Who would have thought that Russell Brand would eviscerate MSNBC in front of a liberal audience, on a liberal show, and to the face of one of its most visible contributors? Brand, a British comedian famous for his string of comedies and high-profile relationship with Katy Perry, was a guest on HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher, where he laid into MSNBC contributor John Heilemann for being a virtual propaganda network. Heilemann was not amused by the screed, though the audience was more receptive to the tongue-lashing. A decent chunk of Brand’s monologue is soaked in platitudes, and he does trash the concept of partisan media, though, as evidenced by Heilemann’s reaction—it’s always the Left that doesn't take too kindly to being told that they’re wrong.
That’s the paradox: the Left said they would reexamine where they went wrong, Heilemann at least, and then gets triggered when told where they’ve fallen short. It reaches new levels when MSNBC is tossed into the same mix as Fox News. Maher might not agree with that comparison, but he did rip into the liberal media, as did Brand, regarding the coverage around the COVID pandemic and the vaccine. The 'Get Him to the Greek' star also mocked the liberal media for attacking Joe Rogan for using ivermectin to treat COVID, smearing the podcast host for using 'horse' medicine when there are studies showing that it could be an effective therapeutic.
Russell Brand Calls Out MSNBC's Hypocrisy on COVID
— Chief Nerd (@TheChiefNerd) March 4, 2023
"Do you want an example? The ludicrous, outrageous criticisms of Joe Rogan around Ivermectin deliberately referring to it as a horse medicine when they know it's an effective medicine!"@rustyrockets @billmaher @joerogan pic.twitter.com/5J0e0hkpSh
Russell Brand’s single experience on MSNBC really was “more than enough”. An excruciating exhibition of mindless triviality. pic.twitter.com/2RL5r3biEz
— Tyler Carditis (@TyCardon) March 4, 2023
The same self-righteous attitude has been exhibited multiple times, CBS News had probably one of the most egregious examples, and it involved the COVID vaccine. There was a shoddy pay-to-play allegation, where Publix, a Florida-based supermarket chain, was accused of essentially having first dibs on the vaccine; the Jenkins family, who owns the company, were big donors to Ron DeSantis. The story’s credibility didn’t have the shelf life of a box of Wheat Thins, but CBS refused to retract the story or issue an apology.
They’re wrong about mostly everything but don’t even know it. And when told, they lash out or refuse to adopt basic protocols of journalism.