News/Commentary

‘Shame on you!’ On-air spat erupts when news host reads co-anchor’s pro-Russell Brand tweet

September 20, 2023 | | Print Article

One British news host’s take on “hero” Russell Brand amid sexual assault allegations devolved into an impassioned on-air row with her co-host.

“Shame on you!”

GB News’ Beverley Turner sparked more of a shouting match than a serious debate as she found herself defending the suddenly scandal-plagued celebrity and her own perspective on the allegations from her co-host Andrew Pierce.

“Bev, that is shameful,” began Pierce on their Monday broadcast after he had read Turner’s post on X reacting to the entertainer’s attempt to get out ahead of the accusations from four women. “You have dismissed in one tweet a four-year investigation by The Sunday Times, The Times and Channel 4 as contemptuously the mainstream media. A 16-year-old girl has complained of being groomed by this man. Two women have said they were raped and there are more and more cases coming tonight?”

“You are being attacked,” the post in question from Turner had read of Brand. “Establishment media don’t know what to do with the fact that you have 6million subscribers & generate autonomous, knowing and original content. You are welcome on my @GBNEWS show anytime. We are mainstream media. But we are not Establishment media. There’s a difference. Keep going. This proves you are winning. You’re a hero.”

“I was confident that there is no smoking gun in this regard,” she responded to her co-host. “I remain confident…those four flimsy allegations, women who choose to stay anonymous — so there is nobody who can counter their vote of events…” her defense continued as Pierce cut in, “Do you have any sympathy for these women?”

According to Turner, “There are 1.1 million people who are sexually assaulted in this country.”

“Newspapers like yours,” she went on referring to the Daily Mail, “don’t care about that until there’s a celebrity involved, and then suddenly it’s all over the front page of the paper.”

“He is a threat to all of these newspapers,” Turner asserted while Pierce continued to damn Brand who was actively being canceled before any formal charges had been brought.

As previously reported, the actor, comedian and commentator had been suspended from YouTube and his content demonetized for allegedly violating the “Creator Responsibility policy.”

The statement from the streaming platform said in part, “If a creator’s off-platform behavior harms our users, employees or ecosystem, we take action to protect the community.”

Meanwhile, podcast host Megyn Kelly criticized “knee-jerk” reactions like those displayed by both Pierce and Turner to seemingly pick a side over the controversy.

“Could you please for a second stay open-minded to the possibility that the women are telling the truth? We don’t need to so overcorrect from the #MeToo movement that every woman gets completely disregarded and called a liar when she finds the guts to come forward and make an allegation,” said Kelly. “They may be telling the truth! It’s worth investigating. We don’t need to knee-jerk condemn him. And we don’t need to knee-jerk condemn them.”

“You hadn’t in seen the dispatches program when you put out, ‘He is a hero,'” chided Pierce later in the argument before he tried to get another on-air personality to side with him. “Shame on you! Shame on you for attacking these women!”

Following the on-air dustup that continued with Turner taking a similar stance to Tucker Carlson and Elon Musk who perceived the allegations were brought against Brand for his outspoken views on Big Pharma and the military-industrial complex that countered the prevailing narrative, she shared a clip of former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher that asserted, “If you ever get trial by television or guilt by accusation, that day freedom dies.”

The GB News host also wrote a lengthy piece commenting on how, “So far, all of Brand’s accusers in the initial media investigation have communicated with journalists rather than the police and have retained their anonymity — free to paint one side of the story without the risk of others who were in attendance being able to counter their version.”

“I’ve been slammed for publicly calling him a hero. I don’t take that back. It is possible to defend someone’s current character whilst also condemning historic illegal actions — if indeed that is what these turn out to be,” she added.

Turner also remarked, “I dearly hope that the complainants get a sense of closure and justice at what might be the start of a very long process. But it would be naïve to think that entities with untold levels of money and power at stake, wouldn’t resort to dirty tricks to maintain that money and power — and we should all have the right to question that.”

Reactions to the argument were as passionate as the on-air dispute itself as social media users saw fit to choose their champion.

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Kevin Haggerty
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