English actor and comedian Russel Brand has become the latest target of the corporate media, who have baselessly accused him of spreading conspiracy theories and derogatorily labeling him the ‘British Joe Rogan.’
Last week, The Independent published an article written by Clémence Michallon and titled ‘Russell Brand is the new Joe Rogan — and I’m the one he warned you about,’ in which the author accused the English comedian of “peddling conspiracy theories on YouTube.”
Comparing him to Rogan due to his use of “the language of conspiracies”, specifically in how he “affectionately calls his viewers ‘awakening wonders’ and occasionally welcomes them on a purported journey towards truth,” Michallon declared that the comedian was simply “stoking fear of an unnamed enemy, urging people to believe there exists a deeper, hidden truth that only the guy with the podcast could possibly reveal.”
The following day, the publication published yet another attack on Brand, this time written by The Independent contributor Louis Chilton.
His headline positing the question “How did Russell Brand go from stand-up stardom to peddling YouTube conspiracy theories?”, Chilton’s piece accuses the English comedian of reinventing himself “with a series of alarmist videos tackling issues like Covid and the Russian-Ukranian war,” trivialising Brand’s content as “a mixed bag of healthy scepticism and poorly sourced controversy-mongering.”
“If a comedian of waning mass-market appeal were looking to drum up ticket sales and bolster their profile, there’d be worse ways to go about it than a series of topical controversy-mongering YouTube videos,” he asserted.
In response, Brand took to his eponymously-named YouTube channel, addressing both of The Independent’s attempts at launching a smear campaign against him in a 17-minute long video .
“The establishment and the mainstream media are coming for me and coming for this channel,” the comedian prefaced his video, noting that corporate media has labelled him as a “conspiracy theorist, a right-wing nut, and an anti-vaxxer.”
He then proposed, “If you don’t think that I’m those things, and I don’t think that I’m those things, could there be any other reason why the mainstream media and establishment want to shut down open discourse and dissent?”
“As you know, the point of this channel is to have an open conversation, and much of what we do is about critiquing news, analysing the type of content you get in the mainstream media, or the corporate media, looking at whether or not there’s an agenda at play,” said Brand regarding the type of content he produces on his channel.
He went on, “There’s lots of things we look at. So that’s what the point of this channel is. We don’t claim to be a news channel. We are looking at news and analysing news. That’s what we’re doing. So the idea of misinformation…this is opinion. This is obviously my opinion.”
“We check our sources, we never say anything that can’t be backed up, and you’ll be interesting to know that in the many articles of criticism of this channel, and what we do here, no one is able to say, ‘This thing!'” Brand continued, before turning to illustrate his point with one of his accused ‘anti-vaxx’ opinions.
“For example, let’s just say the anti-vaxx thing,” He elaborated. “You know, like, ‘Russell Brand is anti-vaxx!’ I’ve never said that I’m anti-vaxx. What I’ve said is that perhaps people that are reluctant to become vaccinated shouldn’t be treated as criminals, condemned, and treated as social pariahs.”
Brand then proceeded to single out The Independent, pointing out that the news publication isn’t as independent as the name would initially suggest because of its partial ownership by Sultan Mohamed Abuljadayel, a businessman with ties to the Saudi Arabian government.
“One of the newspapers, you probably haven’t heard of it, it’s a British newspaper called ironically The Independent,” the comedian explained. “The newspaper that calls itself The Independent is possibly up to 50% funded by the Saudi Arabian state.”
“A newspaper that calls itself The Independent is criticising this channel and its content for being somehow duplicitous and conspiratorial,” Brand added. “Well, I’m not sure that they’re in a great position to make those kind of remarks and to make those kind of observations.”
Pulling no punches against the British news outlet, he then said, “If you’re called The Independent and you’re funded by the Saudi Arabian state, you ain’t even got past the title without lying.”
“We want to be part of an open conversation with [the audience],” he continued. “We want to provide alternative narratives, and not only provide narratives [but] invite you to create the narratives with us.”
“I don’t know what’s best,” Brand admitted. “I’ve made a lot of mistakes. I’ve been wrong many times, but I’m beginning to think I’m right about this.”
He then fervently declared, “The mainstream media is not your friend. The culture is not your friend. The government is not your friend. Big business is not your friend. They are operating collegiately, in unison, to create a set of systems that are beneficial to them, and disadvantage you.”
“The biggest threat to their power comes from unionisation and mobilisation of large groups of people,” he explained, adding that mainstream corporations “are so nervous about it. They’re so aggressive about it, they’re so protective about it, it makes me think that they’ve got an agenda.”
On social media, tech billionaire and Tesla CEO Elon Musk threw his support behind Brand, responding to Chilton’s piece for The Independent by calling out corporate media companies for targeting the English actor.
“With so many mainstream media companies saying [Russell Brand] is crazy/dangerous, I watched some of his videos,” wrote Musk. “Ironically, he seemed more balanced & insightful than those condemning him!”
“The groupthink among major media companies is more troubling,” he asserted. “There should be more dissent.”
Renowned psychologist and YouTube personality Jordan Peterson agreed with Musk’s assessment, adding, “An appalling union of large corporations, media agencies and government. What did Mussolini call that again?”
Similarly, the people over at Rumble also expressed their support for Brand, reminding individuals that the English comedian also has an official account on their platform.
“Hope you watched @rustyrockets on Rumble,” they nudged Brand’s audience.
In January of this year, a similar campaign seeking to deplatform Joe Rogan from audio streaming platform Spotify was sparked by musician Neil Young, who claimed the famed podcaster of spreading misinformation about the Coronavirus.
Even Joe Biden’s Surgeon General, Vivek Murthy, voiced his support for this petty cancellation attempt, suggesting that Rogan’s podcast should be censored “to reduce the spread of misinformation about COVID-19.”
Amidst Young’s smear campaign against Rogan, a second cancellation attempt was unleashed against the podcaster by the woke mob, this time trying to label him as an outright racist based on his past usage of the N-word.
This backlash prompted Rogan to issue an apology video, wherein he explained that he only used the racist slur in context and clarified that he never meant to offend anyone.
What do you make of Brand being targeted by mainstream media? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section down below or on social media.