Joe Rogan and the war on dissent
Progressives are attempting to present Joe Rogan's presence on Spotify as a life-threatening risk to America and democracy. However, misinformation isn't the concern. Dissent is.
Editorial Team
January 31, 2022
Background: Joe Rogan gets 11 million views per show, while CNN Primetime averages only 800,000 views. This is a problem for the establishment narrative, especially when Rogan brings on credentialed guests who discuss views contrary to what the legacy media publishes.
Two weeks ago, over 200 “doctors” signed a letter demanding that Spotify fight “disinformation” by censoring Joe Rogan’s podcast. It turned out that many signers weren’t doctors; some were students, podcasters, nurses, etc.
Neil Young strikes: Inspired by the letter, the Canadian American artist gave Spotify an ultimatum: Spotify could “have Rogan or Young. Not both.” Spotify ended up removing Neil Young’s catalog.
Joni Mitchell and lower-profile artist Nils Lofgren joined Neil Young’s boycott with the same demand. Biden’s Surgeon General, Vivek Murthy, also suggested Spotify censor Rogan.
Spotify announced COVID-19 disclaimers to podcasts around the subject to appease the boycotters. Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter already do this.
Spotify isn’t the good guy: Despite Spotify sticking with Joe Rogan, they’re not against censorship. The move to keep him is purely fiscal—Joe Rogan’s podcast was Spotify’s most popular podcast in 2021. The company invested $100 million into him, and many listeners only use Spotify to listen to his podcast.
Spotify has taken measures to censor when it doesn’t risk profit:
Spotify removed over 20,000 podcast episodes for misinformation since the beginning of the pandemic.
Spotify has removed over 40 episodes of Joe Rogan’s podcast since he partnered with them.
Other partisan podcasts like Steve Bannon’s “War Room” were banned by Spotify over a year ago.
This is not about disinformation
The establishment-media system consistently pushes disinformation like the Russia-collusion hoax, but there’s never liberal backlash. The censor-hungry coalition of progressives only wants to silence information dangerous to their narrative.
What’s at stake: While removing Joe Rogan from Spotify would be a poor financial decision now, it might not always be. Spotify relies on high-profile musicians and partnerships with celebrities like Michelle Obama. If the left successfully paints Spotify as a life-threatening risk to America and democracy, those individuals would want to avoid the association.