Cenk Uygur is an American media commentator and attorney. Starting around 2023, Uygur became more and more influenced by those critical of progressive positions on trans issues, most notably Ana Kasparian and Brianna Wu.
Background
Cenk Kadir Uygur was born on March 21, 1970 in Istanbul, Turkey to Nukhet YavaÅƧa Uygur and Dogan Uygur (born 1937). After completing graduate school in the US in 1961, Dogan Uygur returned to Turkey to found manufacturing businesses. The family emigrated to the United States during Turkish political upheaval in 1978, settling in East Brunswick, New Jersey.
After graduating from East Brunswick High School in 1988, Cenk Uygur earned a bachelor’s degree from University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business in 1992, then earned a law degree from Columbia University in 1995.
Uygur was initially a Republican. Amanda Whiting noted:
He began, in fact, on the right. As a student at the University of Pennsylvania, he wrote a school paper column called How You Like Me Now, Baby?, railing against affirmative action and deriding campus feminists for āmaking Anita Hill their patron saint.ā
Uygur shifted from Republican to anti-Republican following the invasion of Iraq after the 9/11 attacks.
Uygur worked at the Washington DC office of Drinker, Biddle & Reath before taking an entertainment lawyer role in New York at Parcher, Hayes & Liebman. Uygur began in radio in 1996 as a weekend/fill-in talk-show host WRKO Boston.In 1997, Uygur landed a similar gig called The Young Turk at WWRC Washington. In 1999, Uygur moved to Florida in hopes of a TV reporting job.
Uygur’s spouse is therapist Wendy Lang (born 1976). They have two children.
The Young Turks / TYT Network
The Young Turks began as a show in 2002. It premiered on Sirius Satellite Radio as the platform’s first original program before moving:
- 2006: XM Satellite Radio
- 2006 to 2008: Air America
- 2010 to 2011: MSNBC
- 2011 to 2013: Current TV
From 2006 to 2007, Uygur was also a blogger for AOL News.
In April 2007, Ana Kasparian began contributing to YouTube channel The Young Turks hosted by Cenk Uygur, filling in as host before becoming a producer and eventually co-host.
Kasparian, who is of Armenian descent, and Uygur, who is of Turkish descent, have been criticized about the show name The Young Turks, which many Armenians and progressives consider an inappropriate reference to the Turkish genocide of Armenians.
Political aspirations
In 2019, Uygur announced a planned bid for Congress in US House California District 25. After objections from some groups, Uygur stopped taking endorsements, and Bernie Sanders rescinded a previous endorsement.
In 2020, Uygur and Brianna Wu founded Rebellion PAC. They created several ads and posts supporting Democratic political candidates and criticizing their opponents. The PAC spent nearly $1.7 million in 2020. In 2022, that dropped to $646,000, and in 2024 to $386,000.
In the 2020 special general election, Uygur garnered 6.6% of the vote, placing 4th. In the regular election later that year, Uygur again placed 4th with 5.9% of the vote.
In 2024, Uygur announced a planned presidential run. Uygur unsuccessfully filed suit to be placed on the South Carolina primary ballot for President, after the state Democratic Party rejected his application, on Constitutional grounds. Uygur was allowed on some primary ballots. In this and similar suits, Uygur said that the suits laid the groundwork for naturalized citizens to run for President after the Constitution is changed.
Views on trans people
After Uygur’s co-host Ana Kasparian was groped by a homeless person in Los Angeles in 2022, Kasparian began taking more centrist views. This included shifting views on trans youth healthcare after reading Jesse Singal’s anti-trans coverage.
In March 2023 Kasparian was upset after seeing gender-inclusive language on a medical form, posting:
Iām a woman. Please donāt ever refer to me as a person with a uterus, birthing person, or person who menstruates. How do people not realize how degrading this is? You can support the transgender community without doing this shit. Iām sure a lot of women donāt want to be minimized to a bodily function or body part.
I have zero problem with inclusion. None. But thereās gotta be a better way than boiling it down to a body part, no? Especially in the context of having reproductive rights taken away from people who just see woman as a baby-making vessel. Thatās all Iām saying.
Uygur backed up Kasparian in this statement.
Uygur and Kasparianās views led transgender TYT employee Bennie Carollo to resign in 2023, saying, āOver the past several months Ana Kasparian and Cenk Uygur have taken increasingly transphobic stances, especially regarding trans women in sports but also more generally when it comes to trans youth getting access to gender affirming care. They have begun to lash out at anyone that calls them out on where they are wrong and basically refused to learn. Recently Ana went so far as to defend Jesse Singal, who is very well known as a transphobe.ā
References
Timotija, Filip; Robertson, Nick (March 6, 2024). Cenk Uygur drops long-shot presidential bid. The Hill https://thehill.com/homenews/4514263-cenk-uygur-drops-long-shot-presidential-bid/
Kenmore, Abraham (January 10, 2024). Judge quickly denies foreign-born candidateās attempt to be on SCās Democratic primary ballot. South Carolina Daily Gazette https://scdailygazette.com/2024/01/10/judge-quickly-denies-foreign-born-candidates-attempt-to-be-on-scs-democratic-primary-ballot/
Walker, Corey (July 6, 2023). The Young Turks Producer Leaves Show Amid āTransphobiaā Allegations. Ana Kasparian Accidentally Misgenders Him. Daily Caller https://dailycaller.com/2023/07/06/the-young-turks-transphobia-producer-ana-kasparian-misgenders/
Wu, Brianna (August 10, 2020). Introducing Rebellion PAC. https://rebellionpac.com/press-releases/introducing-rebellion-pac
Uygur, Dogan (2020). The Original Young Turk: Stories and Life Lessons from an American Dream Come True. Archway Publishing, ISBN 978-1480886605 https://www.archwaypublishing.com/BookStore/BookDetails/789379-the-original-young-turk
Gilchrist, Tracy E. (December 13, 2019). Bernie Sanders Retracts Endorsement of Cenk Uygur for Congress. Advocate.com https://www.advocate.com/politics/2019/12/13/bernie-sanders-endorses-cenk-uygur-despite-antigay-misogynist-past
Amanda Whiting (September 12, 2018). Cenk Uygur Just Might Be the Future of Liberal Media. Washingtonian https://www.washingtonian.com/2018/09/12/cenk-uygur-future-liberal-media/
Marans, Daniel (December 23, 2017). Progressive Group Ousts Cenk Uygur Over Past Sexist Writing. HuffPost https://www.huffpost.com/entry/justice-democrats-ousts-cenk-uygur_n_5a3eb4d1e4b025f99e178181
Levine, Jon (December 21, 2017), āYoung Turksā Founder Cenk Uygur Apologizes for āUgly,ā āInsensitiveā Old Blog Posts (Exclusive). The Wrap https://www.thewrap.com/young-turks-cenk-uygur-blog-breasts-women-flawed/
Media
The Humanist Report (July 6, 2023). Trans TYT Employee Quits, Condemns Cenk Uygur & Ana Kasparianās Anti-Trans Rhetoric. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uk-O_PErl3w
The Rational National (July 4, 2023). Ron DeSantis & TYT Fall Into An ‘Anti-Trans Illusion.’ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTzVCNYtPdk
Bennie Carollo (July 4, 2023). Why I left TYT. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6DiIQWb0DE
Resources
Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)
X/Twitter (x.com)
TYT (tyt.com)
Facebook (facebook.com)
YouTube (youtube.com)
Shop TYT (shoptyt.com)
Instagram (instagram.com)
IMDb (imdb.com)
- Cenk Uygur
- imdb.com/name/nm3106325
Ballotpedia (ballotpedia.org)
LinkedIn (linkedin.com)
Rebellion PAC (rebellionpac.com)
Open Secrets (opensecrets.org)
- Rebellion PAC
- opensecrets.org/political-action-committees-pacs/rebellion-pac/C00727008/summary/2024
Federal Election Commission (fec.gov)
- Rebellion PAC
- fec.gov/data/committee/C00727008