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Exactly 3 years ago I became a member of the online show “The Young Turks”. It is an independent daily American news show about politics and social commentary hosted by Cenk Uygur and Ana Kasparian. It is an Internet-centered show, but now also has its own TV show on Current. The first hour of their show in audio format can be downloaded for free, and they have lots of YouTube clips each day, while members have access to the full 2-hour show in audio and video formats.

I started listening at the show in mid 2008 during the presidential elections, though quite honestly I can’t remember how I came across the show in the first place. Even after the elections I kept listening to it almost each day, so I became a member to support the show. One of the major reasons I kept listening is because of how honest they were about the political and social situation in the USA. In Canada news about US politics tend to be already filtered down too much, while at the same time news from the major networks in the US are either incredibly biased (mostly to the far-right) or watered down by corporate influence, which makes Quebecor feel amateurish.

Another aspect is how well-centered and pragmatic The Young Turks are in ideological terms. While in American term their “mainstream media” consider TYT “far left”, for Québec they are right in the center. Even worse, casually looking at the rest of American media, it was shocking to see how much everything moved from centre-right to either right (Democrats) or near-fascist far-right (Republicans), with both major political parties being completely corrupted and most of the population not giving a damn. It is also frustrating to see how much “independent media” cover things of great importance, such as the privatization of jails, being simply not covered is supposedly respected and “left biased” newspapers like the New York Times.

Hopefully I can help support a little bit independent news in the United States, all the while being entertained. Oh, and they just celebrated 10 year two days ago. So here’s for another 10 years, and more.