TYT Hour 2 November 22, 2017

In The Young Turks Hour 2 - On Demand by Gigi Manukyan96 Comments

Cenk & Ana. Details on how Harvey Weinstein gathered dirt on women. Ex-USA gymnastics doctor pleads guilty to sexual assault. NK defector crosses border. Reading Rainbow LaVar being targeted by Twitter. F*ck Trump sticker lady selling the stickers.

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  1. I don’t know of anyone who in 2016 and 2017 did more interviews with everyday “no title” Americans than Jordan Chariton. He interviewed Donald Trump supporters, people in PA, OH and MI on the disappearing middle class tour, folks he introduced us to while covering stories in Standing Rock, Flint, East Chicago, Cape Fear, St Louis – probably more cities and events I don’t recall. He helped people get their stories out with good conversations and his news updates were excellent too – keeping us informed with good news or bad news.

    That level of work takes heart, talent and commitment in my opinion. The small donations I made to TYT were based on Jordan’s work. And as the employer, TYT deserves credit too.

    I wish Jordan an even brighter future.

  2. Jordan, Jordan… I found and subsequently joined TYT because I found Jordan reporting eye-opening information for free via TYT Politics. It pains me to see him make such mistakes.

    I thank Cenk for not getting in to the “he said / she said” details but instead letting him go after investigating the facts.

    I must admit I read into the “he said / she said” details and read numerous tweets from multiple parties involved and watched a lengthy Tim Black interview with Jordan’s accuser. The situation got ugly but Cenk stayed focused. All the sex accusations isn’t the point of him being fired.

    Damn though, such talent from Jordan. I’ve seen similar acts of ego be so harmful to the life of a best friend. I hope Jordan can focus on and diminish certain parts of his ego and also continue to grow other parts of his ego and passion for seeking out the truth on the ground with everyday people. We need reporters like him. I only hope I get to say that to him directly one day.

  3. The NK defector story was almost 10 days old by the time you reported it. I’m certain the word “new” is easily found within the word “news.”

  4. I was hoping that this could all be worked out without firing: It’s like the alarm in the friggin morning —
    Even so, I’m agreeing with Cenk . Had no idea that Jordan was using TYT to fund TATM .

    Also hoping that Jordan will step up and focus on journalism.

    If the firing was about the sexual blah blah, that woulda been plain wrong.
    Jordan has been out of control for at least a month.
    I haven’t been able to watch. Too silly, too stoned.
    I thought he would move past it. Now he has to.
    I am a big Jordan fan, and that will not change.

    2. Did you too notice something was odd when Jordan’s videos were of him obviously drunk? I love alcohol myself but his videos changed and I was wondering what it was for a while now.

  5. Good hour 2! Very satisfying statement clearing up the situation with Jordan. I was torn in the beginning, but this clears it up in my opinion. It’s sad it came to this, but I also hope he’ll concede and acknowledge TYT made the right move and he never uses his position like that again. Hope he keeps up his good work in journalism. Thanks!

  6. Cenk is so wrong about the visor :-)

    As a kid it was the coolest thing ever – I wanted to have one,
    Geordi could even see someone’s aura and all sorts of electromagnetic waves or whatever.
    And you can modify it to send out all kinds of signals, hack into computers –
    knock people unconscious even :-)

    I’m a big Sisko/DS9 guy, but I do miss TNG as well

  7. For a start, I totally support RiseBernieRise’s comments and sentiments.
    I don’t know or wish to comment on the circumstances leading to Jordan and TYT going their separate ways. I do wish to express my support for the TYT crew who have to go through this emotional upheaval and at times negative comments from the public.
    I feel that Cenk allows his staff a lot of leeway in freely expressing themselves and that he supports projects and ideas they wish to pursue. He is also the boss and it’s his call and I err on the side of believing that he has done so fairly. Of course a lot of information cannot be revealed by either side and I feel its best not to try to fill in the gaps.
    I’m still very much a TYT fan and love the honesty and integrity of the people on the show- Ana, John, Grace, Hannah, Mark, Michael, etc, etc, etc and of course the great reporting of the TYT Politics team.
    Keep up the great work. I hope that in the long term everything will turn out ok.

  8. There are some other things that probably need to be said in this madhouse that the comments section has turned into.

    i) If there is a sexual relationship with a reporting subordinate *within the company* or a client, the employer definitely has the right to penalize. If it outside the company, using this as grounds for firing is beyond preposterous. I have been employed in government funded national labs where these laws are stricter and more elaborate than the private sector, but even there, it would be a joke to have on the list whom I were or weren’t allowed to sleep with in a hotel room while I am on company business. And I am not even going into the unfeasibility of that in a job that requires me to be on the road for a substantial fraction of the year.

    ii) Among other braindead claims were the ones that “consent or no consent does not matter.”
    No, it absofuckinglutely matters. Clear definitions of consent, supervisor – subordinate relationships and a due process bloody well matters. You cannot define a line between two sides before defining the two sides first.

    a) A supervisor – subordinate relationship is defined by the subordinate’s obligations to a job and expectation from it, and the supervisor’s duty to fulfill those expectations in a way that is fair and mutually consenting.
    *There’s a reason my relationship with the Bernie Sanders’ campaign as an unpaid volunteer is not a supervisor – subordinate relationship. It is because I can leave anytime without potential financial losses or legal consequences.* If my motivation in that role is a more significant opportunity through contacts I make during my time there, that is an issue with my perception of the role, not a responsibility of the person I report to.

    b) Changing your mind retroactively on a choice made five months ago does not change consent. If you don’t understand that, you have dangerous levels of misunderstanding on basic justice. At best you need counseling, at worst your fucked up sense of privilege can seriously harm people around you.

    c) I don’t fucking hashtagbelieveher, I believe in evidence. If you have a problem with that, don’t open your mouth again asking for evidence for war, or justifications for a cop firing at a kid, ’cause you’re a hypocrite.

      1. I have given reasonably detailed rebuttal on the general conclusions and why I think they are wrong. If you disagree, kindly explain why, I’ll be happy to engage.
        And if you think my description is coarsely worded, please consider it’s a person’s livelihood, his future chances of employment that are a topic of discussion here.

        1. I was just curious if you were saying the comments on **this** page are a madhouse or if you meant the comment sections in general. The comments that are on this particular page are overall in agreement with Cenk’s statement and decision; typically a consensus of opinion does not read as a madhouse to me.

            1. Because a majority consensus automatically equals a lynch mob. Perhaps I should inform the 4/5 dentists who prefer Trident. Or maybe that pesky lynch mob of scientists who think that the earth is round.

              Sometimes the consensus is right.

              1. Earth is round is based on careful and rigorous analysis and interpretation of empirical data. Cannot be equated to conclusions based on attention levels that miss the distinction between evidence and hashtag of the week.
                I have made perfectly clear what my issues are with the consensus. Happy to discuss if you have points. Wasted enough keystrokes already humoring bullshit tapdancing around the issue and inability to follow reasoning.

                1. Its because your arguments are fundamentally flawed from the get go.

                  TYT has stated that Jordan launched TATM using resources unknowingly from them. Jordan has essentially already confirmed this with his post on Medium where he stated that TATM members were sharing his hotel rooms at various points.

                  Had Jordan paid for the hotel room out of his own private funds instead of an TYT credit card, you would be correct that TYT’s argument for firing him would be on less solid ground. Unfortunately for him he didnt have that foresight and decided to have his escapades funded by his employer.

                  Your volunteer work for the Bernie campaign is irrelevant, you’re volunteering your time for a cause you believe in with no expectation of a job going in. Unpaid interns are usually doing so to get their foot in the door of the career field they’re hoping to break into and have very real hopes that a paid position will come from it. So unfortunately even though you dismiss that incredibly problematic power dynamic between a boss and an unpaid intern, it does nothing to erase or negate it.

                  Your refusal to believe that Jordan misspent money is almost kind of sweet in how trusting it is. He’s already admitted to having staff from his TAMT sharing rooms with him, those rooms were paid for by TYT. That in and of itself is him misusing company resources. Whether or not he’s also done things like max out the business card with alcohol purchases I have no idea. Regardless, its a moot point.

                  I’m sure they also regretted that their internal emails were leaked to the Intercept before they had a chance to respond officially.

                  Jordan forced their hand when he wrote his initial post on Medium, in which he admitted to several fireable offenses. And you’re wondering why they didnt spend money investigating a criminal matter alongside the police despite the fact that he already confessed to several acts that essentially demand his termination. I’d really rather TYT not spend money investigating the exact degree of awful he was in this situation.

                  1. Ok, it is frustrating to have to repeat the same thing, but I’ll be patient –

                    My employer can mandate spending limits on lodging, he cannot mandate what goes on inside my room. If he overspent to accomodate his interns, there’s a legitimate case to be made there. Since it’s not a separate room, you already have an answer on whether that was the case or not. What I am stating is travel rules from a government funded national lab to a 100K plus employee private sector company, so your perception of reality is kind of irrelevant here.

                    Once again, ” they’re hoping to break into and have very real hopes that a paid position will come from it” is a problem with the hope, not the job setting. What you agree to get into has to be a choice you take responsibility for at some point of time, and 20 is not young. “Incredibly complicated power dynamics” is something you choose to deal with or not. The flaw in your reasoning is that it basically outlaws people hooking up for reasons that are professionally rewarding- professor and aspiring faculty, actress and producer, player and coach. I am not commenting whether it’s a healthy setting or not (and that will vary on a case by case basis), but trying to legislate on that is neither feasible, nor acceptable in a free society, because it is a choice for the people involved. * If you can absolve a person of the responsibility for her choice due to her situation being “incredibly complicated”, then you should reasonably expect half the people in the country to break into your house, take your stuff and not face the consequences, because their situation is significantly more dire.* That’s right, recognize your privilege.

                    Once again, you are confusing between sharing a room and misspending. It’s not a minute detail.

                    What do you mean – “before they had a chance to respond” ? Intercept broke the news more than a day before the statement, they would have received the memo even before that. And see who’s trust is sweet ? You talk like the email just slipped from their fingers and reached the Intercept. It was obviously done with a motive, and prompted Jordan’s subsequent responses. I was not exactly paying into a liberal version of the Trump whitehouse while putting money into the journalism drive.

                    1. I want to clarify why I’m putting these posts out. No, i’m not asking anybody for an explanation on what they did to their employee. I do think the events and the points I listed out are a good indicator of the importance they are placing on the journalism portion of their activities post the big $ investment, so that is somewhat relevant, but not the main reason.

                      When I went to the comments section, here and elsewhere, the most common claim was something on the lines of “used TYT dime to promote TATM.” Occasionally, “embezzlement”, “leech off” type of claims kept coming up.
                      Misuse of funds is a very specific allegation, something *even TYT* has not done yet, yet most were using it in a way I thought was damaging and careless, and most importantly out of assumption.
                      To put it more specifically, an actual misuse of money could put a person permanently out of chance for future employment, it is significantly more egregious than a bad judgement call or unsatisfactory performance. And somebody at risk of not finding a job again is serious as far as I am concerned (unless you already have a million dollars stashed away, in which case I don’t care).

                      My request to everybody is to please take this characterization seriously and not help the spread of this narrative without adequate verification. I would like to assume you are all acting out of your best intentions, and not spite or malice, and would do your bit to not commit an error that could potentially ruin a person beyond second chances.

                    2. Why on earth would my perceptions be irrelevant. You’re attempting to compare whatever travel rules your company has to TYT, who might have an entirely different code of ethics, travel rules etc..

                      Or is your lab in charge of setting the travel rules for all companies in America because that seems like super specific work. That aside, yes your company absolutely can mandate what you do in your hotel room, if they find out about it. Which unfortunately for Jordan, they did, because it broke in a story briefly posted on Huffington Post and then later when he quite foolishly decided to air his take on the evening on his blog post to Medium.

                      Are you really trying to make me believe that if your employer found out through social media that you hosted a drunken orgy on a business outing in a room they paid for that your job would 100% safe. Because I really have to have my doubts on that one.

                      20 is not young? Really because to me its two years out of high school and not old enough to drink yet. The flaw in MY reasoning? Are you really not aware that all of the “professionally rewarding” relationships you just fired off are all widely seen as problematic by most people? And that alot of people in just those professions have, like Jordan, lost their jobs because of it.

                      You’re speaking as if you live in a world that doesnt already have fraternization rules in place at the vast majority of companies, not too mention the armed forces which flat out prohibits superior-subordinate relationships. The appearance of favoritism coercion is enough that many companies will indeed fire those they find to be in violation of those rules, even more so when it becomes public knowledge.

                      Except that if shared those rooms with employees of his separate company, if he spent any time in those rooms working on anything TAMT related he was indeed misspending. And he’s already admitted to doing just so, not too mention showing it in some of his videos. Which, hey TYT probably would have looked past if he didnt also decide to host drunken sexcapades with his young interns.

                      As for the Intercept, who cares. Lots of people work at TYT any of which could have leaked the email. But again who cares. He was already fired, and had already threatened legal action against TYT before the article dropped. The only thing the article made him do was lash out again with another rambling post on Medium.

  9. Multiple problems with the statement, there better be some clarifications.

    i) Cenk vaguely saying “he used ‘resources’ ” where “resources” could mean practically anything. Vague lawyerspeak with expert use of negative connotation. It worked well with everyone here (and elsewhere) immediately jumping to “misuse of funds”. Knowing Cenk’s way of communication, it is extremely unlikely that there was actual misuse of money and he simply chose not to use the words. **Was there misuse of TYT money or not ?** Jordan’s immediate reaction was to challenge and demand a release of expense statements, which does not look good, and it leads me to the second point.

    ii) You claim misuse of substantial amounts of money (this better be the case, otherwise the very first point of the statement amounts to a clever, legally sanitized slander). If this was the case, it took you several months to find out ? **You endlessly claim to be cash starved, we have dipped our hands several times into our pockets (sometimes multiple times a month) during the journalism drive, and you have no clue where your money is being spent ?** That is at best, horribly negligent and incompetent, and at worst, a complete lie.

    iii) Why did you leak the news of firing your employee to the Intercept first, and how come you never addressed this ?

    iv) The claim that Jordan has “repeatedly attacked us (TYT) is blatantly false. Until the time of the statement release, you had given him a choice between firing and resignation, and leaked the news to an external media outlet. He had alleged not getting an investigation into the assault charges and the fact that you used his name, work and reputation to raise 2 million dollars for a journalism drive. Characterizing that as “repeated attacks” is at the very least, disingenuous.

    1. Also if you really care about Jordans hireabilty after this, perhaps you should encourage him to act like a grown up, own his mistakes and stop posting rambling nonsense on his twitter.

      If your the next company considering him, his response to this situation almost makes him a required pass. An employee who clearly messed up, refused any ownership over his mistakes, and then sued his employer when they made the obvious decision to fire him.

      1. What I gave in those two situations (the lab and the company) are the extremes of a spectrum of employee code of conduct, based on their degree of existing legal protection and liability in case of employee misconduct. Companies don’t make rules that don’t have a point and cannot be enforced with any regularity, because they are not stupid and don’t have time to waste. Your “yes they can” doesn’t make it so.
        In case you are interested in facts and not blindly stonewalling (which it surely appears now), you can go to TYT’s FB page and find a WolfPac organiser’s post on the announcement vid, where he states that the claimed room rule is simply not how it works and the opposite has happened multiple times due to cost considerations.

        I’ll just emphasize fraternization once more, the other points are too BS to waste time on. Fraternization can and does hold water if there’s a contractual obligation that limits your choice to accept or reject an advance. If that constraint is not there, you are simply getting in the way of two adults’ choice with no justifiable reason from your end.
        No, I have no idea where this sudden, almost fanatical puritan BS has sprung from. “Most people” don’t see any of the relationships I talked about as “problematic”. There are tons of examples of each one of those, and if you haven’t seen people getting to know each other in the work place, dating and getting married, I don’t know exactly which part of the world or what time warp you’re living in,

        “if he spent any time in those rooms working on anything TAMT related he was indeed misspending”- you have a dangerous lack of understanding of what can potentially be legal and what cannot. Providing accommodation charges does not give an employer ways around a basic employment contract. There is no, and there cannot be any difference in your ability to do work outside of employment, based on whether you are at home or in a paid for travel accommodation.

        Basically, you don’t have any examples of unjustified spending and using all kinds of ridiculous gymnastics to call it “misspending” anyway. I am not going to waste time responding to anything more unless you are able to show actual money spent in significant excess of what would have been minus the TATM scenario.

  10. Hi guys

    My only comment on the situation with Jordan is that I am saddened by the whole thing. I do not write this as an allegation against him or the Young Turks, but simply as my acknowledgement of how painful it can be to have a conflict of this magnitude bewtween former coworkers and friends. Speaking from experience, after years of working together coworkers can become like family members, and I will bet that this situation is painful for many of you. My former coworkers at the office I worked at just prior to my current position were like a second family to me. We had a situation come up that ripped our whole office apart. The whole thing was particularlly painful for me because it was the best place I have ever worked in my life. It was a joy to get up in the morning and work with those people every day. I honestly get the impression that it is a similar thing for you guys at the young Turks; you all seem like you enjoy working together. I honestly don’t know all of the allegations there are against Jordan; I have not followed any of this. I do hope that as a workplace, The Young Turks will get through this. I wish you all well.

  11. Oh, and the part about him using company money for things not related to his job, yes, that could very much be a fire-able offense depending on what it was, and especially if he lied on his expense reports about it.

  12. By “corporatist” he probably means the decision to fire him was based on the situation being bad optics instead of him actually being guilty. He may have declined the offer to resign because he felt he deserved some respect. Obviously as an outsider, I don’t know all the details, but I will say I don’t think someone should resign from their job purely due to allegations, and even when proven guilty, I don’t know if I agree with firing someone as the court is going to deal with the punishment anyway, though it depends on what it was.

    As for the topic of sex with co-workers, totally okay just as are all relationships, as long as there aren’t negative impacts with work. I have the worst fights with co-workers that I don’t get along with, and having sex with them typically means the opposite of that. If there is favoritism going on, that needs to be addressed, sex or not. Any problems in the workplace need to be addressed just as they would be for all employees.

    1. As usual, he’s in the AP threads – presumably where he thinks more Jordan defenders can be found – trying to encourage people to cancel TYT membership and give their money directly to Jordan and Jimmy Dore.

      1. For kicks I went and read the comments over on a few of the recent AP shows and wow…. it’s amazing how radically different the opinions of members appear to be when it comes to the network. I find it a little troubling that certain members fervently believe that Cenk/TYT have “sold out” completely, are shills for the DNC and HRC, and that Jimmy can do no wrong (were you aware he is clearly being censored by Cenk?). What I just can’t wrap my mind around is how some fail to see these comments are being posted for a show on a network that CEO Cenk “Shillary” Uygur built. There would not be an Aggressive Progressive comments section for them to shit all over TYT Network if TYT Network hadn’t created the fucking show in the first place. >:\

  14. i totally agree with @thomasbeckman12345

    he used company money to run his own operation without tyt understanding its entirety……+jordan needed to be fired and now he is suing. i hope the best for him but i can’t support this action’s Jordan has done. i thought the firing was based on sexual misconduct but it looks like its transparency. Cenk i am SOOO freakin SORRY!? i hope we can all learn from this.

    Let the courts deal with it. Police will uncover the truth. Salam(peace)

    1. Used company money for things not related to company business? That is more serious, then, potentially. Depends on what it was and if it could help TYT or not.

      1. helpful info or not….
        tYT never excuses such unethical behavior. its the principle that counts. just like tyt partners with other companies without losing editorial control. cenk can’t be in the dark about how money from tyt members pay into. he is accountable to us and not desires.

  16. Wow. I thought the woman in question was a random stranger… VERY different story if she’s in some way an employee, or freelance, but if he knew her. “Radical transparency” now sounds like “convenient transparency” or “selective transparency”. I’m glad this has been addressed. I’ve got the feeling that if Chariton were not to sue, that Cenk and TYT will leave it at that, despite, if what was said here is true, and that he was using TYT’s name or resources for his own benefit personally, that maybe TYT should sue for damages, perhaps seeking a full-page ad in major newspapers apologizing for that misuse. IF however, Chariton DOES sue, I surely hope Cenk is as vigorous a defender of the investment we’ve ALL made in TYT in the that as he is of democracy on screen.

    ALSO, I hope he will manage to remember the sage advice that a man who represents himself in court has a fool for a client. I understand Cenk was a lawyer at some point BUT… surely there’s a TYT member who’s also a lawyer who will go to bat here pro-bono, or for cost, or whatever.

    If the fees we’ve paid as members end up having to go down the court-room rabbit-hole to fight litigation against someone we were also paying, speaking just for myself, I don’t know if I will be able to continue being a member and paying fees to support this. Hopefully Cenk and company will do some introspection on the degree to which they supervise employees, and how potential hires are screened. Maybe some practices need to change. OTOH maybe everything’s just fine and this was a one-in-a million freak event. But there should definitely be some consideration of whether or not things could and/or should have been done differently.

    1. * I surely hope Cenk is as vigorous a defender of the investment we’ve ALL made in TYT ***in court*** as he is of democracy on screen.

      (Autocorrect got away from me here… oops.)

  17. The worst part about Twitter is that, for a number of reasons, trying to have a discussion with someone on Twitter is like trying to have a conversation in an insane asylum, while using a chainsaw, during a tornado, with someone using a jackhammer, who also… is deaf.

  18. This sucks. Just like Brett mentioned about seeing your heroes disappoint in such a big way, especially regarding how Jordan has been handling the situation after the fact, so to speak, very unprofessional. I’m very pleased with TYT and Cenk with the honesty and the frankness by publicly addressing this situation. I’m also pleased to say that this really restored my confidence in TYT. To be honest, I believed Jordan’s version to a fault because of the journalistic integrity he had displayed through his work at TYT, and that’s on me for not excercising a little more critical thought. I’m very disappointed in Jordan but I also believe in second chances, however I personally don’t think it would be appropriate for that chance to be at TYT. I too hope he will gain something from this experience to make him a better journalist and person. As might we all.

  19. Thank you Cenk for speaking up about Jordan. I was ready to drop my membership because it was being ignored. I don’t need details not even to the extent they were given. I just wanted the problem acknowledged, as I am sure many others did. I am brokenhearted that TYT is losing a reporter like him. I think in his role as a reporter he is excellent but I also understand that other circumstances may be different.

  20. Big fan of Jordan . Exelent reporting on standing rock. Hope he puts this behind him, learns from it and does well in the future.

  21. Cenk, leave the Semper Fi out of this. That is the Marine Corps motto and without regard to some of my brothers, there are a ton of marines who do NOT fall into the Conservative camp in any manner and many of us are among the most liberal minded people you can meet.

    1. As an aside, although I was a big fan of Jordan I am glad that I advised others to wait for your own response before judging the situation. I’m deeply disappointed in him and hope he learns and grows up.

  22. Thank you Tyt for addressing issue and handling it like adults. Incredibly disappointed in Jordan but I love what Cenk said about the guys work and second chances. Tyt, you are all heart and wishing you all the best and a most restful Thanksgiving, I gotta go and watch the Lions lose as is Detroit turkey day tradition. Cheers!

  23. Sorry Cenk, but his work IS invalidated by this – every single bit of it! We don’t even know now who rightfully should get credit (and/or blame) for which stories because everything was handled so informally and with the aforementioned bad management. Jordan is it a MINIMUM a disgusting PERSON, and at worst a sexual predator to rival Harvey Weinstein. I watched all 2.5 hours of the interview Tim Black conducted with one of the victims and I believe after that, and reading just what Jordan himself fesses up to, that Jordan should be prosecuted and placed on the Sex Offender Registry. There will be no second chances for him at TYT while I am a member at least or I’ll cancel it – no network should have a sexist bully con-artist on it (even though many do). TYT was well within their rights to fire him and I support that decision.

    And guys, this situation isn’t limited to sexual impropriety. It’s further been alleged that Jordan was using TYT time and resources to grow his own media company online, including maxing out on several occasions the TYT credit card for his own business’ expenses as well as luxuries like hotel rooms with hot tubs in them as well as copious amounts of alcohol. Jordan may have also been using illegal drugs. He may have also furnished alcohol to a minor (knowing full well she wasn’t of age). He was also making outrageous and bullying remarks about Cenk, Jonathan Larson, and others at TYT. He also allegedly made homophobic, sexist, and racist statements. Jordan may well have been THE SWAMP in a living human host. OUR money went to hire Jordan. OUR money went to that TYT credit card. OUR money paid his checks. We should all feel betrayed. Thank goodness the #metoo movement has given us the truth about yet one more predator so we can all have a conversation, weigh the facts, punish the guilty, and move on having hopefully made sure we minimize the chances of things like this ever happening again.

    1. I watched the TBTV interview with Carly Hammond and what Jordan was doing to TYT is an assault upon all TYT members, staff and those who continue to support TYT’s work. I think Cenk handled this situation very professionally. I believe firing Joran was the correct decision. It was very classy not going into the details out of respect for everyone’s privacy.

    2. Where did you get the information about: ” TYT credit card for his own business’ expenses as well as luxuries like hotel rooms with hot tubs in them as well as copious amounts of alcohol. Jordan may have also been using illegal drugs. He may have also furnished alcohol to a minor (knowing full well she wasn’t of age). He was also making outrageous and bullying remarks about Cenk, Jonathan Larson, and others at TYT. He also allegedly made homophobic, sexist, and racist statements.” ? Just curious.

      Also, I am wondering why the credit cards were not monitored more closely since it is the members that support the business and I don’t get the impression they are flooded with cash unless they have more money than I have gotten the impression of.

      1. Those are the allegations made by the victim (and I’m told by others). The principal victim gave a 2.5 hour interview on YouTube to Tim Black on his channel which I believe. The victim admits to all the things that would make her look bad in this situation, but she still didn’t deserve what happened to her. All of YouTube and Google are bathed in this stuff about what a creep Jordan is, it’s not hard to find. And yes, he was hired with our donations and those cards are paid for by you and me and all the members, so at a minimum Jordan broke faith with TYT and us as well, which was more than enough reason to fire him even if that was all he did (and it wasn’t).

    3. “Jordan may have also been using illegal drugs.”

      please
      are you serious? If that had been the reason given (which clearly it was not), maybe I would be one of the “I cancel my membership” guys. Illegal drugs are some kind of standard on TYT sets, on rare yet fitting occasions they even may have interrupted a live stream to give hosts and staff some time to consume :-)

  24. Ana had an organic Community moment right there and harnessed her inner Troy.
    ‘You can’t dissapoint a dream *sob*’

  25. Agreed. Sad that that happened but much like all these stories it had to be done. I agree with Brett. News today is like seeing which of your heroes die.

  26. I agree 100% with Cenk on the decision to fire Jordan. Jordan did awesome work for TYT, but I’m troubled by that TATM operation and the fact that he had sex with an unpaid intern who worked for him there. That alone is plenty reason to fire him. That would be standard policy just about anywhere.

    2. “I’m troubled by… the fact that he had sex with an unpaid intern who worked for him there. That alone is plenty reason to fire him. That would be standard policy just about anywhere.”

      …unless one is President of the United States.

  27. Jordan is making an absolute fool out of himself on Twitter. The guy really doesn’t seem to have a good grasp on how to act in a professional manner at work or in public, much less being the type of person who can be relied upon to act responsibly in a position managing others…it was the right choice for the company to let him go.

    It’s a shame he hasn’t taken the advice of turning this into a learning experience and is instead digging the hole deeper by hashing it out on social media.

  29. I always thought that Jordan’s side project with TATM was tacky and a conflict of interest regarding resources, which is definitely worth firing if he was truly not upfront about the scale of the TATM with TYT.

    That being said, if he was fired for having women he was working with in the hotel rooms, including TYT employees, then why wasnt this a problem when Emma was working with Jordan in his hotel room. She is a TYT employee, theyre on the road together all the time, and they obviously go into each other’s rooms since there is footage of it as they made videos for TYTpolitics.

    At best, it is inconsistent to base the decision of firing Jordan over women in his hotel room, despite months of precedent showing that it was acceptable behavior as a traveling journalist with a female intern.

    1. Your inability to grasp this is mind boggling. He wasnt fired because someone who works with him who is female physically entered his hotel room.

      He was fired because he was getting sexually involved with SUBORDINATE employees of TATM who worked for him in hotel rooms paid for by TYT.

      1. no need to yell around :-)
        That’s also what I think, but it’s just not what Cenk said.

        It’s just that … in this story (and in Roy Moores case as well by the way) … things seem to get conflated. Which behavior is clearly illegal, is Jordan the only one guilty, what is inappropriate behavior and a firable offense, what is legal behavior, but makes people uncomfortable, which lines were crossed, when?

        More and more of these stories come out every day, all of them are important, in all of them men are guilty – but I would definitely feel much better if people would be more nuanced and less superficial.

        If I actually was a judge, based on the public debates over the last 3 weeks, I honestly wouldn’t know the exact sentencing in most of those cases. They are guilty, yes, but the details are often fishy and people just mix up and conflate a lot of different issues – and they also seem to disagree with previous positions. Ana is on record being against or at least very critical about sex offender registry “if you served your sentence, you should be cleared”. Now all of a sudden I hear things like “I don’t care about the timeline” and “there is no redemption arc for predators”.

        And you see how agitated people are right now, doesn’t feel good if you ask me. Similar feelings about cross party debate by the way. Couple of years ago it was the left who said we can find common ground with Republican voters, we can win in red districts – since Trump’s election I hear a lot more “no more compromises”, ridiculing his supporters instead of convincing them – hell, Ana is even “done with Wikileaks – sorry, not sorry”.

        It all comes together if the story is about a guy “you helped to hire”, I guess… Again, not saying he shouldn’t have been fired or he’s not guilty, in fact there is a great chance that he is, I just would love to have a more nuanced/detailed debate/breakdown…

      2. Youre not being fair or analytical because you’re copy/pasting your own opinions onto what Cenk said. He didnt say that.

        He went by the model of a best case scenario for Jordan, and the concept of having women come into his hotel room as a supervisor was poor judgement and a fireable offense in and of itself, so no further investigation was required.

        That being said, again if TATM was not fully disclosed to TYT, then thats a fireable offense in my eyes because it uses TYT’s platform, reputation, and resources for another company. However, that was very clear that it wasnt the issue Cenk stated for his firing. It was the retroactive change of hotel standards.

        1. I’d assume Cenk didn’t phrase this quite right there. One of the disadvantages if you aren’t just reading a written statement.

          1. Well the investigation didnt contact any of the victims or delve into the context of the encounters that goatku is referencing. This whole process took less than two days to do. You cant start an investigation, do a deep dive, and return with compiled results and make a decision in less than two days.

            Instead, it looks like Cenk looked at the situation with Jordan and Emma working together in hotel rooms, saw nothing wrong with it at the time, and then looked at it again with a different lens afterwards due to the current cultural movement, and fired him for that.

            I understand that everyone is looking at power dynamics differently now, and its a good thing. But a hasty, emotional decision bsaed on that isnt fair. It isnt just unfair to Jordan, its unfair to the movement of power/sex transparency, because it muddies the waters of an otherwise noble cause.

            1. Except the thing is, they were doing an internal investigation. Jordan decided to end that investigation when he made a public post on Medium. Which negated any further investigation because his post on Medium was a tacit admission to several fireable offenses.

              I’m really struggling to follow your logic here. So Jordan and Emma, two colleagues at TYT have on occasion shared a work space in a hotel room paid for by TYT. In what possible way do you think thats at all a parallel situation to Jordan bringing women who worked for him at TATM into a hotel room paid for by TYT and having group sex.

        3. Just posting a reply to say thanks. You have a fair argument. I was asking why in the world TYT would see it as ethical to fire someone over hanging out in their hotel room (in a hot tub) will fellow employees that are drunk and making out. I then saw it was not about that and instead so much other stuff.

  32. Please please please put Ana’s “THANK THE PRESIDEEEEEENNNNNNTTTTT” on the soundboard. Please. Please please please.

    1. I watched every video Jordan has made for past year. I never seen any show of an ego. He was all about trying to give a voice to the voiceless, helping people.

      1. How people act on the camera can drastically change when they’re off the camera. See how Jordan is acting on Twitter, I’m going to have to side with Cenk. Jordan did good work but if he started acting and doing what Cenk says and especially how he’s acting on Twitter, letting him go was the right choice. TYT is also a private company and they’re free to do what they will with their employees.

  35. Thank you Cenk & TYT for addressing our concerns. It really, really sucks things had to go down like this but I find myself 100% in agreement with the decision to fire Jordan. I only learned about TAtM when the allegations broke last week but that situation (regardless of the allegations) seemed very strange to me. Apparently I wasn’t wrong in thinking it sounded a bit shady. Jordan made some serious mistakes. I do hope he learns from them.

  36. If you watched the Charlie Rose story they did yesterday, they stressed the fact that it was Rose’s employees he was acting inappropriately too. TYT is 100 percent in the right here for what they had to do.

  37. I was always scratching my head in regards to the Truth Against The Machine site. I couldn’t understand why Jordan was promoting a site that was supposedly doing the same thing that the TYT fundraiser was meant to do. Initially I suspected Jordan was going to part ways with TYT. I guess this puts some things into context & it is very disappointing.

    Ultimately Cenk did what was appropriate & Jordan took too many liberties with the freedom that TYT bestowed upon him. He ruined a good thing for everyone involved.

    Hopefully now this frees up some finances to make sure they keep Nomiki Konst & Ryan Grimm on board for as long as possible. Those 2 are definitely strong/professional reporters and should be kept by all means possible.

    Anyway, that is my 2 cents. STAY STRONG TYT.

  38. I was initially on Jordan’s side in all this but from what I’ve seen Cenk was 100% right in firing him. It has nothing to do with whether what he was accused of doing is true or not, that’s for the courts to decide, as Cenk mentoend. Bottom line is Jordan used TYT’s company assets without permission to fund his own projects. That is a huge violation and any reasonable manager would’ve made the same decision.

    1. Using company resources(nice lawyerly euphemism for being ripped off) …that above ALL ELSE must have truly chapped Cenks ass…I can only imagine the cacophonous conversation at TYT when Cenk realized he was being made a chump… And I must say, the sure idiocy of Jordan, to mess with the money of a hard working Turkish immigrant…BIG MISTAKE,…HUGE!

  40. Great statement at the end. No real revelation that anyone who did a little research couldn’t have already found, but I’m satisfiedwith how quickly they addressed it, as well as their reasoning. Even in tough times TYT is one of the best news outlets around. As sad as I am about Jordan, I am still a proud member of TYT.

    I bet there are a lot of people from the member comments section yesterday who feel real stupid about jumping in TYT’s shit.

    1. Agreed. Thankyou for the update. I’m proud to be a member, good work to get this done so quickly. Sad it came to this, but this is the world we live in – better to know sooner rather than later IMO.

    2. Agree 100%.
      It took me very little effort to look into public statements on the matter, & find plenty of disturbing evidence in the categories of poor managerial decisions & especially financial improprieties to determine TYT made the right decision at the right time.
      & even though there was all that, I kept my mouth shut, because I was assuming, & I wanted to see what Cenk said… Which ended up being exactly what I had deduced.
      Unfortunately, I doubt this thread will generate 150+ comments the way yesterdays thread did.
      In addition, all these members jumping up TYTs ass yesterday defending Jordan… a guy buying drinks for the TATM staff on a TYT credit card, & using other TYT resources on his TATM project… while long term dedicated employees make due with what little theyve always had… It really pisses me off!
      Fucking Mark Thompson doesnt even get paid by TYT, & Im not even sure if Michael Shure does… & people continued to say disparaging shit about other staff members while defending Jordan in yesterdays comments.
      Everyone of those ppl owe TYT staff an apology, & Ill be shocked if a handful come tonight & actually give 1

    3. I agree with TYT firing Jordan 100% and did so yesterday. But the overreaction by some here is ridiculous. Yesterday saw about 130 comments – maybe 10 defended Jordan, by maybe 5 members. The interpretation that “all the members come to Jordan’s defense” etc. is absolutely ridiculous.

      It’s just frustrating to not have real debate – Weinstein/Simmons etc. trigger 20min debates. I know that can’t be done on the show if it is about an employee, but I do understand the criticism on the closing of member sites etc.

      The thing is, the Jordan story has a lot of nuance and different angles and I think a lot of people lump different things together and are superficial.

      The story just has a lot of different angles to me, the fact that women make accusations against other women, the statement of Chelsea Lyons (https://www.facebook.com/claudia.stauber/videos/10212996301675227/) (the most problematic if you asked me), the question if you have to turn down advances for example, if people who have relationships, who met at work and are married now were guilty in hindsight etc. The question in and of itself if Chelsea Lyons is guilty, if Jenn Dize is guilty? What about Ty?

      Can you really blame members for talking about all that? And by the way, in the “About” section, not only Jordan is removed, but also Emma – I know that at the beginning of her career she was hired by Jordan. Does anyone know if she was/is an employee of TYT directly? I would hate to lose her as well, just because of Jordan’s misbehavior…

      By the way, I read now a couple of times about financial issues – there wasn’t anything in the original article, in none of the statements I read, definitely not by Jordan, Chelsea, Hammond, Griffin or TYT/Cenk. Do you have any links to further information regarding financial issues (credit card etc.)?

      1. The interview with Hammond + Tim Black mentions the use of TYT’s credit card to buy drinks on several occasions. I seriously doubt TYT will leak any of their own financial info. Emma was on Cheddar a few days ago, condemning Franken, so I don’t think that she’s going to leave with Jordan. That said, her TYT profile mentions Jordan, so they’re probably giving time to change it.

        Also, note, Jordan’s profile is still up: about/host-bios/jordan-chariton/
        I’m guessing they haven’t had time to scrub the pages.

        I feel a little bad now, about how a bunch of us used to joke about a Jordan/Emma/Nomiki love triangle. Looking at Hammond, it makes you wonder if Emma was hired because Jordan had a type, not to diminish any of her great videos. Really hope this event only strengthens her work.

        1. Of course I didn’t expect them to talk about it, I just wanted to know where the information is coming from – so Thank you, I’ll check out the interview…

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