Welcome back to Forgotten Fact Checks, a weekly column produced by National Review’s News Desk. This week, we offer a recap of MSNBC’s most egregious lies, refute an Associated Press explainer on detransitions, and hit more media misses.
The MSNBC Propaganda Machine
English comedian Russell Brand tore into MSNBC national affairs analyst John Heilemann on a recent episode of Real Time with Bill Maher after Heilemann dismissed Brand’s suggestion that it is disingenuous to claim that the biases exhibited on MSNBC are any different than the biases exhibited on Fox News.
“I’ve been on that MSNBC, mate — it was propagandist nut-crackery on there,” Brand said.
Heilemann replied: “You don’t actually know anything about any of these organizations you’re talking about. You went on MSNBC once. Big f***ing deal.”
Heilemann pushed Brand to provide a “specific example of an MSNBC correspondent or anchor being on television saying something they knew was false,” as Fox News did when it promoted false claims about the 2020 election. Brand pointed to the network’s treatment of podcaster Joe Rogan’s endorsement of ivermectin as a Covid-19 treatment, noting the network “deliberately [referred] to it as a horse medicine when they know this is an effective medicine.” He also cited MSNBC host Rachel Maddow’s misleading claims in March 2021 that the Covid vaccine completely protects against symptoms and transmission.
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