No-one Is Allowed to Criticize Beloved Israel!

TYT Lies To Their Audience

For years now, Cenk Uygur, Ana Kasparian and most of the commentators on The Young Turks network have been broadcasting strong anti-Israel commentary to their viewers, then insisting that criticism of their coverage is really just about Israel being "untouchable." In Cenk's exact words - "no-one is allowed to criticize beloved Israel." You hear this talking point over and over again if you watch their YouTube channel - it is repeated dozens of times daily. It's easy to see why their audience believes it, given how often they hear it repeated. It does not reflect reality though. Nobody - literally nobody - has ever said that the  problem with TYT's coverage is that they criticize Israel. This is what logicians call a strawman argument - you defeat a position that the other side never took, then act like you've won the debate.

When Cenk Uygur and his nephew Hasan Piker - who said on Twitch that he would "vote for Hamas 1000 times over Israel" - were recently barred from entering the UK, Cenk responded with his typical on-air rage, insisting that the ban happened because he "criticizes Israel." 

To be absolutely clear: in our view, Israel needs to be criticized and held accountable - just like every other democratic nation should be. Criticizing Israel's government is not anti-Semitism. The IHRA definition of anti-Semitism makes this explicit, and any honest discussion needs to acknowledge that.

The problem with Cenk and TYT's coverage isn't that they criticize Israel. The problem is that Cenk, Ana and the TYT network are fundamentally dishonest about how they criticize Israel. They lie to their audience. Constantly. Whether through what they say or what they deliberately leave out.

Does this mean everything TYT says is a lie? No. Like on other topics, Cenk and his colleagues often speak truth. Some of those truths are things Israel supporters would rather not hear, but they're still truths - and they should be said. The real dishonesty isn't always in what TYT does say; it's in what they refuse to say.

TYT are masters of lies of omission. They give their audience only the facts that serve their narrative, while leaving out the context and background. They include every tidbit of information - whether factual or not - that makes Israel look bad while excluding facts that provide perspective or justification. With Islamist groups, they do the exact opposite - they highlight only the sympathetic aspects and completely refuse to acknowledge anything problematic. That pattern is impossible to miss.

Half-Truths Are Deadly

When you tell people only 50 percent of the story, especially in a polarized environment, you're lying. One needs only look at the terrorist attacks perpetrated against Jewish people in America, Canada, the UK, and Europe in recent years. All motivated by anti-Israel activism. These attackers people became enraged and radicalized by one-sided commentary from places like TYT, and they acted on that rage violently. That's the real-world consequence of telling half the truth - innocent people get maimed and murdered.

A platform as large as TYT has a responsibility to their audience, and to the wider community.  TYT regularly bills themselves as the antidote to mainstream media's failings and bias, yet TYT's coverage of the Arab Israeli conflict belies this. 

Anyone consuming TYT's content should be aware of the lies and half-truths being spread by Cenk Uygur, Ana Kasparian and the team at TYT.

This site - DishonestTYT - is a one-stop reference point, where we cover all the relevant context, content and facts, and let readers judge for themselves whether TYT lives up to their self touted slogan “The Fairest Show in America” and the only place where Americans can trust that they’re being told the truth. 

To TYT, we say: make your case with facts.  Give your audience the full truth, even the parts that they don't want to hear because it disconforms their existing beliefs.   

If Cenk Uygur and his team correct the record and start leveling with their audience, then this website will always reflect that and give them credit for it.