After a Fox News host used the France terror attacks to call for the murder of radical Islamists, Russell Brand has taken on what he calls the channel’s “hateful” rhetoric.
Referencing Judge Jeanine Pirro’s Saturday segment which urged: “We need to kill them. We need to kill them,” Brand described the former prosecutor’s language as having “the same energy as the murderers - judgement, hate, certainty in your own position, condemnation, the language of war.”
In a production of The Trews entitled: "Charlie Hebdo: Does Fox News Terrorise Us?", Brand also noted Pirro’s repeated use of the word “them” when talking about Muslims, accusing her of “fortifying boundaries and borders between us.”
In the wake of the Charlie Hebdo terror attacks Russell Brand asks, does Fox News terrorise us?
He added: “Now this is obviously hilariously funny but in another way there’s a toxicity to it, because Fox News, as we know, is owned by Rupert Murdoch and it’s not like he’s just a daft lovely old man, you know, sort of like a racist granddad… oh don’t worry he’s a granddad, he’s from a different time.
“Different if your granddad owns a multi-trillion dollar media organisation and has investments in energy companies that will benefit from further military activity abroad that requires the malignment and hatred of Muslims and Muslim nations and the dehumanisation of Muslims to continue.”
Brand, who has repeatedly locked horns with Murdoch and Fox News, pointed out the media mogul’s share of ownership in the Israeli-American company Genie, which has been granted rights to explore for oil in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
'We need to kill them': Jeanine Pirro
“There’s always an economic angle, there’s always an idealogical angle,” he said, before highlighting the fact former American Vice President Dick Cheney is on the advisory board of the same company.
He said: “Look at the people behind these ideas. Again, remember, terrorism is wrong, killing people is bad, but that has to mean all types of terrorism.
“Who gets to define what terrorism means? Who gets to decide what violence is necessary?
SEE ALSO:
“Invisible violence in Pakistan, violence against brown people, on-going violence in Iraq, that’s got to be quantified in the same way as the cinematic, glamorous violence as it happens in recognisable cities.”
Pulling up Pirro for her assertion: “You can’t even reason with these people,” Brand added: “It’s not just ideologies this woman disavows, it’s basic physics. The way that energy works, the way behaviour works. This person is prepared, the same as the terrorists, to cast aside human values.
“The right to free speech is important but it isn’t as important as ‘We’re all human beings together, let’s find solutions together.’
“What she’s doing, whilst it’s not as violent or gory or terrible, it’s equally damaging because it’s insidious and has great reach and she’s operating on the behalf of people with their own ideologies and there are consequences.”
Highlighting Pirro’s claim Muslims (“they”) have “conquered us through immigration”, Brand called the channel “dangerous”.
He signed off with: “If there is anything that is sacred… to all of us as human beings, we have an obligation to disavow the hatred, yes of the terrorists who conducted the murders in Paris, but also woman and humans like Judge Jeanine.
“We’ve got to see beyond the distinctions and camouflage of identity and language and recognise hatred for what it is. Hatred is an aspect of consciousness that’s in us all and we can’t yield to it. We have to watch this and laugh at it. While Judge Jeanine and Fox News are hilarious and entertaining to watch, they’re not doing this as a comedy programme, this is to promote the economic ideologies of the United States and Rupert Murdoch personally who profits from the attitude of condemnation and dehumanisation of Muslims."