Joe Rogan Should Not Have Addressed Spotify Controversy

After Spotify announced it would add a disclaimer to the Joe Rogan podcasts that discuss COVID-19, Rogan posted a 10-minute video response on social media.

It all began when once notable rocker Neil Young sparked a new round of backlash, accusing Rogan of peddling misinformation about COVID-19. Young told Spotify that in order to keep his music, it must censor Rogan's podcast. Spotify refused to comply, so Young removed his playlist from its service last week.

On Sunday, Rogan weighed in.

Rogan began by refuting claims he spreads "dangerous misinformation" on the Joe Rogan Experience:

Rogan says he posted the video because "a lot of people have a distorted perception of what I do, maybe based on sound bites or based on headlines of articles that are disparaging."

JRE features Rogan and his guests speaking, often for hours, in an unscripted format. From there, woke Twitter accounts clip 20 seconds of an episode without context, trying to frame him as a peddler of misinformation. Rogan fact-checks himself and often admits his errors on-air. Yet those admissions never make the write-ups on NPR.

So while Rogan is certainly not always correct in his commentary, the bloggers are the ones who truly deceive viewers.

Rogan should have not addressed this outcry at all. Acknowledging the woke's calls for censorship gives them clout and a purpose. Meanwhile, nothing hurts them more than being ignored, which exposes the limited extent of their reach.

Why would Rogan give them that light?

Anyway, Rogan concludes that he is fine with Spotify’s decision to add a disclaimer to his episodes and suggests he could change his guest list moving forward.

"I’m going to do my best, in the future, to balance things out…I’m going to do my best," Rogan says. "But my point of doing this, always, is just to create interesting conversations and ones that I hope people enjoy."

Don't give in, Joe.