Joe Rogan addresses Spotify controversy, spreading ‘dangerous misinformation’, pledges to ‘try harder’

Long time UFC color commentator, Joe Rogan has addressed recent controversy surrounding his long-running podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience – in which he is accused of spreading “dangerous misinformation” on his Spotify exclusive platform.

Rogan, who took time this week to address the controversy in an almost 10-minute video on his official Instagram account, vowed to “try harder” in the future to bring balanced views and differing opinions to his podcast, after musicians, Joni Mitchell, and Neil Young requested their respective music libraries be hauled from the platform – which lost a reported $2 billion in market value as stock plummeted last week. 

Admitting he often gets information wrong on his podcast, Rogan addressed two specific episodes which have been accused of spreading “dangerous misinformation” – namely episodes with cardiologist, Dr. Peter McCullough, and virologist, Dr. Robert Malone, claiming that many thoughts regarding the COVID-19 pandemic were once frowned upon at the beginning of the pandemic, before eventually becoming accepted in mainstream media.

“The problem I have with the term “misinformation”, especially today, is that many of the things that we thought of as misinformation just a short while ago are now accepted as fact,” Joe Rogan said. “I do not know if they’re right. I do not know. I’m not a doctor. I’m not a scientist. I’m just a person who sits down and talks to people and has conversations with them.” 

“Do I get things wrong? Absolutely,” Joe Rogan explained. “I get things wrong but I try to correct them. Whenever I get something wrong, I try to correct it, because I’m interested in telling the truth. I’m interested in finding out what the truth is, and I’m interested in having interesting conversations with people that have differing opinions. I’m not interested in only talking to people that have one perspective.” 

Rogan also claimed that he would encourage potential plans from Spotify to place both advisory and trigger warnings at the beginning of podcasts which discuss the aforenoted, COVID-19 pandemic.

“Sure, have that on there (advisory, trigger warnings),” Joe Rogan said. “I’m very happy with that. Also, I think if there’s anything that I’ve done that I could do better is having more experts with differing opinions right after I have the controversial ones. I would most certainly be open to doing that.”

Rogan, whose podcast received millions of downloads and listeners each month, signed a deal reportedly in excess of $100 million with Spotify back in May 2020 which would see The Joe Rogan Experience air and stream exclusively on the platform. 

“I want to thank Spotify for being so supportive during this time, and I’m very sorry that this is happening to them and they’re taking so much heat from it,” Joe Rogan said. “I am going to do my best in the future to balance things out. I’m going to do my best, but my point of doing this is always is just to create interesting conversations and ones that people enjoy. If I pissed you off, I’m sorry, and if you enjoy the podcast, thank you.” (Transcribed by MMA Fighting)

Ross Markey

Senior writer for FightBook MMA. An aspiring mixed martial arts reporter based in Ireland. Producer of news articles, interviews, opinion features, and exclusive features such as, ‘The Fallout’, ‘The Breakdown, and, ‘This Week In MMA’.