Far-left pundit Cenk Uygur took to Twitter to surprisingly praise “wild and crazy” Fox News for attracting an independent-leaning audience along with Democrats.
He then dissed its “boring” and supposedly timid corporate media rivals to the dismay of his many social media followers.
To some degree, Uygur is getting the same reaction that HBO host Bill Maher receives from his erstwhile fans when the latter departs, even slightly, from the liberal narrative.
The no-longer-that-young Uygur is the creator and co-host of the progressive news commentary show called The Young Turks.
Earlier this month, Uygur, 52, apparently decided to take on the mantle of media analyst.
“A majority of independents watch Fox News. Very few watch CNN or MSNBC (less than a quarter). Fox News even has 3 out of the top 4 most-watched cable news shows – for Democrats! Why? Because they do interesting programming, while the others do milquetoast [corporate] propaganda,” he wrote.
He went on to assert, “Fox may be crazy, but they’re a wild ride. If the other channels put on hosts who fought back or were passionate about the news they cover, they might get an audience, too. But they remove all progressives who might do that from their air. And boring is all they’re left with.”
Fox may be crazy, but they're a wild ride. If the other channels put on hosts who fought back or were passionate about the news they cover, they might get an audience, too. But they remove all progressives who might do that from their air. And boring is all they're left with.
— Cenk Uygur (@cenkuygur) October 20, 2022
Uygur’s premise that the other “milquetoast” networks lack aggressive progressives seems questionable, to say the least.
Consistent with what Uygur was driving at in terms of viewership, however, Fox News earlier this year reported, in part, the following:
[R]ecent data shared by Nielsen MRI Fusion show Fox News becoming the preferred cable news channel among Democrats in the key 25-54 demo. The data collected in October 2021 shows Fox News earning the largest share of liberal viewers in the demo with a whopping 42% while just 33% tune into CNN and 25% tune into MSNBC. Additionally, the data reveals “Tucker Carlson Tonight” is the No. 1 among Democrats in the demo while Fox News notched three of the top four programs among all Democrats with “The Five,” “Tucker Carlson Tonight” and “Hannity” competitive with MSNBC’s “The Rachel Maddow Show”…Fox News also is the most-watched among independents in the demo with 58% of the share while only 25% watch CNN and 18% watch MSNBC.
Some of Uygur’s nearly 560,000 followers pointed out that cable news channels have a tiny audience as compared to the U.S. population as a whole.
While that is a valid observation, Fox News foes don’t seem to be taking into consideration that the nightly editorials delivered by, for example, Tucker Carlson, are widely shared on social media and also have a very significant influence on the political/media establishment.
And MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow is now only on one night a week.
Uygur perhaps struck a nerve with his comments about Fox News and even prompted some agreement.
Here is just a sample of the vitriol or otherwise sent Uygur’s way on social media which you can review and draw your own conclusions:
Cenk is drooling over Fox News because his instincts are right-wing, he never really changed since his genocide-denying pro-iraq war Republican days.
— Gray (@Gr33nhelm) October 20, 2022
Wait, wuttt? Fox News stands out by *checks notes* by not doing “milquetoast corporate propaganda”?
Love ya’ Cenk but terrible take. Fox News makes corporate propaganda exciting, is your point, I guess?
— Jon Sneider (@jonsneider) October 20, 2022
Now do some reflecting on what the repercussions are of TYT doing milquetoast corporare propaganda.
— Revolt Politic (@RevoltPolitic) October 20, 2022
So that why TYT has moved past center and to the right. Fox is their new model.
— leland jung (@jung_leland) October 20, 2022
@TYTPolitics @cenkuygur @AnaKasparian you repeat the exact same talking points as the mainstream media. How you call them out is sheer hypocrisy
— Kaia the Pissed off Canadian🌹🏳️🌈🇨🇦🏳️⚧️☘️🍀 (@PissedOffCanada) October 21, 2022
It’s because Fox News is very entertaining. I must admit. As a progressive, I tend to find myself watching Fox News way more than I probably should be because of their hypocrisy ignorance and ridiculous opinions that are almost laughable
— @laudani (@Laudani) October 20, 2022
The only reason I tune into Fox is when @TulsiGabbard is on. Why am I interested in what she says? Because @TheDemocrats and their media lapdogs @cenkuygur and @AnaKasparian relentlessly peddle full-throated lies and smears about her, which is how I know she speaks the truth. 🤡
— CancelledByBlueCheck (@twotoofewtwos) October 21, 2022
Wanna know the difference between @MSNBC and @TYT ? Msnbc has nicer graphics and a way nicer desk!
— Liquid Snake (@Liquidd87) October 20, 2022
Where are you getting that information from? I know plenty of independents personally that prove you wrong by their voting.
— Matt (@The_vexed_matt) October 20, 2022
Yeah. I guess you first graders should stick with MSNBC
— Pat Thomas (@TheRealPThomas) October 21, 2022
Where do you get those stats? I know liberal dems who watch Fox (& etc) just to see what they are pushing so they can know how to counter the disinformation. I also know registered Independents who watch MSNBC (Admittedly anecdotal evidence but at least i know the source)
— E Pluribus Unum 🇺🇸🇺🇦 (@RealMarieK) October 20, 2022
I never thought I’d say this, but Cenk might be right.
If only he could set up some sort of political news programming of his own, maybe he could compete.🤔
— Hawkeye13119 (@hawkeye13119) October 20, 2022
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Robert Jonathan is a staff writer for BizPac Review. He is a longtime writer/editor for news aggregation websites and has also developed content in the legal and financial publishing sectors as well as for online education. He earned a Juris Doctorate from the University of Connecticut School of Law, “a law school the basketball teams can be proud of.”
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