Responding to the media-driven campaign to deplatform him, podcast host Joe Rogan urged legacy media to reflect on why his platform attracts such a large audience.
Noting the concern from certain media outlets over his show’s popularity Rogan submitted that they shouldn’t be so quick to dismiss his content as “disinformation,” especially on medical issues relating to Covid-19. Rogan draws about eleven million listeners per episode.
“The answer is not to silence me, the answer is [for] you to do better,” said Rogan. “The answer is for you to have better arguments. When you’re on television talking about how I’m taking horse paste, and you know that’s not true. ‘He’s taking horse dewormer,'” he continued, referring to his use of the popular anti-parasitic ivermectin after contracting Covid and the media’s coverage of it.
Rogan suggested that his podcast benefits from its transparency and lack of a political agenda, especially when it is compared to the ideological slant of many mainstream outlets. “If you’re in business and your business is the news, and you want to get more people to pay attention, you should be honest,” Rogan said. “And my thoughts for CNN, my advice to them… I don’t hate CNN. I used to go to them every day for the news…”
“If you [CNN] want to do better… change the way you do it. Stop this editorial perspective with guys like Brian Stelter and Don Lemon that nobody listens to,” suggested Rogan.
“Have people that give out effective news, objective news, rather, and I’ll support you. I would turn around 100% … and I’ll be one of the people that tells people, ‘I saw this on CNN, watch this on CNN,” he added.
A collection of celebrities and progressive activists have been pressuring Spotify, which houses Rogan’s podcast, to end their business relationship with him, claiming that he amplifies dangerous disinformation, mostly related to Covid-19 treatments and vaccines. Artists Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, and a few others took their music off platform after the company refused to be rid of Rogan.
Since the effort to take him off the airwaves began in earnest, Rogan has promised to feature more intellectual diversity and a wider range of guests on his show, as well as to accept a disclaimer on episodes focused on scientific matters such as Covid-19.