Progressive Women Candidates for Congress, Media Leaders and Activists Write Open Letter of Support for Cenk Uygur

To all concerned,

We are a group of women voters, activists and candidates for public office.

Our country is having a discussion many of us never thought we would see in our lifetime, examining the structural gender bias that limits so many women in our careers, our personal lives and our happiness. These conversations are difficult, painful and absolutely necessary.

Over our careers, all of us have spoken out aggressively against structural sexism. We’ve confronted colleagues, powerful people and institutions that would have preferred we stay silent. Our record of holding people accountable speaks for itself. Many of us have paid a steep personal cost for speaking out for what we believe.

In the last few weeks, old clips of Cenk Uygur’s work have come to light, some of them featuring crude comments about women. We consider them indefensible, and we are glad to see Cenk has apologized for them. But even more importantly, he’s internalized how and why those comments were harmful, and has worked hard to rectify those harms, utilizing his influential platform to advance women and advocating for women’s rights. Since 2002, he has spent countless hours on the air working hard to be a strong voice for women’s rights, and more importantly, to amplify women’s own voices. When many people make mistakes, they expect to move on after a perfunctory apology and don’t take real responsibility for their actions. Mr. Uygur did not do that. He backed up his words with action.

On every issue, from reproductive justice to equal pay — Mr. Uygur has demonstrated in the time since that he is on the side of American women. We believe people are defined by their actions as well as their words and we would invite Mr. Uygur’s critics to look particularly at the strong intersectional work of The Young Turks under his leadership.

There are too few women, people of color, and LGBTQ voices in all media, including progressive media. So we feel it’s relevant to examine Mr. Uygur’s values as they are reflected in the company he has built, and in his advocacy. And we believe The Young Turks has one of the strongest intersectional track records of any media company. TYT has institutionally, under Mr. Uygur’s leadership, prioritized underrepresented voices. He can be seen regularly in interviews reflecting on perspectives he hadn’t considered, and even admitting he was wrong, which is all too rare in institutional media.

We believe these things speak to his integrity, and how he would conduct himself as a public servant if he’s elected to serve the people of California in the House of Representatives.

Signed,

Judith Benezra, Director of Programming at TYT

Alison Hartson, Head of TYT Army

Ana Kasparian, Executive Producer and Host of TYT

Meredith Mattlin Candidate for US Congress in TN-05

Eva Putzova Candidate for US Congress in AZ-01

Amanda Siebe Candidate for US Congress in OR-01

Emma Vigeland, TYT Reporter

Brianna Wu Candidate for US Congress in MA-08