Topline
Joe Rogan on Sunday addressed the controversy surrounding his podcast on Spotify, acknowledging that his show has grown into an “out-of-control juggernaut” and promised to offer more balanced perspectives in the future, after his show and host platform Spotify faced widespread criticism and a burgeoning boycott for platforming Covid-19 misinformation.
Joe Rogan pledged to offer more balanced opinions on his podcast going forward.
Key Facts
In a nearly 10-minute video posted on Instagram, Rogan said, “If I pissed you off, I’m sorry,” and added that it was a “strange responsibility” to have so many viewers and listeners—estimated to be around 11 million.
Rogan, who said he agrees with Spotify’s decision to add a Covid-19 content warning to his show, said he will do his best to “balance things out” going forward.
Attributing the current controversy to his episodes featuring vaccine skeptics Dr. Robert Malone and Dr. Peter McCullough—who made several unsubstantiated claims about the pandemic and vaccines—Rogan noted that he wanted to talk to them as they had opinions that “differ from the mainstream narrative.”
Despite this, Rogan claimed his intent was not be “controversial” or have his show only feature opinions that are just contrary to the popular narrative and said he was open to having “more experts with differing opinions right after I have the controversial ones.”
Rogan thanked Spotify for its support and said he was a huge fan of Neil Young, who along with Joni Mitchell asked the streaming service to remove his music due to Covid-19 misinformation on Rogan’s podcast.
Crucial Quote
“I will do my best to try to balance out these more controversial viewpoints with other people’s perspectives so we can maybe find a better point of view,” Rogan said. “I don’t want to just show the contrary opinion to what the narrative is. I want to show all kinds of opinions so we can all figure out what’s going on and not just about Covid, about everything, about health, about fitness, wellness, the state of the world itself.”
Key Background
Earlier on Sunday, faced with a growing subscriber boycott and a tumbling stock price, Spotify CEO Daniel Ek outlined measures undertaken by the platform to “combat misinformation.” Ek tweeted that the music streaming giant has “heard the criticism” and said Spotify will add a content warning to episodes talking about Covid-19 and link to coronavirus podcasts from reputable news sources going forward. Under Spotify’s new policy, Covid-19 misinformation will only be banned under four circumstances—saying that approved vaccines are intended to kill people, claiming Covid-19 is not real, encouraging people to intentionally get Covid-19 or promoting the consumption of bleach for medical treatment. Over the past two weeks, Spotify has been urged by doctors and scientists to establish a clear misinformation policy in response to “baseless conspiracy theories” and “misinformation” on the “The Joe Rogan Experience” podcast. Following this musicians— Neil Young, Nils Lofgren, and Joni Mitchell—asked Spotify to take down their music library as they did not want to share the platform with Rogan’s “fake information.”
Big Number
$2.1 billion. That’s the approximate drop in Spotify’s market cap that took place between last Wednesday and Friday, following the removal of Neil Young’s music from the platform.
Further Reading
Joe Rogan Apologizes, Spotify Publishes Content Policy in Response to Neil Young Outcry (Wall Street Journal)
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Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/siladityaray/2022/01/31/joe-rogan-apologizes-after-spotify-podcast-controversy-says-he-will-try-balance-things-out-in-the-future/