I have a confession to make. While I don’t catch it very often, maybe once in a blue moon, I do like Cenk Uygur on The Young Turks. Yes, I realize he’s pretty liberal, this is The Propaganda Factory where I criticize the propagandists, and those two things seem radically opposed. However, I never claimed to be “fair and balanced” and Cenk certainly is no wallflower as to his leanings.

Isn’t that the point of MSNBC? Unlike Fox News which pretends to be straight-shooters with their “fair and balanced” bullshit branding, MSNBC chose “lean forward” as theirs. While heavily mocked by Fox News which pretends not to know what it means – hey, maybe the Foxies are that dumb – it’s an obvious admission the cable channel is progressive. With Rachael Maddow, Ed Shultz and once-up-a-time Keith Olbermann in their line-up my argument is they do a bit more than simply lean.

After conservative Comcast’s takeover and Olbermann exiting one had to wonder if they were reigning back in that lean. However, Lawrence O’Donnell fills that liberal void. The few times I’ve watched him he’s as personable as Keith, makes an articulate liberal argument and is less reckless with this tongue than his predecessor.

As much as I liked Cenk on TYT, I wasn’t impressed the time or two I saw him on MSNBC. The charm was gone and replaced by an uncomfortable edginess. I’m not suprised he left. What surprised me is apparently MSNBC wanted him to stay and was willing to pay handsomely for it; Cenk decided to say goodbye over tensions with MSNBC management.

Speaking of Keith, it’s fitting that Cenk ran over to Current TV to tell his side of the story.

So what’s going on? Is MSNBC reigning in the liberalism? Cenk seems to think so. Or is MSNBC just dealing with problem children?