A clip of a histrionic Russell Brand on Real Time with Bill Maher went viral on Saturday – in which the comedian, who owns several multimillion-dollar homes, accused political analyst and guest colleague John Heilemann of hypocrisy for telling Fox News “from the inside” had criticized the lock from MSNBC.”
In the two-minute clip, a screaming fireman claimed MSNBC was fundamentally no different from Fox News. All of this, he loudly insisted, stands in contrast to the “real journalism” of National Security Agency adviser-turned-Russian defector Edward Snowden and former RT host Julian Assange.
Discussing Heilemann’s attempts to respond to his criticism, Brand claimed that both channels are merely “mouthpieces for their affiliate owners in Blackrock and Vanguard” and named two controversial investment firms.
“Just spiritually, mate – if I may use that word in your great country – we have to take responsibility for our own perspectives,” Brand said, citing his own infamous appearance on the Morning Joe show a decade ago as evidence.
Heilemann and Maher eventually managed to interrupt Brand, with the host and Recount founder telling the Get Him to the Greek Star that he was engaging in “false equivalence.”
“You don’t really know anything about these organizations you’re talking about,” Heilemann said. “You were on MSNBC once. Big damn thing.”
Pressured to produce evidence that MSNBC had ever engaged in practices comparable to Fox hosts amplifying voter fraud conspiracies they knew to be wrong, Brand condemned the “ridiculous, outrageous” treatment of podcaster Joe Rogan’s ads for ivermectin as a COVID-19 treatment through the Liberal Network.
“Intentionally labeled as equine medicine, even though they know it’s an effective medicine,” Brand said.
Studies have repeatedly shown that ivermectin, which can treat parasitic infestations in humans and animals, is not an effective treatment for COVID-19. Brand also ignored that even enthusiasts for this off-label and medically discouraged use of the drug refer to it as “horse paste” and have openly celebrated its use in horses.
Brand also highlighted MSNBC host Rachel Maddow’s misdescription of how the COVID-19 vaccine works in a March 2021 broadcast, in which she repeated a common misconception that the vaccine completely vaccinates against symptoms and transmission. In fact, the vaccine builds antibodies and vastly reduces the chance of death if infected, a subtle difference Maddow acknowledges on the same show.
Brand didn’t explain in the segment why he believed this incident was comparable to Fox hosts repeatedly promoting conspiracy theories about President Joe Biden’s 2020 victory over ex-President Donald Trump that recent court filings show that the stars The network’s founder, Rupert Murdoch, even admitted in a statement that some of the network’s top shows “supported” these baseless allegations, which lay the basis of a 1 $.6 billion defamation lawsuit that Dominion Voting Systems has filed against the broadcaster.
Brand ended his tirade with an affectionate paean to Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, which drew thunderous applause from Maher’s Los Angeles audience.
“Haven’t you just been listening to Bernie Sanders, someone who just plain and rightly believes in this country and believes it’s possible to change but is bound by corruption, bound by the lobby system?” Brand said of the independent legislature , who is a frequent guest on MSNBC.