The CEO of Spotify is refusing to sever the streaming service’s relationship with its most popular podcaster, comedian Joe Rogan, amid mounting pressure from Hollywood celebrities and corporate media figures who insist Rogan’s views on Covid-19 and his history of racially insensitive remarks warrant censorship.
A viral edited video that began circulating late last week shows Rogan repeatedly using the “n-word” across multiple episodes of his podcast, the Joe Rogan Experience, while recounting how the word was used by various comedians throughout their careers.
“There are no words I can say to adequately convey how deeply sorry I am for the way The Joe Rogan Experience controversy continues to impact each of you,” Spotify Technology SA Chief Executive Daniel Ek wrote in a memo to staff Sunday. “I think it’s important you’re aware that we’ve had conversations with Joe and his team about some of the content in his show, including his history of using some racially insensitive language.”
The campaign against the former Fear Factor host began last week after artists Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, and others threatened to remove their music from Spotify over Rogan’s alleged peddling of dangerous Covid-19 disinformation on his show. Over the weekend, more than 100 episodes of Rogan’s podcast disappeared from Spotify. However, Ek revealed in his letter that this was his decision rather than a content purge by the company.
Elk’s statement, obtained by Axios, read:
Following these discussions and his own reflections, he chose to remove a number of episodes from Spotify. He also issued his own apology over the weekend. While I strongly condemn what Joe has said and I agree with his decision to remove past episodes from our platform, I realize some will want more. And I want to make one point very clear – I do not believe that silencing Joe is the answer.
Another criticism that I continue to hear from many of you is that it’s not just about The Joe Rogan Experience on Spotify; it comes down to our direct relationship with him. In last week’s Town Hall, I outlined to you that we are not the publisher of JRE. But perception due to our exclusive license implies otherwise. So I’ve been wrestling with how this perception squares with our values.
Rogan himself was stunned to discover the compilation, calling it “the most regretful and shameful thing I’ve ever had to talk about publicly” in his Friday apology to his audience. He said the video represented “out of context” clips from “12 years of conversations.”
After backing Rogan in an Instagram comment that amassed thousands of “likes,” actor Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson backtracked upon discovering the podcaster’s past racial rhetoric.
“I was not aware of his N word use prior to my comments, but now I’ve become educated to his complete narrative,” Johnson tweeted Friday. “Learning moment for me.”
Johnson reconsidered his support for Rogan after Don Winslow, author and Democrat political activist, called him out for his supposed ignorance on the star’s past harmful comments about people of color.
“You’re a hero to many people and using your platform to defend Joe Rogan, a guy that used and laughed about using the N word dozens of times, is a terrible use of your power. Have you actually listened to this man’s many racist statements about Black people?,” Wilson tweeted.
However, one Twitter account did a deep dive into Winslow’s own history, discovering that he used the “n-word” and other racially offensive phrasing in multiple books he authored including The Force, The Gentleman’s Hour, From Way Down on the High Lonely, and The Border.
“So, @donwinslow tried to get @joerogan cancelled for saying the N-word. It turns out that in his books Don Winslow has used the n-word a lot… and I mean a **LOT**,” account Wokal Distance found.