Actor Russell Brand pleaded “not guilty” to charges of rape and sexual assault on Friday.
The 49-year-old appeared at Southwark Crown Court in London for a very short pre-trial hearing. Brand pleaded not guilty to the five charges filed against him.
As The Daily Wire previously <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/russell-brand-charged-rape-sexual-assault">reported</a>, the <a href="https://news.met.police.uk/news/russell-brand-charged-by-the-metropolitan-police-service-495944">accusations</a> stem from four alleged incidents; one in 1999 in which a woman said she was raped in the Bournemouth area, one in 2001 in which a woman claimed she was indecently assaulted in the Westminster area of London, one in 2004 when a woman said she was orally raped and sexually assaulted in the Westminster area of London, and one between 2004 and 2005, in which a woman claimed she was sexually assaulted in the Westminster area of London.
Brand will remain on conditional bail until his trial begins in June 2026, per <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/30/arts/russell-brand-pleads-not-guilty-rape.html">The New York Times</a>. The actor will have to keep the court advised of any address changes going forward until the trial begins. The celebrity is being represented by lawyer Oliver Schneider-Sikorsky, who also defended actor Kevin Spacey against sex assault allegations in 2023.
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Brand released a lengthy video in response after the charges were made public, admitting he used to be a sex addict but claiming that all sexual behavior in his past was consensual.
“I’ve always told you guys that when I was young and single before I had my wife and family… I was a fool,” he said in a video shared on social media on April 4. “Man, I was a fool before I lived in the light of the Lord. I was a drug addict, sex addict, and an imbecile. What I never was was a rapist.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
My response. <a href="https://t.co/wJMGxlwBh0">pic.twitter.com/wJMGxlwBh0</a>
— Russell Brand (@rustyrockets) <a href="https://twitter.com/rustyrockets/status/1908184087304548484?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 4, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
“I’ve never engaged in non-consensual activity,” Brand stated at the time. “I pray that you can see that by looking in my eyes.”
He thanked fans again and said he was “grateful” for the opportunity to “defend these charges in court.”

Russell Brand

Russell Brand Pleads Not Guilty To Rape, Sexual Assault Charges

Celebrities

Entertainment

London

Rape

Sexual Assault

U.K.

World

Actor Russell Brand has been granted conditional bail and released by a London judge after his first court appearing over th charges of rape and sexual assault.
The 49-year-old arrived at Westminster Magistrates&#8217; Court on Friday morning. Brand was asked to state his name and address, and to provide addresses for both his U.K. and United States residences, per <a href="https://variety.com/2025/tv/global/russell-brand-london-court-rape-charge-hearing-1236383897/">Variety</a>. He responded “yes” when asked if he understood the consequences of failing to appear before the court. 
Chief Magistrate Paul Goldspring scheduled his next court appearance for London&#8217;s Central Criminal Court on May 30.
The actor was initially charged with various crimes by London&#8217;s Metropolitan Police on April 4. Four women allege Brand sexually assaulted them between 1999 and 2005.
The accusations stem from four alleged incidents; one in 1999 in which a woman said she was raped in the Bournemouth area, one in 2001 in which a woman claimed she was indecently assaulted in the Westminster area of London, one in 2004 when a woman said she was orally raped and sexually assaulted in the Westminster area of London, and one between 2004 and 2005, in which a woman claimed she was sexually assaulted in the Westminster area of London.
Brand released a <a href="https://x.com/rustyrockets/status/1908184087304548484">statement</a> on April 4 addressing the charges and thanking fans for their “incredible and overwhelming messages of support.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
My response. <a href="https://t.co/wJMGxlwBh0">pic.twitter.com/wJMGxlwBh0</a>
&mdash; Russell Brand (@rustyrockets) <a href="https://twitter.com/rustyrockets/status/1908184087304548484?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 4, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
“I’ve always told you guys that when I was young and single before I had my wife and family… I was a fool,” he said in a video shared on social media. “Man, I was a fool before I lived in the light of the Lord. I was a drug addict, sex addict, and an imbecile. What I never was was a rapist.”
“I’ve never engaged in non-consensual activity,” he stated. “I pray that you can see that by looking in my eyes.”
He thanked fans again and said he was “grateful” for the opportunity to “defend these charges in court.”

Russell Brand Granted Bail In First Court Hearing Over Rape And Assault Charges

Russell Brand Granted Bail In London Court Hearing Over Rape Charges

Court

United Kingdom

British podcaster Russell Brand, 49, has been charged by the principal public agency for conducting criminal prosecutions in England with rape and sexual assault for alleged acts committed between 1999 and 2005.
The British Metropolitan Police Service announced they had been authorized by the Crown Prosecution Service to charge Brand in connection with the offenses of one count of rape, one count of indecent assault, one count of oral rape, and two counts of sexual assault.
“Detectives began investigating in September 2023 after receiving a number of allegations, which followed reporting by Channel 4’s Dispatches and The Sunday Times,” the Metropolitan Police <a href="https://news.met.police.uk/news/russell-brand-charged-by-the-metropolitan-police-service-495944" target="_blank" rel="noopener">stated</a>.
The accusations stem from four alleged incidents; one in 1999 in which a woman said she was raped in the Bournemouth area, one in 2001 in which a woman claimed she was indecently assaulted in the Westminster area of London, one in  2004 when a woman said she was orally raped and sexually assaulted in the Westminster area of London, and one between 2004 and 2005, in which a woman claimed she was sexually assaulted in the Westminster area of London.
Brand will appear at Westminster Magistrates&#8217; Court on May 2.
“The women who have made reports continue to receive support from specially trained officers,” Metropolitan Police Detective Superintendent Andy Furphy said. &#8220;The Met&#8217;s investigation remains open and detectives ask anyone who has been affected by this case, or anyone who has any information, to come forward and speak with police.&#8221;
“Five women — four who remained anonymous and one who [was] 16 years old [at the time of the alleged assault in 2006] — previously came forward to accuse Brand in a joint <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/russell-brand-investigation-sunday-times-video-watch-latest-news-x33ss0kmk" target="_blank" rel="noopener">investigation</a> by The Sunday Times, <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/russell-brand-rape-sexual-assault-abuse-allegations-investigation-v5hxdlmb6" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Times</a> and Channel 4 current affairs show Dispatches in September 2023,” People Magazine <a href="https://people.com/russell-brand-charged-rape-sexual-assault-police-7971304" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>.
In September 2023, Brand issued a <a href="https://variety.com/2023/tv/global/russell-brand-sexual-assault-allegations-metoo-denies-1235725357/">statement</a> on YouTube in which he said:
<blockquote>
I’ve received two extremely disturbing letters, or a letter and an email, one from a mainstream media TV company, one from a newspaper, listing a litany of extremely egregious and aggressive attacks, as well as some stupid stuff, like my community festival should be stopped, I shouldn’t be able to attack mainstream narratives on this channel. But amidst this litany of astonishing, rather baroque attacks are some very serious allegations that I absolutely refute.
These allegations pertain to the time I was working in the mainstream, when I was in the newspapers all the time, when I was in the movies. As I’ve written about extensively in my books, I was very, very promiscuous. Now, during that time of my promiscuity, the relationships I had were absolutely, always consensual.
I was always transparent about that then — almost too transparent. And I’m being transparent about it now as well. And to see that transparency metastasized into something criminal, that I absolutely deny, makes me question: Is there another agenda at play? Particularly when we’ve seen coordinated media attacks before like with Joe Rogan, when he dared to take a medicine that the mainstream media didn’t approve of and we saw a spate of headlines from media outlets across the world using the same language.
</blockquote>

Russell Brand Charged With Rape And Sexual Assault

Crime

Actor <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/russell-brand" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Russell Brand</a> said this week that it&#8217;s been a &#8220;big change&#8221; after becoming a Christian a month ago.
The comedian and podcast host made the remarks in a video posted to social media where he shared what his experience has been like thus far into his new journey.
&#8220;I&#8217;ve been a Christian a month now and it&#8217;s been a big change,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Not that I&#8217;ve entirely changed as a person, of course I haven&#8217;t, but I&#8217;ve taken on a lot of new concepts and it changes you to accept that it&#8217;s not like you&#8217;re in a game show and by doing really, really good things, you can get redeemed.&#8221;
&#8220;No, repentance, to repent, means that you have to continually change and acknowledge that I am in a battle against myself,&#8221; he continued. &#8220;That I need to surrender myself to an ever-present eternal and accessible Jesus. That mercy is something that&#8217;s given to me, been granted to me, that I live with through love, not something that I can sort of win or achieve by doing good deeds.&#8221;
He said that he&#8217;s enjoyed reading Christian literature and that he has a sense of peace now that he did not have before.
&#8220;When I&#8217;m in doubt, I feel the instruction is there, accessible, and I feel like I know what I am supposed to do and when I don&#8217;t do what I am supposed to do, that is even clearer,&#8221; he said. &#8220;When I feel myself being selfish or inconsiderate or putting myself first or not thinking about how I can be better to other people, it is as if there is an inner illumination available to me now.&#8221;
&#8220;I love the simplicity of the idea of God coming to Earth as a man to experience what it is to be human and to sacrifice himself because that is the only sacrifice that could bring us home, that could give us the opportunity for redemption,&#8221; he continued. &#8220;I like the idea, when I am in prayer and in communion just alone, that there is a figure available, wounded and coronated, available to me. In my failings, in my failures, and in my fallibility, there is strength to be broken. Not just broken by life in the sense of life is rearing and exhausting, but to be broken in the same way that you have to train an animal to behave itself, to be broken into better conduct. It is a beautiful journey to go on.&#8221;
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WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560">
One month as a Christian, and already… <a href="https://t.co/1wBt9CJYaG">pic.twitter.com/1wBt9CJYaG</a>
— Russell Brand (@rustyrockets) <a href="https://twitter.com/rustyrockets/status/1795105034566287429?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 27, 2024</a></blockquote>

Russell Brand Shares His Experience After Converting To Christianity 1 Month Ago: ‘It’s Been A Big Change’

Christianity

Hollywod

Podcast host <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/russell-brand">Russell Brand</a> announced that he was baptized as a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/christianity">Christian</a> over the weekend.
The 48-year-old discussed the ritual in a video posted Monday morning on X. Brand had shared his intentions to be baptized last week after formerly being a proponent of Buddhism.
“Yesterday I got baptized, and it was an incredible, profound experience,” the British-born actor began in the video. “Many aspects of it were very intimate and personal. The truth is this, as a person who has in the past, taken many, many substances and always been disappointed with their inability to deliver the kind of tranquility and peace and even transcendence that I’ve always felt I’ve been looking for … something occurred in the process of baptism that was incredible; overwhelming.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
I got baptised!!!! 
And… <a href="https://t.co/c1JamCk49x">pic.twitter.com/c1JamCk49x</a>
&mdash; Russell Brand (@rustyrockets) <a href="https://twitter.com/rustyrockets/status/1784935940680532384?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 29, 2024</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
He went on to confirm that the baptism took place in the River Thames. “I felt changed. Transitioned.” 
Brand added that his life felt different following the baptism. “I feel as if some new resource within me has switched on,” he said.
The “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” actor continued, saying some fans have been supportive, while others are skeptical. “This is new for me, I’m learning &#8230; but this is my path now,” Brand said. “And I already feel incredibly blessed, relieved, nourished, held. It’s been an incredible experience.”
“I’m so grateful to be surrendered in Christ,” he concluded, thanking fans again for their support.
His comments match what Brand had spoken about in a previous video discussing his intention to get baptized. 
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Brand said he believed baptism was an &#8220;opportunity to die and be reborn.&#8221;
&#8220;An opportunity to leave the past behind and be reborn in Christ&#8217;s name, like it says in Galatians,&#8221; he said in a separate <a href="https://twitter.com/rustyrockets/status/1783793421049561130">video</a> shared on Friday. &#8220;That you can live as an enlightened and awakened person.&#8221;
It’s no surprise to those following Brand on social media. He’s been studying and contemplating Christianity for months and began wearing a crucifix earlier this year.
&#8220;I suppose it takes a certain amount of adulthood, and it might be different for all of us — for me, it seems that it&#8217;s taken quite a lot — to recognize that you need — I need — a personal relationship with God,&#8221; he said in a <a href="https://twitter.com/rustyrockets/status/1748988929020158003">video</a> posted in January.
At another point, Brand encouraged his fans to pray the rosary.

‘This Is My Path Now’: Russell Brand Says His Weekend Baptism Was ‘Incredible, Overwhelming’

'This Is My Path Now': Russell Brand On Being Baptized As Christian

Elon Musk commented on podcaster and actor Russell Brand being demonetized on YouTube due to sexual assault allegations. 
Despite Brand not being arrested or even charged with any crimes, he was penalized on the video-sharing platform. Daily Wire Editor Emeritus Ben Shapiro brought up the controversy during a <a href="https://twitter.com/realDailyWire/status/1707422272015724551" target="_blank" rel="noopener">conversation</a> he had with Musk Thursday on X Spaces.
“What do you make of social media platforms demonetizing people for things that they are doing offline that have not resulted in, for example, criminal charges as of yet?” Shapiro asked Musk during their chat.
Musk said not only did he speak to people who vouched for Brand’s character, but that the system of silencing him without due process was unfair.
“There needs to be, obviously, a conviction here. It can&#8217;t be guilty until proven innocent. Because obviously we’re just sort of in the witch burning phase here; just being declared a witch is enough to make you a witch and be burnt,” the Tesla founder told Shapiro. 
“Anyone could be accused at any time of false charges, and we can’t be destroying their lives on the potential of false accusations,” Musk continued. He mentioned how Brand had been “rattling the cage” of the “powers that be,” which led the X owner to wonder, “why now?”
“Seems like an odd coincidence that it’s happening when Russell is really gaining traction, questioning a lot of the conventional wisdom,” he said, mentioning how the actor has been accused of promoting “conspiracy theories.” 
“I think we’re running out of conspiracy theories that didn’t turn out to be true,” Musk observed.
While Brand was not censored or demonetized on Rumble, major brands including Burger King, HelloFresh, and fashion brand ASOS began pulling their ads from the platform in protest. 
So far, four anonymous women have accused Brand of sexual misconduct from 2006 to 2013 when the actor worked for Channel 4 and the BBC. One woman said he raped her while another claims he sexually assaulted her when she was 16 years old, which is the age of consent in the U.K.
Brand has denied any wrongdoing and said that while this period was a time of “promiscuity” for him, all sexual encounters were “absolutely always consensual.”

Elon Musk/Russell Brand

Elon Musk Comments On Russell Brand Controversy During X Space With Ben Shapiro: ‘In The Witch Burning Phase Here’

Ben Shapiro

Elon Musk

Twitter

If you mirror the priorities of the Left, then you can do whatever you want. As long as you’re not caught on camera, you’re fine. If you look at the disparate consequences for public figures ranging from people like Russell Brand to people like Howard Stern, the public consequences are quite disparate.
Russell Brand has been accused by four separate women of actions ranging from sexual assault to rape to sexual harassment. Whether the allegations are true or not, I don’t know. One thing I do know is that at this moment, they’re just allegations. There has been no actual criminal indictment brought against him. He’s certainly not been convicted of anything. But YouTube has suspended Brand from making any money on its platform only days after that report broke from Channel 4 and BBC, outlets that used to pay Brand while he was in the midst of his most flagrantly vile behavior.
So if there are serious allegations made against you of any sort, all of your videos immediately get demonetized. (Which is going to be very bad news for a significant number of actors and half the rappers on the block.) That’s a horrible standard. You’ve now created a massive incentive structure for people to make allegations against people, true or false, in order to destroy their careers.
I’m not saying the women who have made allegations about Brand are lying. I don’t know whether they are or not. I do know, at this point, I have no idea how YouTube could possibly uphold such a standard. Does it have something to do with the fact that Brand is a heterodox political thinker, somebody who says things YouTube doesn’t like very much?
<h4><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/show/the-ben-shapiro-show" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WATCH: The Ben Shapiro Show</a></h4>
Then there’s Howard Stern. Stern has been making headlines the last couple of days by pushing very loudly to the Left. He spent virtually my entire life — from the time I was a teenager — being an absolute deviant and a degraded person beyond all measure. The kinds of behavior that Stern has regularly engaged in publicly throughout his career are nothing short of disgusting. They are disreputable. They are vile toward women; he had women in his studio sit on vibrators so he could record their reactions and blast them out to millions of people in his audience.
But now, Stern is apparently one of our moral exemplars. Over the last couple of days, he ripped into Lauren Boebert, who engaged in what I think is disgusting behavior; he referred to her in vile ways.
How is Howard Stern able to get away with all this? He gets away with it because he mirrors the political priorities of the Left. You be as gross as you want to be so long as you mirror the political priorities of the Left. Stern has discovered the magic elixir that wipes away all of your past and present sins, and that is to be far enough to the Left. He’s saying all the nostrums everybody on the Left really wants to hear, and that means it’s fine for him to do all this.
So why is this important?
Because when you have a class of people who are immunized by their association with certain Left-wing causes, it incentivizes bad behavior by those people. It also creates a massive double standard: If you are heterodox, you can expect to be targeted, but if you are orthodox in your practice of leftism, you can expect you’re going to be given an enormous amount of breathing room.
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Ben Shapiro Editorial Series 11 copy

Russell Brand Gets Pilloried For His Behavior. Howard Stern Gets Celebrated For His. Guess Why.

Howard Stern

Opinion

Readers Pass

Sexual Harassment

Major brands have pulled ads from Rumble, following the video platform&#8217;s refusal to censor or demonetize actor and podcast host <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/russell-brand" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.dailywire.com/topic/russell-brand&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1694985006561000&amp;usg=AOvVaw3PHtQ_G5x1XXnMavvkunMX">Russell Brand</a> over decade-old sexual assault allegations published this month in the U.K. media.
Notably, YouTube, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/youtube-demonetizes-russell-brand-over-alleged-sexual-misconduct-from-decade-ago" target="_blank" rel="noopener">to much criticism</a>, has banned Brand from monetization on all of his accounts over the allegations, though Brand has no charges against him and has strongly denied ever engaging in nonconsensual sex. Rumble <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/u-k-parliament-demands-rumble-demonetize-russell-brand-rumble-responds" target="_blank" rel="noopener">refused</a> to follow suit.
<a href="https://www.thenewsmovement.com/articles/russell-brand-sexual-assault-allegations-brands-pull-ads-from-his-rumble-channel-after-news-movement-investigation" target="_blank" rel="noopener">According</a> to News Movement, Burger King is one of the brands that has paused advertisements on Brand&#8217;s Rumble channel. “Burger King has paused all advertising on the channel while investigations into the allegations are ongoing,&#8221; the company said.
Meal-kit company HelloFresh has pulled ads from all of Rumble, it seems, telling News Movement when it reached out about the allegations, “Thanks for pointing this out to us. We have manually removed our ads from Rumble.”
And Fashion company ASOS pulled ads this week, the report noted.
The allegations against Brand surfaced from a joint investigation by The Sunday Times, The Times, and Channel 4 Dispatches. The alleged victims were reached out to by the media before detailing their accusations. So far, no charges have been filed against Brand, though London police have opened an investigation into a newly reported allegation from 20 years ago.
The media report said four women, whose names have not been disclosed, have accused Brand of sexual misconduct from 2006 to 2013, which was the height of Brand’s mainstream fame — when Brand worked for Channel 4 and the BBC. One woman claims Brand raped her, while another alleged victim, who is now 31, says Brand sexually assaulted her when she was 16 years old (the age of consent in the U.K.).
“Amidst this litany of astonishing, rather baroque attacks, are some very serious allegations that I absolutely refute,” Brand said in a video, which preempted the media dump of the allegations by a matter of hours.
“These allegations pertain to the time when I was working in the mainstream, when I was in the newspapers all the time, when I was in the movies,&#8221; he said. &#8220;And as I’ve written about extensively in my books, I was very, very promiscuous. Now, during that time of promiscuity, the relationships I had were absolutely always consensual.”
Brand has also questioned the media coordination regarding the allegations and suggested there was an agenda at play. Moreover, his legal team, given eight days to respond to all allegations, questioned how Brand could specifically refute the allegations if he&#8217;s not permitted to know the names of his accusers.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/russell-brand-vehemently-denies-sexual-assault-allegations-in-viral-video-statement" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Russell Brand Vehemently Denies Sexual Assault Allegations In Viral Video Statement</a>

Major Brands Pull Ads From Rumble After Platform Refuses To Censor Russell Brand Over Sex Assault Allegations

Companies Pull Ads From Rumble After Platform Refuses To Censor Russell Brand Over Sex Assault Allegations

Social Issues

Social Media

If you decided one day to go on YouTube looking for old Howard Stern clips, you&#8217;d have a lot of edgy, politically incorrect content to choose from. Stern&#8217;s many segments with an intellectually disabled dwarf comedian named Beetlejuice, for example, aren&#8217;t hard to find. There&#8217;s also a bunch of compilations of people fighting on Stern&#8217;s set, in the style of Jerry Springer, usually over money or adultery. There&#8217;s enough degeneracy to last you weeks, if for some reason you were inclined to watch it.
But there is some recurring Howard Stern content that&#8217;s not so easy to view, because by and large, it&#8217;s been scrubbed from most major video-sharing sites. The segments I&#8217;m talking about involve Stern speaking about his sexual attraction to children, specifically Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen. Again and again, for several years, Stern described the Olsen twins as sexually attractive. &#8220;They&#8217;re so amazingly hot,&#8221; Stern says in one of the segments, referring to the underage girls. In several cases, Stern brings up the girls unprompted, leading to awkward moments with his co-hosts.
Because it&#8217;s not possible to truly eliminate any content from the internet, you can still find this footage if you know where to look. A small handful of anonymous accounts have defied corporate censors and uploaded some of Stern&#8217;s many disturbing comments about children he finds sexually attractive. Here&#8217;s one example, where Stern laments that the girls, in his estimation, aren&#8217;t as attractive as they were when they were 13-years-old:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Stern show with call in talking about not liking how they look anymore, preferred how they looked when they were 13/14. Disappointed because they were counting down to 18th birthday to have sex with them. <a href="https://t.co/JUyfOjS6rZ">pic.twitter.com/JUyfOjS6rZ</a>
&mdash; ProfitOfRegret (@ProfitOfRegret) <a href="https://twitter.com/ProfitOfRegret/status/1704600632819130742?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 20, 2023</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
There are many more clips like this that we could play. Some are even more disturbing than the one you just heard. This is a grown man, in his 40s at the time, repeatedly sexualizing children who are barely teenagers. Many people have had their lives destroyed and been reduced to groveling apologies for saying things that are not even a tenth as bad as what Stern says there. And that wasn’t even a tenth as bad as other things Stern said.
These clips were nauseating and creepy when he made them and they&#8217;re nauseating and creepy now. There was never a point in American history where it was acceptable to sexualize children like this. But for years, Howard Stern continued doing just that, right out in the open. No one stopped him. He didn&#8217;t seem ashamed of it at all. He tracked the Olsen twins from puberty to adulthood, commenting on their sex appeal, as he perceived it, at every turn.
But somewhere along the line, Howard Stern and his team decided that he had to stop talking about the Olsen twins. And more than that, someone decided that all of Stern&#8217;s past comments about the Olsen twins needed to be purged from the internet. All the other degenerate segments could stay online but the stuff where he lusts after young children — well that had to go. It was different from all of his other smut. It was just too damning.
With that evidence (mostly) expunged from the internet, Stern has embraced pretty much every agenda item of the Fortune 500. He is now officially a woke hall monitor, by his own admission. In fact this week Stern proudly identified as &#8220;woke.&#8221; Listen:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="Howard Stern hits back at critics: ‘I am woke, motherf–ker, and I love it’" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/M_CQbIiQv2Y?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
As part of his new &#8220;woke&#8221; persona, Stern attacked Lauren Boebert for her <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/boeberts-estranged-husband-posts-statement-after-theater-incident-i-was-unfaithful-to-lauren" target="_blank" rel="noopener">inappropriate behavior</a> in a theater a few days ago. This is the guy who spent the first three decades of his career being a creepy, degenerate sex fiend. Now he&#8217;s playing the prude. He&#8217;s become a pathetic, old washed-up school marm but he&#8217;s now shielded by his new woke identity. He is immune from accusations of hypocrisy, just like he&#8217;s immune from accusations of being a dirty old man attracted to children.
It&#8217;s a revealing transformation, if only because it shows how little daylight there is between woke hall monitors and depraved pedophilic scumbags. Depraved pedophilic scumbags and woke hall monitors are not two destinations on opposite ends of the spectrum. They&#8217;re in the same neighborhood and there&#8217;s a lot of overlap. And they know it. Howard Stern knows it, which is why he&#8217;s sensitive about all those clips of him salivating over 13-year-old girls.
There are other old clips that are inconvenient for Stern, too, of course — clips that are particularly relevant after what&#8217;s just happened to Alex Jones. Jones, you&#8217;ll recall, was just ordered to pay something like a billion dollars to the families of the victims of the Sandy Hook mass shooting. It bankrupted him. Of course Jones was wrong in what he said about Sandy Hook; he admits that. But as far as we know, Howard Stern has never apologized for his decision to mock the victims of the Columbine school shooting. In fact, Stern didn&#8217;t simply mock these victims, he said their killers should have raped them first, before executing them. Listen:
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This was Howard Stern the day after Columbine.
Yikes. <a href="https://t.co/rPVMjCTF4q">https://t.co/rPVMjCTF4q</a> <a href="https://t.co/WanI7f5Pv6">pic.twitter.com/WanI7f5Pv6</a>
&mdash; ALX 🇺🇸 (@alx) <a href="https://twitter.com/alx/status/1704323051427402184?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 20, 2023</a></blockquote>
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That&#8217;s pretty much the most vile thing a human being could possibly say. I personally give people a lot of leeway for “jokes” made years ago, in a different time, when people weren’t as sensitive and edgy humor wasn’t as edgy. But this is way beyond the bounds of what would have been considered remotely acceptable even in the ’90s. This is, again, perhaps the worst thing I’ve ever heard anyone say, ever. He is not only joking about a school shooting right after it happened — a day later — but lusting after the survivors and saying that the shooters should have raped their victims. And keep in mind that said all of this when he was a grown man in his mid 40s. But Howard Stern has never been banned from every social media platform for these comments. He wasn&#8217;t ordered to pay a billion dollars. He didn&#8217;t have to pay anything.
That&#8217;s because, fortunately for Stern, he mocked the Columbine victims prior to this new era of woke enlightenment, where free speech is illegal as long as it&#8217;s sufficiently offensive. And now, just to cover his bases, Stern has completed his transition into the cult of wokeness soon enough to protect himself against cancellation. Now they&#8217;re not going to come after him because he&#8217;s on their team.
Meanwhile, Russell Brand is being demonetized based on accusations alone. Unlike Howard Stern, Russell Brand never publicly expressed his sexual attraction to 13-year-old girls. But he has expressed skepticism about big pharma and the war in Ukraine. And for that reason, this week a &#8220;culture committee&#8221; in the UK parliament sent Rumble a letter requesting that they demonetize Russell Brand. The letter reads: &#8220;I am writing concerning the serious allegations regarding Russell Brand &#8230; We would like to know whether Rumble intends to join YouTube in suspending Mr Brand’s ability to earn money on the platform.&#8221;
In the most passive-aggressive fashion imaginable, the U.K. parliament also sent a similar letter to TikTok: &#8220;We would be grateful if you could confirm whether Mr Brand is able to monetise his TikTok posts, including his videos relating to the serious accusations against him, and what the platform is doing to ensure that creators are not able to use the platform to undermine the welfare of victims of inappropriate and potentially illegal behavior.&#8221;
Let&#8217;s take stock of what we&#8217;re seeing here. This is the government of the U.K. effectively telling multiple social media platforms to demonetize one of the most influential commentators on the planet, solely on the basis of unproven allegations. There is no plausible deniability here; they&#8217;re being pretty much as explicit as they can possibly be. Before the Twitter files came out, this would have been dismissed as a wild conspiracy theory. You weren&#8217;t allowed to think that governments were colluding with big tech to censor unapproved voices. Now the government is just coming out and admitting that&#8217;s exactly what it&#8217;s doing. This isn&#8217;t just happening in the U.K.; the Biden administration does it too.
Unlike its competitor YouTube, Rumble emphatically rejected the request from the U.K. government, to their credit. But YouTube is the far bigger platform, and their decision to instantaneously demonetize Russell Brand sets a very worrying precedent. It&#8217;s also totally incoherent. As Elijah Schaffer points out, Cardi B is currently fully monetized on YouTube. This is in spite of the fact that she openly admitted to drugging and robbing men. It&#8217;s on tape. Watch:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9q7haE3tKNM
Cardi B confessed — bragged about — violent felonies. Her history as a confessed date rapist has not precluded her from major corporate sponsorships or monetization on YouTube. &#8220;Double standard&#8221; isn&#8217;t the right term for this. It&#8217;s really one standard: if you&#8217;re useful to the Left, you can essentially do what you want. That&#8217;s the standard, consistently applied. No one can really deny that anymore. This is not an arbitrary application of shifting sets of standards. This, again, is one standard. Leftists are immune. That’s the rule.
With that in mind, what&#8217;s the appropriate response? Pointing out hypocrisy isn&#8217;t going to do anything. We&#8217;ve learned that much over the past few years. What&#8217;s needed is some courage. We need more of what Rumble is doing. Rumble knows that Russell Brand might actually be guilty of what he&#8217;s accused of doing. After all, he was an admitted sex-addicted degenerate back when these crimes supposedly occurred. It certainly isn&#8217;t outside of the realm of possibility that he did treat the women the way he&#8217;s accused of treating them.
But the leadership of Rumble understands that it makes no sense to un-person Russell Brand based on mere allegations, when we know for a fact that Brand&#8217;s critics are entirely motivated by politics. They want to mete out punishments only to enemies of the regime while its allies and lackeys are given exemptions. Kowtowing to these wannabe strongmen is not a smart or sustainable strategy. All we can really do now is ignore everything that the system says and assume, for all intents and purposes, that everyone they demonize is innocent. If we&#8217;re being honest, that&#8217;s not always going to be true. Sometimes we will be wrong, and we will defend people who are guilty. 
Sometimes the system will say something true or villainize someone who actually is a villain. But they lie so often about so many things and are so blatantly driven by ideology and narrative and are so wildly dishonest all the time, that we have to ignore them completely at this point. By defending and promoting the most odious among us — by embracing ghouls like Howard Stern and Cardi B — they&#8217;ve left us no choice.
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Matt Walsh

Howard Stern Enjoys Immunity While Russell Brand’s Career Is Destroyed

Howard Stern Enjoys Immunity While Russell Brand's Career Is Destroyed

Cancel Culture

Sexually explicit

Woke Culture

I have a different perspective than most conservatives on the allegations that have surfaced about Russell Brand. I wanted to wait to hear the allegations so I could understand them — because I never just simply believe allegations. So I pressed pause before saying anything about Brand, who is now a reformed addict. He was addicted to heroin, he was a sex addict, and he’s been very open about that. This story made me pause on the basis of Brand being a recovering addict because I have a history with them.
I have addicts in my family — all sorts of addicts — and I too have been open about that. When people are in their addictions, they do things that are incomprehensible and unimaginable. I have seen it with my own eyes, and it is utterly confounding. If you know an addict but are not one, you cannot understand it. I do not understand how addiction works in anybody’s mind, and it is hard for me to comprehend what an addict is capable of doing. So when Brand’s story broke, and allegations from a very long time ago surfaced — 2012 and pre-#MeToo — I thought I should research the allegations.
Anytime an onslaught of #MeToo victims start shouting, they never have any proof. They say something happened a long time ago, but they didn’t tell anyone or go to the police or confront the person. Then suddenly, when there is a political opportunity to take someone down, they say, “Oh, me too. Me too. Me too.” And I find that to be crap. However, according to the investigation of the Los Angeles woman making accusations against Brand, messages have been presented to verify what she said in her statement: that Brand raped her and then apologized for raping her. She went immediately to a rape crisis center, and her visit to that center in 2012 has been confirmed. I have reviewed these text messages, and they appear legitimate to me. Maybe Brand will say they were doctored, so for now, Brand allegedly wrote these. And who could say she is lying while looking at these messages?
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone wp-image-623811 size-medium" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/09/R-Brand-text-1-300x262.png" alt="" width="300" height="262" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/09/R-Brand-text-1-300x262.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/09/R-Brand-text-1.png 512w" sizes=" (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /></div>
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone wp-image-623813 size-medium" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/09/2-R-Brand-text-300x261.png" alt="" width="300" height="261" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/09/2-R-Brand-text-300x261.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/09/2-R-Brand-text.png 512w" sizes=" (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /></div>
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone wp-image-623815 size-medium" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/09/3-R-Brand-text-300x260.png" alt="" width="300" height="260" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/09/3-R-Brand-text-300x260.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/09/3-R-Brand-text.png 512w" sizes=" (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /></div>
Perhaps these messages could be read another way; maybe he just did not use a condom. Obviously they had had consensual sex in the past, and then obviously this time she said “no” to something. And Brand proceeded to do whatever he wanted to do with a glazed look in his eye. She then went to a rape crisis center within 24 hours. So yes, these allegations are credible.
Despite the fact that we may all love who Russell Brand is today — and I do love who Russell Brand is today — he used to be a leftist commie in the media, the same media who applauded him everywhere. He was celebrated by the same media who are now attempting to take him down. That is the part that is suspicious.
Why did the media wait until Brand was clean, sober, married, and on the brink of having his third child to speak out about this? Why wait 11 years to bring these allegations out? Obviously this is a plot to take him down now that he is standing up and speaking out about big government, COVID, and wokeness. The media kept his secret when he was their friend, when he was a horrible, rotten person, when he was living like Hunter Biden. They were willing to keep and bury everything. But now that he’s sober and speaking more conservatively, they choose to take him down. That should bother us all.
<h4><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/my-unexpected-take-on-the-russell-brand-allegations-member-exclusive" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WATCH: Candace Owens &#8211; My Unexpected Take on the Russell Brand Allegations</a></h4>
Two things can be true at once: Brand is being intentionally pursued by the media, but this allegation against him is also credible. And, of course, the story doesn’t end here. YouTube has suspended Russell Brand from making money. They have completely demonetized him due to the sexual assault allegations. These allegations are just that: allegations. He has not been tried in the court system, so who is YouTube to say he is demonetized until further notice? It doesn’t make sense. YouTube is not a courthouse.
Furthermore, numerous people on YouTube have openly admitted to crimes they have committed and have served time. There are convicts on YouTube. But they are allowed to have a YouTube channel. They can even keep their YouTube channels while they are in prison. Sammy the Bull admitted to murdering 19 people, and he has a YouTube channel. So what exactly is the policy? How does any of this make sense? It seems if you have allegations out, they’ll take you down, but if they have confirmation of guilt, they will allow you to continue making money.
So, there seems to be a coordinated effort to take down Russell Brand — because this has never happened before and it does not make sense. We all have a right to have allegations heard in a proper setting, and that proper setting is not the mainstream media. The media do not get to convict someone. That can only happen in a courthouse.
This is what it means to be a celebrity in Hollywood. If you are on the Left, they own you but they will protect you. But as soon as you step out of the leftist talking point, they will collect enough evidence to take you down. It’s as if they are waiting for you to step out of line so they can ruin your life. And that’s exactly what’s happening to Russell Brand.
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Candace_4b_216x9 copy 32 (1)

Are The Russell Brand Allegations True Or Is This A Media Takedown?

Candace Owens

Video streaming platform <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/anti-woke-youtube-competitor-rumble-tells-france-au-revoir-over-censorship-demands" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Rumble</a> went public on Wednesday with a statement, revealing that they had received a letter from the U.K.&#8217;s Parliament demanding they demonetize <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/russell-brand-leaves-youtube-for-rumble-after-censorship-complaint" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Russell Brand</a> over <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/russell-brand-vehemently-denies-sexual-assault-allegations-in-viral-video-statement" target="_blank" rel="noopener">recent accusations</a> of sexual misconduct &#8212; and they had refused to comply.
Rumble published a copy of the letter from Parliament &#8212; calling the governing body&#8217;s attempt to interfere with free expression on the internet &#8220;deeply inappropriate and dangerous&#8221; — along with a copy of their response via X.
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Attached is the letter from the UK Parliament. <a href="https://t.co/MdeYrlt06J">pic.twitter.com/MdeYrlt06J</a>
&mdash; Rumble 🏴‍☠️ (@rumblevideo) <a href="https://twitter.com/rumblevideo/status/1704584929026216118?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 20, 2023</a></blockquote>
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The letter from Parliament — signed by Dame Caroline Dinenage, Chair of the Culture, Media, and Sport Committee — expressed concern that Brand might continue to make money using Rumble to reach his 1.4 million followers.
&#8220;We are also looking at his use of social media, including on Rumble where he issued his preemptive response to the accusations made against hime by The Sunday Times and Channel 4’s Dispatches,&#8221; the letter read. &#8220;While we recognise that Rumble is not the creator of the content published by Mr. Brand, we are concerned that he may be able to profit from his content on the platform.&#8221;
&#8220;We would be grateful if you could confirm whether Mr. Brand is able to monetise his content, including his videos relating to the serious accusations against him. If so, we would like to know whether Rumble intends to join YouTube in suspending Mr. Brand’s ability to earn money on the platform,&#8221; Parliament&#8217;s missive continued.
Rumble&#8217;s response opened by calling Parliament&#8217;s request &#8220;disturbing,&#8221; and continued from there.
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&#8220;While Rumble obviously deplores sexual assault, rape, and all serious crimes, and believes that both alleged victims and the accused are entitled to a full and serious investigation, it is vital to note that recent allegations against Russell Brand have nothing to do with content on Rumble’s platform,&#8221; the letter read.
Noting that YouTube had made the decision to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/the-youtube-unpersoning-of-russell-brand" target="_blank" rel="noopener">demonetize Brand</a> — based solely on the accusations leveled against him &#8212; the statement said that Rumble would not do the same.
&#8220;Rumble stands for very different values. We have devoted ourselves to the vital cause of defending a free internet &#8212; meaning an internet where no one arbitrarily dictates which ideas can or cannot be heard, or which citizens may or may not be entitled to a platform,&#8221; the statement continued.
&#8220;We regard it as deeply inappropriate and dangerous that the UK Parliament would attempt to control who is allowed to speak on our platform or to earn a living from doing so,&#8221; the statement said, adding that Parliament&#8217;s demands were &#8220;even more disturbing&#8221; because the accusations against Brand had no relation to the content on Rumble. &#8220;We don’t agree with the behavior of many Rumble creators, but we refuse to penalize them for actions that have nothing to do with our platform.&#8221;
<div>&#8220;Although it may be politically and socially easier for Rumble to join a cancel culture mob, doing so would be a violation of our company’s values and mission. We emphatically reject the UK parliament’s demands,&#8221; the statement concluded.</div>

An Evening with Russell Brand at Esquire Townhouse with Dior

U.K. Parliament Demands Rumble Demonetize Russell Brand; Rumble Responds

Sexual Misconduct

YouTube

This week, The Times of London and Channel 4 issued a scathing expose about actor and comedian-turned-podcaster Russell Brand. Brand began his career as a comedian and MTV host; in 2004, he joined Big Brother’s Big Mouth on Channel 4, and then transitioned into acting and voice overs. In 2013, he went political; by 2020, he had launched a successful podcast, taking heterodox positions on matters ranging from COVID-19 to the Ukraine war.
Over the course of this time, Brand also changed his personal behavior. He was a drug abuser in the early 2000s; by 2003, he was a self-declared sex addict; today, he is married with two young children.
The Times and Channel 4 report concerns behavior during the period 2006-2013. Those allegations come from five women, four of them anonymous, who accuse Brand of behavior ranging from emotional abuse to sexual assault and rape. Metropolitan Police have urged any victims to come forward. Brand denies all of the allegations.
Full disclosure: I’ve <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ben-shapiro-with-russell-brand" target="_blank" rel="noopener">interviewed Russell</a> and been interviewed by him at length. I consider him a friend. You can never truly know another person well enough to rule out vile, despicable, criminal behavior in their past; I didn’t know Russell during his most debauched period, and I assume that if I had, we wouldn’t have gotten along. And the allegations, as Brand himself says, are incredibly serious. Presumably we will find out all the facts as time goes on.
There is a question worth asking here, aside from the obvious question about Brand’s alleged crimes: what prompted the media to begin digging into Brand? It was an open secret in Hollywood that Brand was a sexual degenerate throughout the 2000s; the media were utterly unconcerned about such matters. In fact, the same media outlets now investigating Brand were happy to make money off of him as he engaged in overtly vile behavior he himself would now be ashamed of.
So what changed? Brand did. He began taking political positions that contradicted many of the most cherished assumptions of the media class. He spoke out on a variety of issues that were considered taboo. He abandoned his past embrace of debauchery and began promoting more honorable personal behavior.
This prompted an investigation that, if the allegations are true, should have happened more than a decade ago. That investigation has now been utilized as a predicate to unperson Brand before he even responds to the allegations in full. He has not been arrested and charged, let alone convicted of a crime. Yet YouTube announced on Tuesday that it would cancel all monetization of Brand’s videos on the site, preventing Brand from earning an income from any content posted on YouTube. “This decision applies to all channels that may be owned or operated by Russell Brand,” the social media service explained.
Allegations can now be utilized to erase unpleasant people from social media – presumably because of what they have done in the past, but really, because of what they say now. There are reams of allegations about a bevy of YouTube creators. But those who are demonetized seem to be of one political type.
This is dangerous stuff, no matter what emerges about Brand. If he’s guilty, he will pay for his crimes. But the pre-emptive destruction of his career makes for a truly ugly incentive structure. And it is now just one more reason for those who do have heterodox opinions to avoid speaking up.
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The YouTube Unpersoning Of Russell Brand

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