Russell Brand compares Fox News broadcaster to Charlie Hebdo murderers

The comedian-turned-activist broadcast a takedown of Fox, saying that the US and Islamist extremists were both 'violent maniacs who are murdering people'

Russell Brand broadcast a takedown of Fox News broadcaster "Judge Jeanine", saying that she is promoting "the same energy" and is "equally damaging" as the Paris murderers.

In response to a ferocious attack on Muslim extremists, in which "Judge Jeanine", a newsreader on Fox News, urged the United States to "bomb them, bomb them, and bomb them again", Brand said: "It’s the same energy… it’s the same energy of the murders. Judgement, hate, certainty in your own position, condemnation, the language of war."

Brand's takedown of the newsreader, real name Jeanine Pirro, was broadcast on YouTube channel The Trews, and he called on "humankind" to "stop fortifying the boundaries and borders between us".

When Pirro said the only people who could stop further Charlie Hebdo-style attacks were "the Muslims themselves", Brand also said that the newsreader, who is of Lebanese descent, is "at least a bit African American… doesn’t she recognise the language [of oppression]?"

In his video, Brand said the Paris murderers were "violent maniacs who are murdering people", and described the United States as "State-sponsored violent maniacs murdering people from the sky all over Pakistan, and all over Iraq."

He said: "We’ve got to see beyond the distinctions and the camouflage of identity and language, and recognise hatred for what it is."

Brand said of Pirro's rant: "This is obviously hilariously funny, but in another way there’s a toxicity to it because Fox News, as we all know, is owned by Rupert Murdoch… it’s not like he's a racist granddad where you think: 'Oh, it’s just granddad, he’s from another time' – it’s 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, the requires the malignment and hatred of Muslims and Muslim nations and the dehumanisation of Muslims to continue.

"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?"

He added: "The right of free speech is important, but it isn’t as important as 'we’re all human beings together, let’s find solutions together'. What she [Pirro] is doing, while it’s obviously not as violent or as gory or as terrible, it’s equally damaging, because it’s insidious and it has great reach, and she’s operating on behalf of people with their own ideologies and there are consequences."