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In that episode, Rogan told listeners that he would not suggest the vaccine to a healthy 21-year-old. “If you’re a healthy person, and you’re exercising all the time, and you’re young, and you’re eating well…like, I don’t think you need to worry about this.”
Which sounds reasonable, I’ve told my kids repeatedly they don’t need to be worried about Covid. (As in, not to worry that they’re going to die of it, because the odds are very much in their favour).
He's not saying don't stress over catching Covid if you're young and healthy - he's essentially saying you don't need to worry about getting vaccinated - that's a very different thing. Getting vaccinated isn't just about protecting yourself from ending up intubated in intensive care. If you told your kids don't worry about catching it (but take reasonable precautions and get vaccinated) that's one thing (and irrelevant to a discussion over the content of JR's podcast), if you told them not to bother getting vaccinated then frankly you're an idiot.
I don’t really see what this has to do with free speech and platforms and stuff. It’s all choice:
1. Spotify choose to pay huge fortunes to Joe Rogan, Harry and Megan etc for exclusive rights to their podcasts. They aren’t forced to do this “cuz free speech”.
2. Musicians have (some) choice on where their music is streamed from.
3. We have complete freedom to choose where we get our music and podcasts from.
I’d rather spend money on a music streaming app where more of the money goes to the artist, and have a separate podcasting app where the creators can make money via advertising or direct subs.
I’d rather spend money on a music streaming app where more of the money goes to the artist
The % is determined by the record companies not the platform.
if you told them not to bother getting vaccinated then frankly you’re an idiot.
That's pretty harsh - it's never been black and white for young people eg until the Delta variant came along the chance of dying from the vaccine was higher than from Covid for young people, hence they weren't offered the vaccine. Now Omnicron has replaced Delta, the odds are probably back where they were.
Anyway I think Joe Rogan has now apologised
Got about two minutes into that without any apology emerging and gave up. All I saw was someone trying to justify his guest selection with some misleading remarks about the shifting data on transmission, vaccination and masks.
Anyhow, the central issue is not about which guests you have, it's about the journalistic responsibility to place their views under scrutiny. Joe Rogan is not equipped to do this job well, and doesn't seem to show any inclination to do it when the guest is in front of him throwing out obvious nonsense. It's a criticism you can level at many mainstream journalists too - not doing your homework on your guest, their previous comments, and the evidence against the arguments they are likely going to make.
Joe Rogan is the end product of years of decline in journalism, and the emergence of the idea that opposing ideas should be given equal weight, even if one of them is that the earth is flat.
The % is determined by the record companies not the platform.
You keep saying this but it isn't true. If Spotify pay far less per play to labels than other platforms do you really think that's not going to significantly impact how much goes to artists?
Got about two minutes into that without any apology emerging and gave up. All I saw was someone trying to justify his guest selection with some misleading remarks about the shifting data on transmission, vaccination and masks.
THis very much sums up the crux of many of the problems. People comment online about issues have only read the clickbait headline, or heard some tiny out of context soundbite.
I've been listening to Joe Rogan for the last 10 years. From day 1 I knew he was an idiot and his own chat and insights are generally pretty awful and also very repetitive. He has however had some amazing guests over the years that I've loved hearing a 3-4 hour conversation with them with no agenda around promoting a an album, tv show, book etc. For example he had James Hetfield on for about 3 hours, they didn't talk about music and they spent about an hour talking about bees. That's pretty cool.
He's also had a ton of awful guests that I have no interest in listening to: Ben Shapiro, Jordan Peterson, the awful Ari Shaffir etc so I completely ignore those episodes.
If you go back and watch the Rogan video fully, he does apologise although not for "spreading misinformation" but he outlines what his show is about, and that he gives equal time to multiple viewpoints, he apologises for how he's presented some of the controversial guests and makes a commitment to do better around that. He apologises to Spotify and that he supports their stance in putting disclaimers in front of the podcasts that are offering different views on the covid situation. I don't think that's an unreasonable response from him at at all.
The problem is you have a large group of poorly informed or uneducated people with mass suspicion of covid, governments, ("mainstream") scientists, the media etc then you have the podcast hosting undoubtedly qualified people presenting contrarian views that align with their own, and the fact they're qualified adds credibility to their own position.
It's true, perhaps I should have kept going, but I was hoping he would be a little more direct with addressing the issue. The problem is that, like me, a lot of people don't have the inclination to put up with a longform self-justifying spiel to get to the point which a link has promised (has the link disappeared now?). That's just the way media consumption works. Obviously some people are prepared to keep going, or he wouldn't have an audience for longform podcasting!
I'm glad if he's acknowledged that he needs to do better with the way he presents certain guests, he undoubtedly has a huge reach and influence, which would continue even if he got kicked off Spotify.
And the other issue, is that, like me, a lot of people would consume Joe Rogan mainly via short clips on other social media, and be influenced in that way. So a shortish clip of him insisting that the covid vaccine is more likely to cause myocarditis in the young than the virus itself can still be problematic, even if the rest of the show involved some backpedalling.
Spotify have made a rod for their own back here.
They are paying Rogan an absolute fortune and I understand they've given him total editorial freedom.
So they have to balance losing a fortune and one of their most-popular assets with appeasing public opinion.
Shows up their lack of experience as a content organisation that they've put themselves in this position TBH.
His interviews with Brian Cox are really good.
He has had some excellent guests, Johann Hari, Brian Cox, The Innocence project, Tristen Harris, Lawrence Lessig and a few others. I highly recommend that anyone seeks out those podcasts, they are extremely enlightening and every bit as informative as much more supposedly credible journalism.
However the hit rate is pretty low and he has far more faux intellectuals, bro scientists and grifters selling snake oil. His MO is an everyman who just lets his guests speak, he doesn't censor or challenge them too much just creates an atmosphere to let them say their thing. The trouble is I think the audience needs a certain amount of sophistication to sort out the good from the grifters. Apparently the average age of his audience is 24, I don't think I would have had the experience to differentiate at that age. And his defence of Alex Jones was unforgivable IMO.
Johann Hari
faux intellectuals... and grifters
I'd put these words together personally.
But I didn't hear it. Did Hari make a convincing defence for himself?