MSNBC (stylized as msnbc) is a cable news channel based in the United States available in the US, South Africa, the Middle East and Canada. Its name is derived from the most common abbreviations for Microsoft and the National Broadcasting Company.

msnbc.com, a separate company, is the central news website for the NBC News family, featuring interactivity and multimedia plus original stories and video which augment the content from NBC News and partners.

MSNBC and msnbc.com were founded in 1996 as a partnership of Microsoft and General Electric's NBC unit, which is now NBCUniversal. Although Microsoft and NBC shared operations of MSNBC cable at its founding, it was announced on December 23, 2005, that NBCUniversal would purchase a majority stake in the television channel, which left Microsoft with 18%, later reduced to zero. The two companies remain partners in msnbc.com. MSNBC shares the NBC logo of a rainbow peacock with its sister channels NBC, CNBC, NBC Sports Network, and ShopNBC. MSNBC is available in over 78 million households in the United States.

Russell Edward Brand (born 4 June 1975) is an English comedian, actor, columnist, singer, author and radio/television presenter.

Brand achieved mainstream fame in the UK in 2004 for his role as host of Big Brother spin-off, Big Brother's Big Mouth. His first major film role was in the 2007 film St Trinian's. He became known to American audiences when he got a major role in Forgetting Sarah Marshall which led to a starring role in 2010's Get Him to the Greek. He has also been a voice actor for animated films such as 2010's Despicable Me and the 2011 film Hop. He starred in the 2011 remake of the 1981 Dudley Moore film Arthur.

Brand is noted for his eccentricity and his controversies in the British media, including his dismissal from MTV for dressing up as Osama bin Laden and controversies while presenting at various award ceremonies, as well as his former substance abuse. The 2008 prank telephone calls he made to Andrew Sachs while co-hosting The Russell Brand Show with Jonathan Ross led to his resignation from the BBC and major policy changes in that organisation. His prior drug use, alcoholism and promiscuity influenced his comedic material and public image. He married American pop singer Katy Perry in October 2010, and filed for divorce from her in December 2011; the divorce was finalised in 2012.

Cenk Kadir Uygur (Turkish pronunciation: [ˈdʒɛŋk ˈujɡur]; born March 21, 1970), is the main host and co-founder of the progressive Internet and talk radio show, The Young Turks (TYT). A naturalized U.S. citizen, Uygur was born in Turkey and raised from age eight in the United States. He worked as an attorney in Washington D.C. and New York before beginning his career as a political commentator. Originally a moderate Republican, he has since become a staunch critic of both the Republican and Democratic parties and has adopted more progressive and liberal views.

In addition to hosting TYT, Uygur appeared on MSNBC as a political commentator in 2010, later hosting a weeknight commentary show on the channel for nearly six months—until the time slot was given to Al Sharpton. Shortly after leaving MSNBC, Uygur secured a show on Current TV that began airing on December 5, 2011 before Countdown with Keith Olbermann.

Uygur was born in Istanbul, Turkey and emigrated with his family to the United States when he was eight years old. He grew up in East Brunswick Township, New Jersey and graduated from East Brunswick High School. He attended the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania where he majored in management and was on the Student Activities Council representing the Turkish Students Association. He also earned a J.D. from Columbia Law School and worked as an associate attorney at the law firms of Drinker Biddle & Reath in Washington, D.C. and Hayes & Liebman in New York City.

Rula Jebreal (Arabic: رولا جبريل) (born on April 24, 1973 in Haifa, Israel) is an Italo-Palestinian journalist novelist, and screenwriter with both Israeli and Italian citizenship.

She grew up in Jerusalem. Jebreal's father worked as a groundskeeper at the Al-Aqsa Mosque. Her mother died when she was 5. She and her sister Rania were put into the Dar El-Tifel orphanage by their father in 1978 until 1991. She was educated in the orphanage, and then received a scholarship from the Italian government to study medicine at the University of Bologna, where she graduated with a degree in physiotherapy. She worked as a physiotherapist while she went back to the University of Bologna and earned her masters in Journalism and Political Science.

Jebreal became the first foreign anchorwoman in the history of Italian television, winning a Media Watch award for her coverage of the Iraq War, and by age 33 earned the highest journalism award, the International Ischia Award for Best Journalist of the Year. Jebreal worked as a journalist in Italy for twelve years, earning a reputation for being one of the toughest interviewers for her interviews with such figures as Prime Minister Massimo D'Alema, Silvio Berlusconi, Bill Gates, President Abu Mazen, Bernard Kouchner, Mohammed ElBaradei, and Ingrid Betancourt. In 2006 she became the co-presenter of Anno Zero, the most important and controversial political television show in Italy, together with Michele Santoro. In 2008 Jebreal created her own television show in Cairo at Al-Qahira Wal-Nas, (Cairo Centric) television station, where she filmed 30 episodes covering politics, economy, and the collapse of society in Egypt under the Mubarrak regime.

John Sidney McCain III (born August 29, 1936) is the senior United States Senator from Arizona. He was the Republican presidential nominee in the 2008 United States election.

McCain followed his father and grandfather, both four-star admirals, into the United States Navy, graduating from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1958. He became a naval aviator, flying ground-attack aircraft from aircraft carriers. During the Vietnam War, he was almost killed in the 1967 USS Forrestal fire. In October 1967, while on a bombing mission over Hanoi, he was shot down, seriously injured, and captured by the North Vietnamese. He was a prisoner of war until 1973. McCain experienced episodes of torture, and refused an out-of-sequence early repatriation offer. His war wounds left him with lifelong physical limitations.

He retired from the Navy as a captain in 1981 and moved to Arizona, where he entered politics. Elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1982, he served two terms, and was then elected to the U.S. Senate in 1986, winning re-election easily four times, most recently in 2010. While generally adhering to conservative principles, McCain at times has had a media reputation as a "maverick" for his willingness to disagree with his party on certain issues. After being investigated and largely exonerated in a political influence scandal of the 1980s as a member of the Keating Five, he made campaign finance reform one of his signature concerns, which eventually led to the passage of the McCain-Feingold Act in 2002. He is also known for his work towards restoring diplomatic relations with Vietnam in the 1990s, and for his belief that the war in Iraq should be fought to a successful conclusion. McCain has chaired the Senate Commerce Committee, opposed spending that he considered to be pork barrel, and played a key role in alleviating a crisis over judicial nominations.