So it is Russell Brand

[Gro]

The biggest news story of the year is about someone who has already written books about all the stuff he has done. I will be surprised if Dispatched can say one thing I didn't already know.

So a 90 min programme about a bloke everyone already knows is a sleaze?
Not sure if justifies the amount of 'biggest story of the year' type hype if that's what it is.

If he's been found to have committed a crime, evidence to the police and let it be dealt with officially.
If not it's just more rumours of the same type everyone already knows - so why give it a 90 min heavily advertised Dispatches slot in a Saturday evening?

Agree.

'he's always be open about being a prolific shagger so what's the big deal?' is a weird attitude to have when people are potentially talking about alleged rape.

Come on. The US media has been complicit in huge coverups from atrocities committed during acts of war to the Harvey Weinstein scandal. Not reporting on things that are unfavorable to the home country is not unique to the UK.

The 2023 Reporters Without Borders freedom of press rankings places the UK 26th in the rankings for 2023, while the US is at 45.

A gallup poll in 2022 found that only 11 percent of the US public trusted the information from major news outlets.

Please tell me that you handed her arse to her in this debate.

The rumours that he is a sleaze, sex addict, possible sexual abuse of women, etc is not new news for this person. Evidence should mean - police involvement. Not a 90 minutes tv show about it.

It will be very funny if Dispatches turns out to be about a covert Russian plot to cause our terrible sewage in the sea situation, or Chinese spies manipulating the Eastender plot lines to affect British attitudes, or money laundering or political dishonesty on any subject you can think of… I. Trad Dispatches material and NOT RB.

Milkkbottles - I kind of thought Dispatches was generally a bit more than tv celeb type stuff though. But perhaps not. Can't say I've seen one for a while.

His views dont fit the MSM and he now needs cancelling. End of. Co ordinated campaign so his youtube channel gets taken off air. More meddling with free speech

Yuk. RB gives me the creeps. Remember the disgusting way he and Jonathan Ross phoned Andrew Sachs about his granddaughter, I think, and the sex he had had with her.

I mean... reading the unreliable Internet runes, you can imagine that it might be something like: a group of comedians who emerged at around the same time, banded together and committed huge numbers of assaults, rapes etc. That would justify the Big Story tag and 90 minutes of Dispatches.

I hope it isn’t about him. I thought Dispatches dealt with more weighty subjects.

Absolutely.

I can't believe it's allowed now. Trial by SM seems to have become acceptable.

Yes. I think serious news organisations 'hand the file to the police', as the saying goes - usually after they've splashed the expose, though

So crimes shouldn't be covered by journalists?

Again, this is conflating entertainment with investigative journalism.

This....any alleged victims need to have gone to the police. The police then need to formally interview him and there needs to be due process. If police haven't been involved then why on earth not??? I loathe anything that looks like trial by media. Its really poor if channel 4 have been gathering footage for 3 years without giving the subject of the documentary an opportunity to defend himself. This is then going to make any criminal proceedings / conviction unsafe and subject to being quashed on appeal as it makes it impossible for the defendant to have a fair trial. He will be able to argue that this documentary prejudices any jury against him. If he's committed horrified sex crimes then ultimately putting out this documentary will rob the alleged victims of justice.

Surely the nature of addiction is that an addict may engage in risk-taking and even criminal behaviours to access their high? Why would sex addiction (if it is a thing) be different?

I don't think it will solely be 'this person(s) is an alleged rapist/sexual predator'. It needs to be bigger than that to get a 90min broadcast and be a major newspaper expose.

My money is on the story including a cover up by people who were aware of the allegations and did nothing.

Such as production companies, publishers and television broadcast corporations. And perhaps victims being paid off or moved to other programmes if they're production staff. Or female comedians being dropped for shows after they complained.

It's going to be the cover up that required a 3 year investigation, in order to find undisputable evidence.

For those saying RB is not A-list, he had a role in Death on the Nile just 2 years ago. He might not be on UK telly or radio as much as he used to be, but there's no denying he's famous.

Whoever the allegations are about, I hope their victims get justice for what they've suffered.

I suggest everyone on this thread watches Brand's post about this.

I did not find it very reassuring myself.

I know of it but haven’t watched it

I don’t know figures overall but one recent episode came up with 900k

RB will likely get 11m or around that on his statement

Maybe they are feeling the squeeze by C4 to up the figures

Really right wing?!? If anything, he's pretty left wing

Not any more, he's not. He's on right wing platform Rumble.

Comedy's worst kept secret.

I think that might be the whole point of the programme. I think it might be a spoof.