Russell Brand Obliterates MSNBC as ‘Propaganda’ in Soul-Searing Rant — Right to MSNBC Analyst’s Face

Russell Brand on Friday eviscerated MSNBC as a “propaganda” network with no room to moralize about Fox News in a relentless and fiery takedown directed right at MSNBC analyst John Heilemann.

Brand and Heilemann were on with Bill Maher for the latest Real Time on HBO, and sparks flew when the topic of revelations from Dominion’s defamation lawsuit against Fox News were brought up.

Brand took exception to singling out Fox and dismissed all of cable news as corporate “mouthpieces” and propagandists, laughing off the idea that some are less biased or have more integrity than others.

“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 recalled his own past MSNBC appearance, which he was pretty sure was on Morning Joe, trashing it as “propagandist nut-crackery.”

“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!”

Heilemann asked for a specific and provable example of an MSNBC host lying on air, claiming Brand was making a “false equivalency.” He also claimed Brand knew “nothing” about MSNBC simply because he’d only made one appearance on the network, an argument Brand immediately laughed off.

“You don’t actually know anything about the organizations you’re talking about. You’ve been on MSNBC once. Big fucking deal,” he said.

Brand emphasized he was talking about “biases,” but did cite the “ludicrous, outrageous criticisms of Joe Rogan around ivermectin.” Rogan boasted about taking ivermectin to treat Covid and initial reports referred to the drug as horse dewormer, despite it being approved for human use. The FDA has released a notice not use the medicine to treat Covid.

Brand dismissed Heilemann’s MSNBC defense by making a larger point about the uselessness in arguing over which corporate news network is winning the propaganda rat race.

“We need new political systems that legitimately represent ordinary Americans so that we can overcome cultural differences and bickering about which propagandist network is the worst is not going to save a single American life, not improve the life of a single American child, not going to improve America’s standing in the world, and the world needs a strong America, I’ll tell you that,” he said.

Watch the clip above via HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher.

Have a tip we should know? tips@mediaite.com