Huffington Post, Cenk Uygur, Michael Smerconish

STUCK IN JUNIOR HIGH?

'Turk' Underscores Left's Nasty Habit






During fawning press coverage given to the Huffington Post's recent first anniversary, we wish someone had instead asked Arianna why her website's editorial standards seem increasingly lax.

After initially confining her guest- blogging list to a who's who of Hollywood liberal elitists, it more recently has been opened up to an odd assortment of activists, C-list players and anyone with even the slightest connection to Air America Radio.

Perhaps busy celebs weren't coming through with enough material?

Previously, we've wondered why Arianna finds Air America co-founder and Lyndon LaRouche sympathizer Sheldon Drobny appealing enough for regular contributions.



Increasingly, however, the angriest bully in HuffPo's schoolyard is liberal talker Cenk Uygur, who co-hosts an obscure satellite radio show called "The Young Turks".

Uygur, a partisan Democrat activist, claims to have been a Republican until quite recently.

Perhaps to attract attention, Uygur is picking fights with established talk radio personalities, most recently WPHT-AM/ Philadelphia morning host Michael Smerconish.

Rather than build credibility through sound reasoning, however, Uygur instead chose the unhinged route. Kicking off his essay with childish name-calling, he underscores Bill O'Reilly's assertion that these types of blogs are merely "smear websites".

Take a look (language warning):

Michael Smerconish is a pussy. A big gaping pussy.

He loves to talk tough from his comfortable reclining chair about death penalties and the war on terror - and how tough he would be in killing people. Yeah, I know, you're really tough. I'm sure Al Qaeda is quaking in its boots thinking about big, tough Smerconish.

I keep hearing him talk about how the country is sissified. He loves that term. I don't know why, but it keeps going in and out of his mouth. Back and forth, back and forth.

He says we're a country of sissies because we didn't execute Zacarias Moussaoui, who was involved with 9/11. You know what else happened on 9/11? Hundreds of brave firemen and police from liberal -- and hence sissy -- New York went into a burning building and never came out. The passengers on United 93 risked their lives and ultimately died to save their fellow Americans. One of the men who led the charge against the terrorist on board was a gay American. What a sissy!

I'm so tired of hearing these big, bad conservatives try to characterize decent people who try to do the right thing as wimps - and worse yet, in their world - gay! It doesn't take a genius to figure out where Smerconish is going with the sissy label, but in case you missed it, he hits you over the head with it by stating the definition in his latest post: A boy or man regarded as effeminate.

By choosing the intellectually less- taxing unhinged path, Uygur avoids taking the time to formulate an effective series of debate points against Smerconish, a fellow HuffPo contributor.

In his own piece, the Philly talker makes a far more general statement about the mindset that allowed Moussaoui to escape the death penalty:

We've become completely sissified in the war on terror.

The root word is sissy. That's: sis sy. N. pl. sis sies. Meaning: 1) A boy or man regarded as effeminate, 2) A person regarded as timid or cowardly, (sis si·ness or sis sy·ness n.; sis sy adj.; sis sy·ish adj.). Hence sis si·fied: adj.
of, relating to, or having the characteristics of a sissy.

Sissified is the only word to describe a federal jury's decision to give Zacarias Moussaoui a verdict of life rather than death.

What about Smerconish's piece justifies Uygur's angry and emotional response?


Even typically supportive HuffPo commenters were quick to question the young Turk's piece:

This sounds like an "ad hominem attack" on a "member of the HuffingtonPost.com community." Editors, are you reading this?

By: Mort on May 12, 2006 at 04:10am
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How come there are "Abusive" and "Best of" flags for comments on blogs, but not for the blogs themselves? All the other blogs by Cenk that I've read would have gotten a "Best of" rating from me. But not this one. Aside from the really stupid challenge to a fight, the language and imagery are appalling. Cenk could have made all his points about Smerconish (and they are valid) without sinking to this level.

By: GordonDR on May 12, 2006 at 04:12am
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I agree. Editors?

By: Thorn on May 12, 2006 at 04:16am
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I suppose the question is, whether there is a "hominem" there to attack?

By: Rowland on May 12, 2006 at 04:18am
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Yeah, seriously... I can't stand Smerconish, but trust me, the commentariat here makes short work of him each time he lets those infantile ideas escape his reptilian brain... But to see this kind of thing as an actual blog post on the site puts it on the level of, well, sites where they probably worship Smerconish.

By: DrPaulProteus on May 12, 2006 at 04:24am
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While we're not sure why Smerconish cares to associate with the Huffington Post, it's even less clear why Arianna hasn't imposed at least a minimal level of editorial guidelines for her site.

After all, with each Cenk Uygur piece, it's her reputation at stake.

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Uygur photo (top right): VOA, Smerconish: publicity photo