Liberal commentator Cenk Uygur of “The Young Turks” wasn’t too pleased with a dismissive tweet from Dylan Byers of Politico, who wasn’t impressed with Uygur reporting an untruth to his large YouTube audience:
Guys, just because Cenk Uygur said something about David Gregory doesn't mean you have to publish it. It's Cenk Uygur.
— Dylan Byers (@DylanByers) April 22, 2014
@justinjm1 i could not contain the frustration!
— Dylan Byers (@DylanByers) April 22, 2014
Uygur had made the conclusion that NBC is going to fire David Gregory based on the assumption that NBC leaked Gregory’s low ratings to the media. (See Uygur’s video here.) However, that’s not really what happened:
Uygur cited numbers that he believes NBC leaked to Mediaite following the initial report in the Washington Post, but in reality that was not the case. He appears to be referring to ratings numbers Joe Concha quoted in his column about the situation Monday afternoon.
Those numbers from the fourth quarter on 2013 — showing that Meet The Press had its lowest total viewer in a final quarter since 1991, when Russert first started its lowest 25-54 demo ratings in the show’s history — did not come to Mediaite from NBC and could be easily accessed long before this week’s revelations.
In fact, POLITICO‘s Dylan Byers reported those figures all the way back in January under the headline, “NBC’s ‘Meet The Press’ hits historic lows in the final quarter of 2013.”
[Emphasis added.]
Uygur didn’t correct his error and his supporters took their cue to go after Byers:
https://twitter.com/WilhelmDavis/status/458769161934491648
@lhfang @cenkuygur @DylanByers Aww a guy from Politico trying to be relevant. Adorable.
— Secular Talk (@KyleKulinski) April 23, 2014
@cenkuygur @DylanByers Cenk, you don't have to respond to him. It's Dylan Byers.
— JCH (@crossland68) April 23, 2014
https://twitter.com/samknight1/status/458772074430226432
@DylanByers you're such an asshole.
— Peter Birkenhead (@peterbirkenhead) April 23, 2014
. @rolandsmartin @DylanByers Thanks, Roland. We only had 64 million views last month. What did all of Politico have last month?
— Cenk Uygur (@cenkuygur) April 23, 2014
@rolandsmartin@DylanByers doesn't have even half the followers of @cenkuygur. Don't punch down Cenk, he's hurt dog. No, NO!#NotTheTopRope!
— AndrewC (@AndrewC_82) April 23, 2014
And of course, there’s this:
https://twitter.com/lhfang/status/458768970502254592
To some on the Left, it’s always about race.
Related:
Cenk Uygur’s classy curse-laden Christmas message: F*ck Bill O’Reilly!
Delusional: Cenk Uygur suggests ‘GOP hawks’ are bullying Obama into war in Syria
‘What a tool’: Politico’s Dylan Byers not sure ‘you can keep your plan’ lie is a big deal
Cenk Uygur: White shooter with assault rifle wouldn’t get ‘near the attention’ as Muslim bomber
Relax, everybody: Cenk Uygur’s ‘more hopeful about Obama’s 2nd term than ever’
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