Podcast star Joe Rogan is finally speaking up about the recents efforts to get him canceled for spreading “misinformation.”
The drama started when famous Canadian rocker Neil Young threatened to pull his music off audio streaming platform Spotify because it carries “The Joe Rogan Experience” podcast.
In Young’s opinion, Rogan hosting prominent medical researchers, cardiologist Dr. Peter McCullough and virologist Dr. Robert Malone – two men skeptical of western government COVID crackdowns – amounted to spreading “misinformation.” He accused Spotify of being complicit in this dangerous propaganda.
Young posted a since-deleted letter on his website demanding Spotify ditch its distributing deal with Rogan’s podcast or say goodbye to his own music. Even though Young’s top songs have nearly half a billion views on the platform, Rogan has the biggest podcast on the platform in terms of global play. Both Rogan and Spotify have entered into a $100 million deal to distribute his content.
In the end Spotify sided with Rogan and agreed to pull Young’s music from its service. However the call to remove Rogan from the platform has only grown, as other famous musicians including Joni Mitchell, Barry Manilow have taken up Young’s cause to get their music removed if Rogan’s podcast isn’t.
After a period of silence Rogan has finally decided to speak on the issue. Primarily he defended his stance in engaging with such controversial hosts, saying that when it comes to him and the mainstream media, he’s not the one speaking “misinformation.”
Though he did make sure to address his critics in a conciliatory manner and would be willing to compromise in certain areas of his content to keep the heat turned down.
In a video posted to Instagram the media star stated, “the podcast has been accused of spreading dangerous misinformation.” He then pointed to the two aforementioned doctors he had on his show for respective interviews and defended having them on, saying, “both these people are highly credentialed” and “have an opinion that’s different from the mainstream narrative.”
“I wanted to hear what their opinion is,” he explained, adding that airing those interviews generated the controversy about him spreading “misinformation.”
Continuing his video, Rogan scoffed at the idea that he’s spreading so-called “misinformation,” stating, “many of the things that we thought of as misinformation just a short while ago are now accepted as fact.” He then listed several examples of how people who said those things about had been “banned from many social media platforms.” He stressed that those were the things he was discussing with those two doctors.
After making that crucial point, he then took a more docile approach and admitted that he doesn’t know everything about COVID or medicine in general. “I’m not a doctor, I'm not a scientist. I’m just a person who sits down and talks to people and has a conversation with them.”
Rogan then acknowledged that he “absolutely” does get things wrong, but is always quick to correct those things because he’s ultimately “interested in telling the truth.”
Rogan then mentioned that he’s working with Spotify to come up with ways to lower the temperature on some of his more controversial videos, including the idea of putting a “disclaimer” on these videos. He described a potential disclaimer, stating, “You should speak with your physician and that these people and the opinions they express are contrary to the opinions of the consensus of experts.”
Well we know Rogan is doing the right thing, but we don’t like these disclaimers too much. They remind us too much of those always-truthful (sarcasm) Facebook or Twitter "fact checks."