

During a recent episode of Real Time on HBO, Russell Brand launched a scathing attack on MSNBC, describing the network as a "propaganda" machine that has no right to moralize about Fox News. The heated exchange occurred between Brand and MSNBC analyst John Heilemann, who had singled out Fox News for criticism in light of Dominion's defamation lawsuit.
“It is disingenuous to claim that the biases that are exhibited on Fox News are any different from the biases exhibited on MSNBC,” Brand said. “It’s difficult to suggest that these corporations exist as anything other than mouthpieces for their affiliate owners in Black Rock and Vanguard.”
Brand rejected Heilemann's characterization of Fox News as uniquely biased, and instead argued that all cable news networks are corporate "mouthpieces" that push their owners' agendas. He pointed to his own past appearance on MSNBC's Morning Joe as an example of the network's shortcomings, calling it "propagandist nut-crackery" and claiming that the hosts didn't understand the basic tenets of journalism.
Heilemann challenged Brand to provide a specific example of an MSNBC host lying on air, which Brand dismissed as a "false equivalency." While acknowledging that he was talking about biases rather than outright falsehoods, Brand cited MSNBC's "ludicrous, outrageous criticisms of Joe Rogan around ivermectin" as an example of the network's editorial slant.
“It wasn’t morning. There was no one called Joe there. No one could concentrate. They didn’t understand the basic tenets of journalism,” Brand said as Bill Maher was dying laughing. “No one was willing to stick up for genuine American heroes like Edward Snowden, no one was willing to talk about Julian Assange and what he suffered trying to bring real journalism to the American people and I think to sit within the castle of MSNBC throwing rocks at Fox News is ludicrous. Make MSNBC better. Make MSNBC great again!”