Shortly after Spotify introduced that it will add a ‘content material advisory’ to COVID-19 podcast episodes, Joe Rogan has issued his personal response to the controversy. In a video uploaded to Instagram, he apologized to Spotify for the backlash that noticed Neil Young, Joni Mitchell and different artists take away their music from the platform. He additionally defended his his determination to ebook controversial company, whereas promising to “stability issues out” with differing opinions.
“Some of my concepts will not be that ready or fleshed out as a result of I’m actually having them in actual time, however I do my finest and so they’re simply conversations, and I feel that’s additionally the attraction of the present,” he stated within the video. “It’s one of many issues that makes it fascinating. So I wish to thank Spotify for being so supportive throughout this time, and I’m very sorry that that is occurring to them and that they’re taking a lot from it.”
Two of his most controversial company, Dr. Peter McCullough and Dr. Robert Malone, made a number of unproven claims associated to COVID-19. Malone, for instance, falsely claimed that “mass formation psychosis” is what led folks to imagine that vaccines are efficient towards COVID-19. That episode specifically led a bunch of over 1,000 medical doctors, nurses, scientists and educators to ship an open letter to Spotify demanding that it create a misinformation coverage.
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In his video, Rogan stated that these company are “extremely credentialed, very clever, very achieved folks, and so they have an opinion that’s completely different from the mainstream narrative. I needed to listen to what their opinion is.” He additionally disputed the episodes being labeled “misinformation,” saying that lots of their opinions are shared by mainstream listeners.
Rogan has additionally drawn criticism for spreading COVID-19 misinformation himself. He has stated that hospitals are financially motivated to file COVID as the reason for loss of life, and has promoted the anti-parasitic therapy ivermectin as a way of treating COVID signs — one thing that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has known as “harmful.”
“’I’m not a health care provider. I’m not a scientist. I’m only a one who sits down and talks to folks and has conversations with them,” he stated. “Do I get issues flawed? Absolutely. I get issues flawed, however I attempt to appropriate them each time I get one thing flawed. I’m taken with discovering out what the reality is, and I’m taken with having fascinating conversations with those that have differing opinions. I’m not taken with solely speaking to those that have one perspective.”
Rogan stated he agrees with Spotify’s plan to use advisory labels to episodes associated to COVID-19, and promised to have specialists with differing opinions following controversial company. “I’ll do my finest to attempt to stability out these extra controversial viewpoints with different folks’s views so we are able to perhaps discover a higher viewpoint,” he stated.