The Young Turks

The Young Turks (TYT) is an American progressive news commentary show on YouTube that additionally appears on selected television channels. TYT serves as the flagship program of the TYT Network, a multi-channel network of associated web series focusing on news and current events. TYT covers politics, lifestyle, pop culture, science, sport and other social topics. The program was created by Cenk Uygur, Ben Mankiewicz and Dave Koller. Uygur is Turkish-American and named the program after the Young Turks movement of the 20th century. Currently co-hosted by Uygur and Ana Kasparian, it is also often accompanied by various other in-studio contributors. The Young Turks began as a radio program that premiered on February 14, 2002, on Sirius Satellite Radio before launching a web series component in 2005 on YouTube; it was later carried on Air America. In addition to being carried on the TYT Network and YouTube, it is also currently available on Amazon Prime Direct, iTunes, Hulu, Roku, on Pluto TV through a 24-hour feed and on social media platforms Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. It has spawned two spin-off television series, one that aired on Current TV from 2011 to 2013 and a second that debuted on Fusion in 2016 as a limited-run program developed to cover the 2016 United States presidential election. The Young Turks also served as the subject of a documentary, entitled Mad as Hell, which was released in 2014. The network also has a channel on YouTube TV. For most of its existence TYT relied on small grassroots financial contributions from its viewership to sustain itself as an independent news organization. However, in 2017 TYT sought to expand its media network and hire more staff through various venture capital fundraising efforts that raised $20 million. The Young Turks is the longest-running news and politics talk show online. Format The Young Turks live streams for up to three hours, with its story selection and associated commentary broken up by format. Issues that the show focuses on include national political news, the influence of money in the political process, drug policy, social security, the privatization of public services, climate change, the influence of religion, abortion and reproductive rights, civil rights and issues of injustice towards people of color and sexual minorities, sexual morality, and the influence of corporations, neutrality and establishment political thought on traditional news media.