MADHOUSE MOMENT: The Bitch(uation) is Back

It would seem that my piece about TYT’s rightward turn has become relevant once again.

By Cenk Uygur’s own admission in a horribly disingenuous and entirely vapid 20-minute rant, Francesca Fiorentini told him that she wanted to disassociate her Bitchuation Room show (which was always technically independent) from the greater TYT network.  Uygur — being mature, calm, and totally not overreacting because the consequences of his own actions are coming back to bite him in the ass in numerous ways — banned her from the network altogether in retaliation, removing her from her effective co-host position on John Iadarola’s “The Damage Report.”

Basically, Cenk pulled the whole “you can’t quit; you’re FIRED!” thing.

See, amidst the network’s appeasement of Nazis and subsequent tanking in viewership, Fiorentini has stood firm in her principles, and has pointed out the problems as they’ve presented themselves… much to Uygur’s chagrin.  It’s exactly the reason why I said in the earlier article that, despite refusing to watch TYT shows following Ana Kasparian’s “birthing persons” meltdown, I’d follow Fiorentini again if and when she is no longer associated with TYT.  She’s never abandoned what she stands for and she spoke truth to collaborators.

I understand that she stayed connected with the network in an attempt to both use the platform to get her message out and to be the voice of reason from within.  I don’t find fault with her for that at all.  As you might recall, I stayed at Hillsdale College to be the voice of reason from within in the limited way that I could up until they fired me.  I have no problems with that approach whatsoever.

Thus, as she has now left TYT, I’m following her again.  You should, too.

You can see her tell her story about it all here:

Make no mistake: she’s better off without them.  As she said, she has her stand-up, she’s co-hosting America Unhinged on Zeteo, and The Bitchuation Room is still going strong.  I expect that she’ll gain an even larger audience now that all of this has gone down.

As for Iadarola… after seeing the comments he made at the opening of his show in response to all of this, he’s lost my respect.  I don’t expect him to drop everything and walk out in solidarity; he actually IS a full-time TYT employee, he’s just started a family, and he can’t afford to do that without some kind of support in place.  Given that he was only told about his part-time co-host essentially being fired without his input the night before, it’s clear that he was blindsided and that support is NOT in place.

But he basically pledged loyalty to Uygur and Kasparian and admitted without saying it that he doesn’t have editorial control over his own show, so, hey, what can ya do, huh?  No defense of Fiorentini, no “I disagree with this decision.”  In fact, just the opposite: he accepted Uygur’s framing of the whole thing.  He was talking about hope that this was a temporary situation when we all know that it’s not.

I understand that he’s in a tough spot here, but sometimes it’s necessary to say “this is wrong, and while I can’t do anything about it, I absolutely do not condone it.”  Again, I did that when I was at Hillsdale College.  I made it clear that while I was an employee, I did not speak for them and they did not speak for me, and for several years, they were okay with that.  Iadarola didn’t do that.  He just sat down and let it all happen.

Granted, the fact that speaking out got his co-host “fired” is certainly a stark warning to stay in line, but doing what’s right is more important than a paycheck, especially when you’re as personally close as he claims to be with Fiorentini.  Besides, at this point, he now has an audience larger than his network’s primary show; an audience who would happily follow him wherever he wound up.

Or, at least, they would have.  Now?  Maybe not so much.  I, for one, can’t trust him anymore.  I can’t bring myself to believe that he won’t just roll over for his bosses again, whoever they might be.  That was a spineless, weak, and altogether pathetic showing.  So I can no longer say that I’ll follow him if and when he’s no longer associated with TYT, and it’s going to take a significant turnaround from him to change my mind.

After all, as the adage goes, “when someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.”

Thankfully, to her great credit, that can be taken in a good light when it comes to Francesca Fiorentini.