>> Russell Brand was recently a guest on Bill Maher's show,
along with Bernie Sanders, by the way.
I enjoyed the episode, believe it or not, you should check it out.
But the topic of discussion pivoted toward corporate owned media and
the lies that networks like Fox News talk about or spread.
Now of course, that's a big topic these days with the Dominion defamation
lawsuit uncovering all of these internal discussions over at Fox.
Which makes it abundantly clear that they have no problem lying to their audience.
But as that conversation took place, Russell Brand took it upon himself
to discuss MSNBC and how it's the opposite side of the same coin, basically.
That MSNBC is just as guilty, and that's relevant, Cenk,
because there was another person on the panel.
Who was that again?
>> Heilemann, and he is one of the most mainstream media
reporters in my lifetime, and the whole time, if you want.
Unfortunately, HBO doesn't allow us to show videos,
which is a very bad mistake on HBO's part.
>> Agreed.
>> But if you watch the video, it's not just a quote we're gonna give you.
Heilemann's face was oozing with contempt- >> He hated it.
>> For Russell Brand.
He was like, he looked at him like, you're such a child.
Everybody knows that right wingers do propaganda, but
the beloved mainstream corporate media would never do that.
That was just dripping from his face.
>> So let's give you some of the quotes from Russell Brand.
He starts off by saying, it is disingenuous to claim that the biases that
are exhibited on Fox News are any different from the biases exhibited on
MSNBC. It's difficult to suggest that these
corporations exist as anything other than mouthpieces for
their affiliate owners in Black Rock and Vanguard.
I mean- >> Damn.
>> That is a perfect quote, that is exactly right.
Now, Brand then recalled his own MSNBC appearance,
which he was pretty sure was on Morning Joe.
He trashed it, calling it propagandist nutcrackery.
>> [LAUGH] That's fun.
>> They didn't understand the basic tenets of journalism.
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, he said.
>> That got a lot of laughs, except from Heilemann, who was not amused.
>> No, he was not.
>> Heilmann also appears on Morning Joe, which was directly insulted there,
all the time, he appears on MSNBC all the time.
So I'm gonna get to specific examples of MSNBC's propaganda in a minute.
>> Now to your point, Heilemann did respond to Russell Brand,
recalling his appearance on Morning Joe by saying,
you don't actually know anything about the organizations you're talking about.
You've been on MSNBC once, big f-ing deal.
Okay, all right, well, I mean,
you're not really addressing the valid critique there from Russell Brand, right?
When he brings up Black Rock and Vanguard, he does it for good reason.
>> Yeah, so Heilemann with a sneer was like, name one example.
And that's where the one place where Russell Brand could have done better,
because he talked about ivermectin not being horse medicine.
Yeah, it's also for humans, but it's not for COVID.
It's like the world's worst example, right?
Now Heilemann, I hope you're taking notes, you're supposed to be a reporter, right?
So here, let me give you tons of actual examples.
Bernie Sanders wins the first three primary states.
Normally, that's a situation where there's tons of positive coverage.
In fact, after Biden won South Carolina, his first state that he won in 2020, there
was literally three times as much positive coverage for Biden than after Sanders won.
In fact, Sanders got negative coverage, which almost never happens,
after winning the first three.
I've got all of the details in my upcoming book, Justice is Coming,
I'm sure that Heilemann will wanna read it.
And then Chuck Todd came out and said his supporters were Brown Shirts,
even though he's the first major Jewish nominee for president.
Chris Matthews said that if people like Bernie Sanders won,
there would have been executions in Central Park.
And any time that the Washington Post or MSNBC wrote a positive story, or
did a positive statement, or had one pundit saiid one positive thing
about Bernie Sanders, it would literally become national news.
Because MSNBC was 100% in favor of Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden.
If you're gonna make the case that they weren't, you're being ridiculous.
Show me the clips, show me any clips of them,
any of the pundits supporting Bernie Sanders.
I'll show you 2,000 clips more of them saying that Biden is great,
Hillary Clinton, they're the only ones who are gonna win,
even though Hillary Clinton lost.
They're like, she's the only one who can win, okay, and on and on and on.
They wouldn't be honest about the delegate count.
They would pretend that people that were gonna vote later had already voted.
I could literally do two hours on their propaganda that MSNBC does,
but I'll just give you one last thing.
That's my personal experience, I was an anchor at 6 o'clock, not for long.
So he could say, yeah, you didn't get.
>> Big f-ing deal.
>> Yeah, you were just on there for a year as a host of one of their top shows, and
got the best ratings they had at that hour.
Okay, but fine, a short period of time, why was it short?
Cuz they told me to take advertisers out of the script if we were criticizing them.
They said that they didn't like my tone about the Democratic Party.
So that is inside the building, direct notes from management to a host.
And then eventually, they wanted to move me out of prime time.
And well, technically, it's not prime time, 8 o'clock is, but
out of the better hours into the weekends.
And even though I had the best ratings, why?
Because Phil Griffin gave me a literal speech,
saying, Washington is not happy with you.
And when I went to go criticize Obama after his speech,
they said you're not allowed to criticize the president for at least 24 hours.
That's the rule that's totally made up, meant to protect Obama.
And all of this critique was from the left, but they don't care,
cuz MSNBC is in the propaganda business.
Now, I'll grant Heilemann this, they are far more sophisticated than Fox News.
>> Are they?
>> Because Fox News, everybody knows, outside of the Heilemann crowd,
until recently, they're like, I could get a job with Fox News.
They're real news, they're real news, right?
Now they've given up on that.
But so, Fox News is praising, right?
But MSNBC says, we're the left-leaning channel.
We're the left-wing channel,
even though our hosts are former communications director for George W Bush.
>> Right.
>> Former Republican Congressman Joe Scarborough, right?
You got Nicole Walsh, you have Scarborough,
half their lineup is Republicans, half their pundits are Republicans, right?
And then they come, and they always are in favor of economically
conservative positions that are pro status quo, pro establishment,
and the current financial structure that we have, right?
So the minute that a progressive challenges that,
every progressive knows, you're not gonna get attacked by Fox News and
CNN anywhere near as much as you're gonna get attacked by MSNBC.
But if you dare say that in public, you will get the sneering face of Heilemann,
going, how dare you, how dare you?
We don't do propaganda, we do propaganda better.
There you go, that's actually the right answer.