I'd be afraid of screwing it up.

Maybe I'm intimidated
by Olbermann, and I'm afraid
that if I do his show,

he's gonna look at it
and go--

Good evening from New York.
I'm Cenk Uygur.

Keith Olbermann
has the night off.

You tried to reach out
to Republicans and
didn't really fight back...

on some of these issues
that you think you should have
gotten credit for.

Or maybe we just need
more people listening
to your radio show, Cenk,

and they'd get the--
they'd get the true facts.

Look, I--

They wanted me to rip
his fucking mustache
off of him.

[ Oh ]

And they're right.

[ Koller ]

We're in a new stage, Dave.
We're building bridges
as opposed to burning them.

But don't worry.
Once we build them--

All I'm saying is that's all
Obama and all those guys
are saying.
No, no.

[ Cenk ]

[ Laughing ]

[ Koller ]
Then in early 2011,
Keith Olbermann leaves MSNBC.

This is
the last edition of Countdown.
Good night, and good luck.

From the moment
Keith Olbermann started,
we were on his side.

So I feel good that we have done
our job in supporting others.
Now it's our time.

Our prime time schedule here
at MSNBC has been rejiggered
to take account...

of Keith Olbermann
ending his run on Countdown
this past Friday night.

[ Jon Stewart ]
Olbermann was
a five-tool player:

rage, ego, wit, scholarship
and, most of all, bombast!

Is there no one on MSNBC
that can shoulder
this Olber-burden?

[ Uygur ] Then in the middle
of January, I got a call
from Phil Griffin saying,

"Hey, listen, I need you
to be ready to go on the air
fairly consistently."

They say at the beginning
of the year at some point,
they want to give me a show.

[ Kasparian ] Oh, wow.
It looks like
this move to New York...

is inevitable, right?

- It's a matter of when.
- If I get a show,

we're definitely moving,
like, all you guys.

Is there anybody
who wants to stay in LA?

[ Godoy ]
It was a lot for me
to think about.

I'm married. I have a house.
I have all my family here.

The upside is,
if I get a show, we're not
gonna run out of money.

[ Koller ]

Hey, hey, be cool.
All right?

So, I'm just
concerned that, you know,

we're gonna rely
on MSNBC stuff,

we're gonna do less TYT stuff,
and our audience
is gonna dwindle down.

We have to be
like De Niro in Heat--
walk away in 30 seconds.

If we go to MSNBC,
we never lose track
that we're TYT.

That won't be us.
[ Koller ]
That won't be us.

He sees TV as... making it.

Like, if you're in TV,
that's the end-all, be-all.

And I think that online
kind of has the stigma...

of not being credible,
and he wants to be credible.

[ Interviewer ]
How do you feel now that
you're kind of at the verge...

of having this dream come true?

I always think
of that scene in Miracle,

that goofy hockey movie
where Kurt Russell's the coach,

and he works so hard,
et cetera, and when they
finally beat the Russians,

he goes off by himself
in a hallway
and is just, like,

"Yes!"
Right?

And I've always dreamed
of that moment.

If we get a big fat TV contract,
and we think that's gonna be
great in a lot of ways,

that'll definitely be
a bit of a, you know,
Kurt Russell moment.

And I'm telling you,
before you know it,

I'll be back on your TV
doing a national show.

I guarantee it!

[ Koller ]
He goes to New York
to do a show every day.

[ Oh ]
Being with MSNBC
was good and bad.

We wanted to give Cenk
more credibility,

have his name
be more well recognized.

Yay!

There it was.

The downside is he had to film
out of New York City.

Hello, hello.

What's going on?
Let's hope
a good show.

[ Man ]
Fifteen seconds.

Stand by.
[ Chris Matthews ]
That's Hardball for now.

More politics ahead
with Cenk Uygur.

[ Director ]
Three, two, one.
Fade up, mike cue.

Welcome to the show.
I'm Cenk Uygur,
and I've got news for you.

[ Register ]
I was very excited because...

he's on television,
you know,

instead of me
going home and be, like,

"Oh, yeah, I work
for The Young Turks, you know,
uh, Cenk Uygur is a--"

And they're like, "Who's that?"
And I'm, like, "He's on MSNBC."

"Oh."

He's been doing the 6:00 PM
Eastern time slot.

So it's been awesome
because it's getting TYT
a little more exposure,

and... that's a good thing.

Thank you
for watching this show.

And Hardball,
which is excellent,
starts right now.

Good show. All right,
have a great weekend.

The advantages
of old-school media
are awesome.

[ Interviewer ]
Yeah.
Like flying business class.

Uh, getting driven
to places you want.

Our fans felt that,
you know, MSNBC was number one,

and TYT was number two,
and Cenk was not giving our show
enough time and effort.

And it was true.

By the time
that his show ended,
he had to just haul ass,

set the equipment up,
and then, you know,

dial in and work with Ana,
and just chemistry
was just not quite there.

It just sucked.
It was not a good show at all.

A lot of our members
dropped out.

It was a really bad time,
in my opinion.

Guys, I know some of you are
frustrated members and stuff.

Believe me,
we're busting our ass over here.

Thank you so much
for your patience.

[ Godoy ]
The longer he's in New York,

the more we're thinking,
"What's gonna happen
to our online show?"

All they need is Cenk.
They don't need us.

Are we gonna move?
And if so,
when are we gonna move?

When should we start
looking for places?

Let me preface this
by saying there's a lot
of good news/bad news.

Phil Griffin,
he seems pretty intent on, uh,

having me in New York
in the long run.

I guess that's good news
in that I am much
more likely to be hired.

Like, always mysterious.
Always cryptic.

We never know
what's happening.

All right,
here's the sense
I'm getting,

uh, from the LA studio.

This news
is not well received.

[ Oh ]
I have to believe
that Cenk was biased,

because he was getting paid
by MSNBC for the first time
in his career,

and without MSNBC,
he was back to his tiny
little salary.

You know, now he's married,
and, you know,

he has a child
and he needs that money.

I felt that
he was making excuses
to stay at MSNBC.

[ Interviewer ]
How do you like New York?
Living here.

If I had time to breathe,
I'd rather enjoy it.
Doing both shows is tiring.

We moved The Young Turks
to the morning.

So far that's worked out
pretty good,

because then I get more
energized and excited...
[ Phone Chimes ]

about doing the show.

And-- Oh, God.
[ Phone Chimes ]

The level of stress on him
during that period of time,
from what I saw,

was beyond the amount
that any normal person
should ever agree to endure.

I don't have any time to read.
I gotta read these e-mails.

I gotta read these texts.
I gotta listen
to the voice mail.

I think the executive producer
is outside the door.
I gotta talk to him.

And I was supposed to read
all these articles.
[ Chimes ]

And then there's another text.
What am I supposed to do? Right?

[ Woman ]
I'm very worried about him,
to tell you the truth.

Because he's a man
in his 40s now,

and I think he's got
an incredibly stressful job.

Because he takes it
so to the heart.

This is his life.
He lives this
from morning till night.

I spend about five minutes a day
in here when I'm not working.

[ Laughing ]
So--

If that's the dream,
I'm not sure it's
that great a dream.

I wish he could
have his family with him,

but it's just the way things
are that they can't be.

Hello!
Hey, baboo!

[ Babbling ]
[ Laughing ]

Ah-ooh.

Ah-ooh.

[ Uygur ]
He can't crawl forward,
but he crawls backwards.

Maybe he's already
a Democrat.

[ Uygur Laughs ]
So he sits there and
watches me when I'm on.

But Wendy says
that when other hosts are on,
he's, like, "Mmm."

And when I'm on,
he's like--
[ Chuckles ]

[ Prometheus Babbles ]

All right.
Good night, baboo.
[ Wendy ] Good night, Papa!

Good night, baboo.

[ Oh ]
I get a call from Cenk.

He says to me,
"You won't believe
the meeting that I just had."

[ Interviewer ]
Hey, how are you?
Hey!

Welcome home!
How's it going?
How was your day?

Good. It was
an interesting day.
Yeah?

Yeah.
What made it
so interesting?

Well, I had a meeting
with, uh, the head of MSNBC,

one that has
some interesting ramifications.

Anyway, bottom line is,
Monday I'm back in the studio.

You guys fucked up.
I'm coming for ya.

[ Interviewer ]
How does it feel
to be back in the LA studio?

Yeah, fucking awesome.

Is there gonna be
any interesting announcement
or anything today?

We do have
traumatic news today.

First of all,
let me tell you something...

that will not go out
for a long time.

Monday--

Okay, this is totally
confidential.

It goes nowhere, okay?

Uh, the head of MSNBC...

talked to me and said,

uh, he heard from Washington
that I'm being too harsh.

[ Uygur ]
He talked about how,
uh, outsiders are cool...

and they wear leather jackets
and they ride bikes and,

uh, he'd love to be an outsider,
"But, Cenk, the reality is
we're not.

We're insiders.
We're part of the establishment.

And you gotta start
acting like one."

I couldn't quite believe it.

I sat back thinking,
"This is like out of a movie.

Who says this stuff?"

Honestly, the thing
that they hate the most...

is when I keep saying
all the politicians are corrupt.

Right? They're all bought.
They're all bought.
They fucking hate that.

[ Uygur ]
They're Team Obama, man.

So they hate it when I
criticize Obama. Hate it.

He started to get that look,
the same look that he had
at the law firms...

where I knew
he couldn't bear it anymore.

And I said,
"Oh, my gosh.
He's gonna quit."

[ Clark Jr. ]
They hired him
for who he was,

but if you're not gonna let him
be who he is and tell the truth,
fuck 'em.

[ Oh ] Instead of quitting,
he said, "That's it. I'm just
gonna do the show my way."

I'm not gonna listen to this.
I'm gonna go balls to the wall.
Okay?

But what he did was he started
attacking the president...

much more than MSNBC
was comfortable doing.

If President Obama
is doing the wrong thing,

I'm not gonna tell you
that he's doing the right thing,
so I can, quote, "Support him."

Please, no more half measures.

This country elected you
because you ran
on the message of "Change."

Instead we got pocket change.

Now if it's not good enough
to pull us out of this rut,

then they're gonna say,
"Progressive ideas didn't work."

Have the courage
to give the American people
the change you promised them.

[ Uygur ]
When it came time
to make a decision...

on who was gonna get
the 6:00 show,

Phil called me in and said,
"Hey, Cenk, we're gonna go
in a different direction."

And they're gonna move him
to the weekend and give
that spot to Al Sharpton.

But resist we much--

we must,
and we will much...

about... that...
be committed.

They offered him some bullshit,
early weekend morning spot,
but actually at double the pay.

Over a million dollars over
a three-year contract at MSNBC.

But I viewed that as a demotion
when it was totally
not warranted.

He didn't get what he wanted,
and he thought that that would
sort of tarnish him...

as sort of losing
the 6:00 slot and being
banished to the weekends.

He knew that the MSNBC
opportunity was an experiment.

[ Oh ] I said to him,
"It's a lot of money.
There's no shame in taking it.

Okay? You worked so hard
to get here. You're here.

The other thing
you can do is to say,

'Take your money and take
your bullshit weekend spot
and stick it up your ass.'"

Burn this bridge.
Build new ones.

I thought
that if I went on MSNBC...

and we were in that little box
in the Oval Office,

and in all
the congressional offices,

that we could make
a difference.

But what I didn't realize
at the time was...

those decision-makers
don't give a damn.

[ Uygur ]
Interesting news. Here it is.

I am out at MSNBC.

Cenk took
an incredible risk.

Cenk walked away
from guaranteed dollars
at a cable network.

I wouldn't have done
what he did.

A lot of people, when you're
presented with, you know,
the money on the one hand,

and, you know, "You'll have
money, you'll be treated well,
you'll have access,"

and then to give it up
because they're douche bags,
I think is phenomenal.

You know?
'Cause so few people do it.

In this fickle world of,
uh, of television,

any sort of change
in the hierarchy at MSNBC...

could have brought him
back into favor quickly.

If I take the money
and I get a reduced role...

and I just, you know,
do whatever I do with it,

and maybe I even rise up
in the ranks again,
what's the point, man?

They offered you more than you
were currently making
for a smaller role.

Yeah. You know,
that's an interesting point.

It's like hush money
to shut you up and keep you
off the prime-time airwaves.

Watching Cenk
do his MSNBC exit speech
of why he left,

and it reminded me of Network
and Howard Beale's
famous speech.

And Cenk's not a lunatic,
but he was crazy enough...

to turn down a million dollars
to keep on saying exactly
what he wanted to say.

That was the moment
that I realized that I wanted
to be a part of TYT...

and that Cenk is like a leader
that I have never encountered.

The point of the show
was truth telling.

That's what we're supposed
to do, and we're supposed
to challenge the government.

That's the role
of the media.

He has been part
of MSNBC's nightly lineup
since the beginning of the year,

trying out for a permanent slot.

Cenk Uygur, known online
as one of The Young Turks,

is a two-fisted liberal
who isn't afraid
to throw some punches.

Those are the guys
that are sucking off of you.

So here's something else
they should suck on:

Our rage!

When Cenk left MSNBC,
MSNBC said the reason why...

they did not give him
a full-time contract was because
of his style and his tone.

Cenk said
it was the substance.

[ Man ] "Cenk's claims
are completely baseless.

We did have numerous
conversations with Cenk
about his style, not substance.

It's unfortunate
that he's decided to depart
in such a negative fashion."

I don't want to work
for an organization that says,

"Hey, take it easy
on Washington."
You have made that clear.

That's the opposite of
what we do on The Young Turks.

Don't your employers,
if you're gonna work
for an MSNBC,

have every right
to say your style
needs some adjustment?

Why does that
tick you off so much?

Howard, if I thought
it was about style,

I'm not turning down
the money!

It was about substance.

They say,
"Be the establishment."
I can't be the establishment.

I gotta tell people the truth,
which is that the Democrats
and the Republicans...

are here to screw you!

They're about to cut
Social Security. They're about
to cut taxes on the rich.

It's insanity,
and who on the air is saying it?

[ Oh ]
When Cenk went to the press,

it got a lot of attention.

Current came calling
very soon thereafter.

[ Olbermann ]
Former host on our rival
cable news network MSNBC...

claims he was told
he had to have more Republicans
on his program...

and that he lost
his nightly slot and was offered
only a weekend role instead.

We're joined on his first night
freed from the mainstream media.

Good evening, Cenk,
and welcome to
the alumni association.

[ Laughs ]
Thank you, Keith.
I appreciate it.

Many of Current's fans
and employees...

were suggesting very loudly...

that Current
go out and grab Cenk.

It's not right.
Can you imagine this?
I actually have to cut you off.

I don't know why this all seems
so familiar to me.

Great, thanks.
Good luck.
We'll be in touch.

All right.
Another fun day.

[ Koller ]
So Current called Cenk, and they
went through the negotiations,

and that proceeded in a way
that the MSNBC didn't.

MSNBC was obviously
giving him a runaround.

Current was obviously
serious about it.

[ Oh ]
When Cenk first told me
about this Current opportunity,

my first reaction was,
"No way. Don't do it.

We just got through
this MSNBC debacle,

and I don't want you to join
another media company
where they're full of shit,

and they're gonna
stick you in a box
where you can't succeed.

Don't do it."

Welcome to
Current TV, Cenk.

I've been waiting to call you
my president for a long time.

[ People Protesting ]

[ Oh ] That's not
how you do it, dude!
[ Pop ]

[ Laughing ]
That's how
you do it, okay?

Television, we're coming!

[ Oh ]

Uh--
Look at
this prima donna.

It's alcohol.

[ Koller ]
Current set up a whole studio...

in Los Angeles.

[ Koller ]
No, get together.

What do you three think
about this studio space here?

It's all right.
All right.

Three minutes out.

[ Uygur ]
Our first TV show.

That's The Young Turks, okay?

Not some Cenk Uygur show
on MSNBC.

This is The Young Turks.
It's coming in two minutes.

T minus two to launch.

[ Interviewer ]

[ Uygur ]

That's a good sign.
That's a good sign.
[ Laughing ]

[ Interviewer ]

Yeah, I'm ready.
We've been doing this for years.

TV, Internet,
doesn't make a difference.

You get in front of the camera
and the microphone
and you talk.

[ Stage Manager ]
Five.

[ Cheering, Whooping ]

Welcome to The Young Turks.
We've got an awesome show
for you tonight!

Who are we? Well, we are proud
and progressive.

There's no question about that.

And we are here to punch
the establishment in the mouth.

[ Uygur ]
I realized after a while
that the media...

is only successful
if they're on the side of money.

If they're not on the side
of money, all of a sudden,
look at that.

Shows wind up disappearing
from MSNBC.

So what's
more important...

is actually affecting
the outcome.

This one right here.

[ Driver ]
This one right here?
Yep.

All right. Okay.

[ Uygur ]
Because the corporations...

control everything.

Money decides everything, right?
What about the--

[ Dogan ]

I know. What's above
the Supreme Court?

Mm-hmm.
The Constitution.

You have to get
an amendment. Okay.

Sounds really,
really hard. I know.

The advantage
of the amendment...

is that you can go
state by state.

You have to get three-quarters
of the states, right?
Okay.

You just start,
and you build momentum.

[ Dogan ]
I am.

Okay.
That's it.

I have an announcement.

[ Crowd ]
I have an announcement.

Our politicians are bought!
Our politicians are bought!

Who bought them?
Who bought them?

The corporations did!

The corporations did!

[ Uygur ]
When the Occupy movement
came around,

we decided that we were
gonna launch WolfPAC.

[ Oh ] The goal of WolfPAC
is to vote for
a Constitutional amendment...

that says that corporations
are not people, that they
cannot buy our politicians.

[ Uygur ]
Super PACS are political
action committees, right?

And when you think of PAC,
I think of wolf pack, right?

I wanted people to know how
aggressive we were gonna be.

The founding fathers
put it in Article V
of the Constitution,

because they said
at some point, the federal
government will get too corrupt.

The states have a right,
if two-thirds of them
get together and say,

"Hey, we want a convention
to get an amendment...

to fix what's happening
in Washington."

This is the way.

- We can fight back!
- We can fight back!

- We will fight back!
- We will fight back!

And we will win!
And we will win!

[ Crowd Howling ]

I used to watch him
on TV every day,
and he was so cool.

I said,
"How's this guy be on TV?"
I knew they was gonna get you.

I knew it! And then
they took him off the air.

And then they put
Al Sharpton, man!

I mean, come on, man!

- [ No Audible Dialogue ]
- I think most people realize...

there's something
deeply, fundamentally wrong
with the current system.

[ Uygur ]
I think that it is
the right time,

and if we do it together,
it's definitely doable.

And we are gonna do it.

God, I hope, I hope
WolfPAC takes off and
they pass that amendment.

I really do.

[ Interviewer ]

I hope so.
I-I think--

No.

I'm a firm believer
that any real progressive...

or radical change always comes
from below, not from above.

Great job. Great job.

I'm just so proud
that the kind of message...

that you guys are putting
out there so effectively
is being put out there.

It's great.

This is a lovely house
with a lovely backyard,

and I enjoy it every day,
'cause I think,

"It could be gone tomorrow,
the minute I burn
the next bridge."

[ Laughs ]

[ Interviewer ]
Is this the first time
you've ever owned a house?

No, no.
We don't even own it.
We're just renting.

My career is way too unstable
to ever own a house.
[ Laughing ]

Like, we might one day,
but if I actually buy a house,

then, uh, apparently
we've reached some stability
at The Young Turks...

that seemed
previously unimaginable.

[ No Audible Dialogue ]

[ Uygur ]
We had, oh, interesting news
at The Young Turks.

Uh, Current Television,
for which we have a TV show,

has been sold.

Going once, going twice,
sold to... Al Jazeera English.

You sold Current TV,
the network that you cofounded,

to Al Jazeera
for an estimated $500 million.

Was that always
just an investment to you?

Maybe I was naive.
Oh, no, no, no.

I thought
it was something that you had
an ideological interest in.

Absolutely.
As an independent network,

the only independent
news and information network,

we found it difficult to compete
in this age of conglomerates.

[ Uygur ]
So today was the last show for
The Young Turks on Current TV.

Bye-bye!

[ Uygur ]
Obviously what'll happen
is an interesting question...

and one that
I do not have the answer to.

But I-I'm happy
that we're now moving on.

[ Koller ]
This sad and depressing cave
is the former studios...

of The Young Turks
on Current.
[ Whooping ]

After the sale of Current TV,
we needed to get out of there,
we needed to find a facility.

We went to this gorgeous studio
that YouTube set up
here in Los Angeles...

while we built out
our own studio
back in Culver City.

All right.
What's up, what's up, what's up?

Cenk, we've got
the perfect line for you.

Then more prep,
more prep, more panic.

We do one more dry run,
and then...

showtime's at 6:00--
we go nuts.

[ Uygur ] While we were at
YouTube Space LA, we wound up
crossing over a billion views.

So we had
this big party...

because that just feels
like a number that's undeniable.

That we reached people.
We actually reached them.

[ Stage Manager ]
Two, one.

Wait a minute! Where are we?
This isn't our regular studio!

Because we're celebrating
our one billionth view.

I gotta be honest with you,
I'm a little amazed by that.

Our story in a lot of ways
is the story of online media.

Uh, we've kind of
grown up together.

As we've found success, I think
online media has found success.

I think it's
a symbiotic relationship.

What people can't wrap
their heads around...

is that online
is now bigger than TV.

Yeah,
of the one billion views,

I think my family was only
980 million of those.

So we really couldn't have
done it without you guys.
All right, we love you.

We got a show
for you tomorrow.
We'll see you then.

[ Man ]
* The Young Turk Show *

All right.
[ Man ]
All right.

Could I conceive of working
for, like, a CNN?

No. I have no interest in that.

Because when you're on TV,
you have to be fake.
They make you fake.

There's 28 different notes
from producers, from management,

from corporate parents,
from advertisers.

I got no interest in that.
Like, my long-term goal
is to beat CNN.

We're-We're gonna be
larger than CNN.

I'm not worried about
the resources. We're gonna
get resources as we grow.

And eventually they're gonna
have to take them out
on an ambulance like that.

[ Oh ]
The guy who has exasperated...

and inspired me
for 30 years, Cenk Uygur.

[ Crowd Cheering, Applauding ]

The answer isn't, honestly,

the strength
of our personalities or even
the strength of our shows.

It's the strength
of the idea.

The idea that you
could serve the audience
and be honest with them.

And we can change the media
in that way.

I don't view
this billion views...

as a culmination,
as the end.

It's a great moment,
but we're just getting started.

Here's to TYT,
and here's to the next billion.

[ Cheering, Applauding ]

[ Uygur ]
Moving into the new place
was rough, of course,

'cause we're The Young Turks,
and we always start out slow.

But the upsides are huge.
I love being in our own place.

I love that we've got
this new home.

[ Clark Jr. ]
I'd like it to stay the same.

You think, "Oh, it'd be great
if we were huge"...

and everything else,
but then we'd just become
a bunch of assholes.

I think that his priorities
have changed from...

him being The Young Turk
to The Young Turks.

That he has a family.
He has a company.

He has a lot of other people
that he has to think about,
not just himself.

I definitely miss
The Young Turks
from 2003-2004...

when, to me,
it was in its glory days.

But our situation now is,
of course, much better.

We have technology.
We have experience, we have
a staff, we have resources.

[ Register ]
It's the same guy,
just a lot more polished,

but a little more to lose.

If Cenk's career goal...

is ultimately
to be relevant and impactful...

as a national
broadcast identity,

I believe every decision that
he's made up to this point...

continues to make him
more relevant in that way.

I don't know if Cenk
has made a difference. I don't.

I don't know if talk show hosts
can make a difference.

They generally preach
to the choir.

Yeah, you'll get a couple
of people who accidentally
come across and they go,

"I agree with what
he has to say."

But in the end,
who's gonna watch it anyway?
It's gonna be people who agree.

All my life,
people have been telling me...

how I can't do things.

It turns out
they've been wrong all along.

I'll tell you
what I dream about.

I dream about
sitting on a porch with Pro.
He's all grown up.

We're talking about politics
like my dad and I do,

and we got
the amendment passed...

and hopefully it set the country
on a little better path.

And to be able to be proud
of my career...

and proud of our audience
that we did all
of this together with.

If we can get that done,
I can't ask for anything more.

The Young Turks
just seemed like an accident.

Now it's this--
Now it's an accident...

that sort of just, you know,

turned Cenk into this
really vital, important voice...

in this country.

You guys ready?

Welcome to The Young Turks.
I'm your host, Cenk Uygur.

Guess what kind of show
we have for you today.

An awesome show.

Closed-Captioned by
Captions, Inc., Burbank, CA