Media attacks on Russell Brand are missing the target; they should look at themselves

Last Updated: September 19, 2023By Tags: , , , , , ,

The accused: Russell Brand is said to have committed a string of sexual assaults including rape but the only trial he has faced so far has been by the mainstream media – which seem biased against him because of the questions he has raised about them. And doesn’t their manufactured outrage indicate that his arguments have merit?

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I wasn’t going to write about this.

The accusations of sexual assaults, including rape, against Russell Brand are serious matters that, now exposed, are for the police to investigate and – if necessary – prosecute. I would wish to let that happen without comment – partly in order not to prejudice any such investigation.

But the mainstream media seem (and I place emphasis on that word) determined to give Brand a kicking for the years he has spent criticising them and their own biases.

So a couple of days ago (September 17, 2023), we saw The Guardian publishing a piece headlined Now we’ll see how many bought Brand’s anti-‘mainstream media’ shtick.

Jonathan Cook, below, blows the whistle on what it seems (there’s that word again) to be about:

There is an element of the either/or narrative Mr Cook suggests in Jim Waterson’s piece; right at the start, he states:

Russell Brand has spent the past decade telling the world not to trust the mainstream media industry. Now the comedian will find out whether the wider public has bought into this scorched-earth narrative – or if they believe the claims of rape and sexual assault.

Why can’t we believe both?

Just because a person does wrong in one way, that doesn’t mean everything they say and do is untrue or even unacceptable; even if Brand is eventually convicted as a rapist, that should not invalidate any good arguments he makes about the media.

You see – if they are good arguments, they should stand up regardless of who has put them forward.

They should also stand up regardless of whether people branded as undesirable by the mainstream media have stood up to support Brand. Waterson mentions Elon Musk, Andrew Tate and Telegraph columnist Allison Pearson in an apparent attempt at “guilt by association”.

But in fact, Waterson’s article can be seen to support some of those arguments itself; for This Writer’s money, it seems to have been mis-headlined.

He goes on to admit,

there are still questions for mainstream British broadcasters to answer

and he lists some of them, which make it seem (yet again!) apparent that media representatives encouraged aberrant behaviour by Brand while he was working for them:

Hypersexualisation and graphic descriptions of sexual desire were part of his public persona – which is not illegal, but may have been considered red flags by those hiring him to present shows.

During Channel 4’s Dispatches documentary, there is a clip of the comedian telling Lorraine Kelly: “If you’re in a position of some success, people will let you be a nutter as long as they’re making money out of it.”

The suggestion is that – as far as mainstream media moguls were concerned – Brand could do whatever he wanted, as long as he was telling the world what they wanted him to say.

It is only since he turned against the mainstream that they have been looking for a way to undermine him. Waterson states that the initial inquiries against Brand began almost five years ago, after he started criticising the MSM. Why not before, if his behaviour was so well-known?

It seems to me that the media outrage against Brand may be nothing more than hypocritical ass-covering; an attempt to hide its own complicity any any wrong-doing by stirring up hysteria against him now.

And part of that is an attempt to discredit his arguments against them – arguments that may in fact be proved by their naked aggression against him.


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6 Comments

  1. El Dee September 19, 2023 at 5:27 pm - Reply

    Given the press investigation and wide reporting on this it may be easy for him to claim he can’t get a fair trial. It may be difficult to find jurors who have not heard of the allegations and/or read about it. This is not an unreasonable point to make.

    As we know multiple accusations make it more likely for people to think ‘he must’ve done something’ Pointing ANY of this out sets you up as a target as ‘defending a rapist. What I don’t want to see is a repeat of the Salmond Scandal. The Scottish Government were sued by him and he won for how they managed to get people to accuse him. He was only saved from conviction by the fact that he was able to actively DISPROVE the prosecution case. It was not a ‘lack of evidence’ but rather that he proved beyond a reasonable doubt that people lied in court to try and convict him and that people were not where they said they were, not with who they said they were with and that in cases he was not where they said he was either. This was reported by only ONE journalist, Craig Murray. Murray simply reported the defence case (I read every article) and he was sent to prison on a Civil Crime for the non- existent charge of ‘jigsaw identification’ The charge created for him was that if you read ALL of his articles (both from before the order not to identify and after) and ALL of the newpaper/TV news and had a little inside knowledge and did a bit of digging that you MIGHT have been able to identify one or more of the accusers. Precisely NO names were mentioned though. This is punishment for reporting the trial accurately and carefully NOT mentioning the accusers nor any identifying factors.

    I’d HATE to think this was being done in the same vein as what was attempted on Salmond. However I don’t see Brand as a powerful enough voice to merit that kind of action and we do know, from Brand himself, that he has had issues regarding his sexuality especially as regards sex addiction.

    The fact we are even contemplating matters like this as a possibility is a sad indictment of the society we live in. A severely flawed democracy where those who reveal war crimes are jailed without charge, where those who report on political cases are jailed purely on the say so of a single judge for a crime that doesn’t exist and wasn’t committed even if it did. Corruption, graft, dishonesty are woven into the fabric of our government so much more than they were before. PMs convicted of breaking the laws they just made and lying about everything including the fact they were happy to see ‘the bodies pile high’ in the pandemic.

    We are sliding ever further from democracy and so much so we may never know who is the good guy and who is the bad..

  2. J September 19, 2023 at 9:57 pm - Reply

    He without sin cast the first stone… MEDIA, I dare ya…

  3. Julia September 20, 2023 at 7:37 am - Reply

    Jonathan Cook’s blog post on this topic was, as ever, thought provoking and I particularly like the way he concludes every section ‘Pointing this out does not mean one is condoning rape or sexual assault’.

    A bit off topic, but I find it really scary these days that debate seems to have been stifled and in many forums if you dare, for instance, suggest that the Ukraine conflict will escalate to truly horrific levels if some dialogue and negotiation does not take place, you are immediately a ‘Putin apologist’.

    Likewise,’if you have legitimate concerns about Starmer’s Labour Party you are ‘A Tory enabler’. Very scary times… But thank you Mike, Jonathon Cook and others of your ilk who dare actually question and debate.

    • Mike Sivier September 20, 2023 at 7:17 pm - Reply

      We get the accusations too, but I (for one) tend to brush them off.

  4. mohandeer September 20, 2023 at 2:23 pm - Reply

    You should mention as did Jonathon Cook in his article “Pointing this out does not mean one is condoning rape or sexual assault.”
    Everything you have said has merit, which is more than can be said of the gutter trash spouted by our corrupted MSM.
    I may not be a fan of Brand, but you made some obvious points regarding the fate of some “celebrities” which should be acknowledged.
    “Pointing this out does not mean one is condoning rape or sexual assault.”

    • Mike Sivier September 20, 2023 at 7:15 pm - Reply

      You make a good point. It’s sad that one cannot make what seems to be a self-evident point without having to add that kind of qualifier to an article of this nature.

      Apparently there’s a commenter on the Vox Political Facebook page who actually asked me if I like Brand. That has nothing to do with the subject matter of the article!

      (For what it’s worth, I haven’t really formed much of an opinion of him. His path and mine have rarely crossed and the best I can say is that I don’t think my life has been worsened by that fact.)

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