Both TV Newser and TV Week have picked up on Al Gore-led Current TV’s campaign to “distinguish” itself in cable talk by promoting a clip of Cenk Uygur, the MSNBC-refugee host of “The Young Turks,” attacking Bill O’Reilly on Tuesday night as a “g–damn Nazi.” This might match the Current motto of “Politically Direct,” but it’s not correct.
“All right, before I go to my panel, let me just level Bill O’Reilly,” boasted Uygur, like a guy who’s had too many drinks at the end of the bar.
“First of all, it’s you right-wingers who try to hurt people and their families," he claimed, "by killing them, by bombing abortion clinics, et cetera. You’re the one with the right-wing extremist terrorists on your side.”
The controversy was over the leftist group Color of Change, and how they’ve drummed up corporations into dropping their funding of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). The group is also well-known for its fire-the-TV-conservatives campaigns, such as “MSNBC: Fire Pat Buchanan!” and “Goodbye, Glenn Beck!” and “Fire Eric Bolling.”
O’Reilly told guest Laura Ingraham that Color of Change seeks to hurt people who disagree with their party line and said founder Van Jones wouldn’t come on his show because “he doesn't want to have to explain the fascist tactics of Color of Change. And I say fascist because this is what the totalitarian regimes do.”
Uygur protested: "So don’t talk to me about Color of Change, that actually, who actually wants to help minorities in the country, want to hurt you and your family. That’s made up.” Made up? Seconds later, he boasted Color of Change “ran Glenn Beck out of town.” That wasn’t a plus for the Beck family.
Uygur then threw his Nazi tantrum: “Before that, I showed you another part of that clip where he talked about Color of Change and these groups are fascist. All right, you want to play name-calling games, Bill? No problem. You are a goddamn Nazi. That’s what you are, OK? You’re going to call us fascists all day long, and we’re not going to respond? Well, those days are over, Nazi.”
PS: Uygur also “distinguished” himself on Wednesday by telling Ted Nugent he would “run and cry to Mommy and poop in your pants.”
PPS: Perhaps Current TV should remember Al Gore being honored for his book The Assault on Reason (as excerpted in Time) that "The world of television ... makes it virtually impossible for individuals to take part in what passes for a national conversation."