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ROGER KIMBALL ON TONIGHT’S ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT:
Donald and Melania Trump entered the hall at 8:16 to cheers and applause. “Hail to the Chief” was followed by presentation of the colors and the National Anthem. We had a brief introduction from Weijia Jiang, this year’s president of the White House Correspondents Association, followed by dinner.
Two questions hovered in the background. One, how would President Trump treat the press? And two, would he, as had many presidents in the past at this event, treat the audience to a little self-deprecating humor? “Donald Trump” and “self-deprecation” are not words you often hear together, but who knows? The President is also a master communicator who reads his audience well.
We never found out. At about 8:35, four loud noises were heard from the back of the room. They were shots. . . .
“The First Amendment,” “Free Speech,” “A Free Media” are different ways of enunciating what the dinner is supposed to be all about. Not much mention, if any, will be given to the clamp down on free speech under the Biden administration or the liberating revolution sparked by Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter and his campaign to restore speech to the platform and hence to the wider media environment.
Donald Trump has probably given the media more access to his thoughts than any president in history. At least part of many of his Cabinet meetings are open to the media and he seldom boards or exits a plane without stopping to answer questions. If he thinks a question is stupid or ill-informed, he will say so. Fake news he treats as fake news. The media hates that, of course, but has anyone ever treated them more like adults?
Well, but they’re not. They’re middle school Mean Girls with a megaphone.
Russell Brand is on the move. Again.
The bawdy British pushed socialism not too long ago. He smited Western culture, savaged capitalism and when, pressed on his fiscal hypocrisy, didn’t take it well.
Brand began to change his views roughly around the time of the COVID-19 pandemic. He called out media bias, pandemic misinformation and more.
His YouTube channel soared, and he gained a new, right-leaning audience in the process. He eventually embraced Christianity and even penned a new book under the Tucker Carlson imprint.
“How to Become a Christian in 7 Days (May Take 50 Years of Sin and Serious F*** Ups to Get Started)”
His book promotion tour found him chatting with Piers Morgan this week. Suffice it to say, the interview didn’t go well for Brand.
Morgan pressed him on a particular Bible passage that helped him at the start of his February court date on rape and sexual assault charges. Brand brought a Bible to the proceedings and appeared to be leaning on its wisdom.
The comedian rifled through the pages, mumbling to himself for a while but coming up empty.
Piers Morgan to Russell Brand: What passages were relevant to you when you brought the Bible into court?
*two minutes later*
Russell Brand: “I can’t actually find the verse I had that day.” https://t.co/GcjNaJVxEe pic.twitter.com/7IbTQ59WNX
— CONSEQUENCE (@consequence) April 25, 2026
Later in the chat, Brand repeatedly touched Morgan during a contentious exchange, never threatening the host but using physical intimidation. He casually admitted he might be a grifter, either a blast of self-awareness or a way to defuse Morgan’s questions with humor.
During his interview with Piers Morgan, Russell Brand got increasingly defensive and didn’t want to answer any questions.
Here are the final moments when he melted down: https://t.co/E5eTevdbAD pic.twitter.com/KuQKH0sK0H
— Gadget (@Gadget440) April 25, 2026
The most alarming part of the exchange, though, came when Morgan asked Brand to condemn the Oct. 7 atrocities committed by Hamas against Israel.
It’s akin to saying, what color is the sky or something equally simple.
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Murdering 1,200 people, torturing men, women and children, plus committing unspeakable assaults on innocents should be condemned, full stop.
Except Brand couldn’t do it.
Piers Morgan repeatedly asked Russel Brand to “condemn” October 7th.
When he refused to play his game, Piers called him “intellectually dishonest”. pic.twitter.com/tbxW7LtHOW
— smile2jannah (@smile2jannah) April 25, 2026
When pressed, Brand quickly brought up Ben Shapiro to change the subject. It’s unclear what the Daily Wire co-founder had to do with the topic in hand, except the fact that Shapiro is Jewish.
“We’re running out of time,” Morgan said, while Brand said his sense of right and wrong are guided by Scripture. That’s not an answer, so Morgan repeated the question.
“So was it an act of terrorism?” Morgan said, but Brand suggested it was an unfair conversation.
“I’m just asking a basic question about what Hamas did that day,” Morgan said.
“It’s not a basic question … you know what we’ve learned, there are no basic questions,” Brand answered, dissembling.
“Actually, there are. That’s the problem about being intellectually dishonest. When you have an act of obvious, grotesque terrorism, you just say what it is. You don’t think, ‘how is this gonna play to my audience or spin out on social media,'” Morgan said.
“You look at how it happened, when it happened, a potential ton of narratives,” Brand said before cross talk muddled his speech.
“You’ve answered by not answering,” Morgan said. “You have, haven’t you?”
“It’s wrong to kill people. Thou shalt not kill,” Brand offered up. “That’s in the Old Testament.”
“Let’s end on that,” a flustered Morgan said.
It’s notable that Brand’s new book comes from Team Tucker Carlson, the former Fox News pundit whose anti-Israel rage has become a defining part of his brand.
The post Russell Brand Won’t Condemn Oct. 7 Attacks appeared first on Hollywood in Toto.
It was the hair tousle that changed the course of a TV institution.
Jimmy Fallon had successfully taken the baton from Jay Leno to host NBC’s “The Tonight Show” in 2014. The former “Saturday Night Live” player seemed a good fit for the gig, and in those early months Fallon kept the show atop the late-night ratings heap.
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Two years later, Fallon invited presidential hopeful Donald Trump onto the show. Trump had previously worked with NBC on the blockbuster reality series “The Apprentice.” Trump also hosted the Peacock network’s “SNL” – twice.
So, on paper, there was nothing unusual about booking Trump on the NBC institution.
Except Trump Derangement Syndrome had just taken hold, and any attempt to “normalize” the real estate mogul was seen as a betrayal by the Left and the Legacy Media (but we repeat ourselves).
Fallon conducted an amiable chat with Trump, but midway through Fallon playfully ran his fingers through Trump’s unique hairstyle to show audiences it wasn’t a toupee.
It’s the kind of moment tailor-made for late-night banter. Silly. Funny. Human.
That’s when the Left and the media (but we repeat ourselves) melted down. The blowback proved so ferocious Fallon publicly apologized for the act of treating a “Tonight Show” guest like a … guest.
The host of “The Tonight Show” tells The Hollywood Reporter he “made a mistake” and apologized “if I made anyone mad.” He adds that he “would do it differently” looking back on the Sept. 15, 2016 episode… “I did not do it to ‘normalize’ him or to say I believe in his political beliefs or any of that stuff.”
Guess what happened next? “The Tonight Show” took a lurch to the Left. The show never became a DNC propaganda outlet a la “The Late Show” or “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” Still, the opening monologues hit the Right harder and much more consistently than the Left.
Misbehaving Democrats were off the table for punchlines, by and large, and Trump gags became the order of the day. Plus, while Fallon’s competition ignored President Joe Biden’s obvious decline and Kamala Harris’ word salad speeches, he refused to pick up the slack.
And, over the years, the iconic “Tonight Show” fell behind both Colbert and Kimmel in the ratings.
The most recent ratings for Q1 2026 had “The Late Show” literally doubling what Fallon generated.
Yet Fallon still insists he conducts a fair and balanced late-night show. Now, that’s funny.
Watch: Jimmy Fallon gets visibly uncomfortable when asked about the partisan optics of his show:
“Our show’s never really been that political. We hit both sides equally… and uh, we try to make everybody laugh.”
They know their propaganda machine is nearing its end. pic.twitter.com/kH0OnBO83e
— Dralone&_DR145 (@draloneboy) April 25, 2026
“Our show’s never really been that political. We hit both sides equally… and uh, we try to make everybody laugh. Our monologues are the same since Johnny Carson was doing ‘The Tonight Show.'”
“The Tonight Show,” like its peers, very rarely invites openly conservative celebrities on its program. When Fallon dared to bring Greg Gutfeld on last year, it was seen as a major news story.
That’s because Fallon’s “Tonight Show” is a liberal institution. Period.
Carson famously didn’t pick a political side. And, chances are, if Carson were hosting “The Tonight Show” when President Joe Biden was in the Oval Office, he’d likely joke about the leader’s dementia-like state, but in a manner that wasn’t cruel.
What late-night host is the most Carson-like in his/her approach to TV interviews?
The post Low-rated Jimmy Fallon Lies About ‘Tonight Show’s’ Liberal Bias appeared first on Hollywood in Toto.