Within days, America’s most famous podcaster found himself engulfed in a devastating media storm he didn’t see coming. Latest episode: a deleterious video has been circulating on social networks since yesterday. It consists of a compilation of the 70 times Joe Rogan has said the word “nigger” over the past 12 years on the air. To defend himself, he in turn has just published a video where, on the one hand, he apologizes, and where, on the other hand, he maintains that the words spoken have been removed from their context, which was precisely discuss the toxicity of this term and the different meanings it can cover when pronounced “almost in the form of a slogan” by black rappers. Despite the skill of his answer, where he reiterates that he is not racist, the podcaster with 11 million followers finds himself in trouble like never before. Especially since this controversy is in addition to that which he had almost managed to put out after his argument with Neil Young on the question of the Covid.
It all started on January 24 when the folk artist – whose album Harvest turns 50 these days – demands that the Spotify platform stop streaming their music. On his website, he announces that he refuses to mix The Joe Rogan Experience, a phenomenally successful American podcast. The singer-songwriter accuses the Swedish company of “spreading false information about the anti-Covid vaccine” and “spreading lies for money”. Between Rogan and him, you have to choose. Two days later, Spotify, which paid $100 million for the exclusivity of Joe Rogan’s podcast, removed most of Neil Young’s albums.
For Sharon Stone, Joe Rogan is an “asshole”
Two interviews are mainly at the origin of the controversy. The first dates from December 31. Joe Rogan then interviews Dr. Robert Malone, a pioneer of messenger RNA (he holds nine patents related to this vaccine technology) who is very critical of Anthony Fauci, who is piloting the fight against Covid in the United States. Malone argues in particular that statistics on the number of deaths from Covid-19 in the United States are artificially inflated by hospitals because they obtain more subsidies when a death is declared “due to Covid”. Subtext: the pandemic is less serious than it is said. According to him, the government “went into a spin” and is lying about the figures.
Neil Young on July 6, 2018 in Quebec City during Festival d’Ete
– (c) Alice Chiche / AFP
The other interview, much more problematic, dates back to December 13. The podcaster with tattooed arms then receives Peter McCullough, another doctor. According to this assistant chief of internal medicine in a major hospital in Texas, the pandemic was “planned”, and the vaccines killed thousands of people… On January 10, 250 doctors reacted with an open letter to Spotify, demanding that the platform moderates the debates related to the Covid. The following month, the controversy rebounded with Neil Young, who soon received the support of another folk legend, the singer and guitarist with the crystal voice Joni Mitchell, without forgetting other less known artists, such as Nils Lofgren who, in addition to being Bruce Springsteen’s guitarist, has a solo career. The icing on the cake: actress Sharon Stone has just knocked him out by calling him an “asshole”.
But who is this Joe Rogan, illustrious unknown in France and superstar in his country? A conspirator? A Trumpist? A reaction? An ultra-right polemicist? No. Nothing of the sort. Rather, she is an unclassifiable journalist whose broadcasts range from bar conversation to discussions with Sir Roger Penrose, an Oxford mathematician, Nobel Prize winner 2020, specialist in black holes. Also, in the media landscape, Joe Rogan’s pedigree stands out.
Former stand-up comedian, and former mixed martial arts (MMA) commentator, he also hosted FearFactor, the show that inspired Fort Boyard. In 2009, this 54-year-old autodidact created a podcast in his name whose success turned into a social phenomenon: it is now followed by 11 million listeners! In other words, its audience far exceeds the three major news channels combined (CNN, MSNBC, Fox News) during prime time. And, still for comparison, it outperforms that of Neil Young, of which around 6 million songs are downloaded from Spotify each month.
Joe Rogan is described by CNN as a libertarian, that is, a right-winger, but in reality, things are more complicated than that. Supporter of the legalization of marijuana and gay marriage, the podcaster has drawn the wrath of the LGBTQ community by criticizing the participation of transgender people in women’s sports competitions on the grounds that women would be disadvantaged by these competitors who have a physique. of man.
Politically, his positioning is also confusing. Thus, at the time of the Democratic primary in 2020, the podcaster declares himself a supporter of Bernie Sanders and a “fan” of Tulsi Gabbard, a Democrat who served during the Iraq war in 2003 in a logistics unit. In addition, he says he would rather vote for Donald Trump than for Joe Biden, whom he considers “gaga”. But a few weeks later, he excuses himself by advising his listeners not to take advice from him on political questions which, he recalls, are not his area of expertise.
The vast majority of guests The Joe Rogan Experience are not policies. In his shows (which last three hours on average), Joe Rogan welcomes stand-up comedians, MMA champions, singers, filmmakers, actors, ex-special forces soldiers, left-wing libertarians and or right (and extreme right), UFO enthusiasts, but also researchers, Oxford scientists, philosophers as well as political commentators or journalists.
Relaxed and eclectic, this measured and intelligent interviewer speaks to everyone, including the “beaufs”, whom he treats as equals and who, therefore, appreciate him. In tune with real America, his fascinating podcast also allows you to better understand the contradictions of the United States than does watching the CNN (Democratic) or Fox News (Republican) channels, each locked in its information bubble.
He comes off as “just like a normal guy”
In a country polarized to the extreme, where the two camps no longer dialogue, Rogan manages the feat of conversing on an equal tone with the right and the left as well as with all kinds of illuminated, from the Irishman Gavin McGinnis , founder of the racist movement Proud Boys to the conspiracy theorist Alex Jones via the British far-right polemicist Milo Yiannopoulos, who denounced Islam and feminism while declaring himself openly homosexual. All in the name of 360 degree freedom of expression.
The problem is that Joe Rogan’s interview technique relies more on empathic listening than on argued contradiction. But it’s also the key to the success of his podcast because deep America and “the real country” recognize themselves in the person who presents himself “just like a normal guy” who is thirsty to understand the world. Including by interviewing unsavory characters whose ideas flirt with fascism.
Either way, the star Spotify podcaster humbly acknowledges his mistakes when he makes them. He then makes “adjustments” or apologizes on the air. Some old episodes of his show have also been removed for a long time from the streaming platform which considered them problematic. And Joe Rogan has just accepted Spotify’s proposal, which suggests that he better supervise his programs when they address the question of the Covid. In the future, he will remind listeners to consult the advice of their doctor, not to take the comments broadcast on the air at face value.
In defense of the podcaster, conservative commentator Katrina Trinko pleads in the Daily Signal for total freedom of expression: “If the objective [de notre pays] is to convince as many people as possible to get vaccinated, it is better to allow an open debate on the Covid-19 rather than to dismiss the dissonant voices and to censor them.” This is also the opinion of 11 million fans of Joe Rogan.