Tag: joe rogan
Kevin McCarthy

McCarthy Bluntly Dispels Right-Wing Chatter About Biden 'Dementia'

By Sarah K. Burris

"He's got dementia," claims radio host Joe Rogan about President Joe Biden.

Donald Trump joined in the attacks, crafting a whole new conspiracy theory: "Joe Biden's second bout of Covid, sometimes referred to as the China Virus, was sadly misdiagnosed by his doctors. He instead has Dementia, but is happily recovering well," Trump wrote. "Joe is thinking of moving, part time, to one of those beautiful Wisconsin Nursing Homes, where almost 100% of the residents miraculously, and for the first time in history, had the strength and energy to vote — even if those votes were cast illegally."

For years, Trump called Biden "sleepy Joe."

Trump aide Stephen Miller said Biden should be in “assisted living” and “is not cognitively present.”

But it seems Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) isn't on message.

Asked about Biden, McCarthy said: "I thought his team was very professional, very smart, very tough, at the same time, so...." The fact that McCarthy said "team" threw reporters off. They asked again, specifically about Biden. "What I was referring to was the president. I was talking about President Biden, yes."

Listening to a few Biden speeches, namely his big Warsaw speech in February 2023, Desert News columnist Jacob Hess, said that there's evidence of Biden's stutter and some slurred words. Folks are forgetting Biden's decades of gaffes. It became an ongoing joke during Barack Obama's administration, where Biden would tell a crowd "The problem isn't I mean what I say, it's that sometimes I say what I mean." It's a joke about politicians holding back their thoughts or being calculated. Biden, Hess explained, could never be that guy.

"Often catches himself and turns it into a joke, like when he said'saloon' instead of salon, or offered $100K for citizens to get vaccinated. You might have also missed how the president handled hecklers with notable grace and patience at the recent State of the Union," Hess said.

See the McCarthy comments in the video below or at the link here.

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

Why Spotify’s Joe Rogan Implosion Keeps Getting Worse

Why Spotify’s Joe Rogan Implosion Keeps Getting Worse

What a way to mark Black History Month.

Turns out when Spotify’s right-wing podcast host Joe Rogan isn’t spreading lies and misinformation about a life-saving vaccine during a public health crisis, he’s been chronically using the N-word.

One week after he offered a semi-apology for trafficking in Covid lies, Rogan offered another public mea culpa regarding his regular on-air use of racist language, and for comparing a Black neighborhood to the “Planet of the Apes.” The after-the-fact apology rang hollow, since just days ago Rogan was telling his listeners Black people aren’t really Black. This, while 70 older Rogan podcasts got yanked down last week, reportedly because they contained more racist slurs.

Over the weekend, as a compilation clip of Rogan’s 20-plus N-word utterances went viral, actor Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson walked back his support for Rogan, whose Covid lies prompted a number of famous musicians to demand their catalogs be pulled from the music playlist platform. (Joni Mitchell: “Irresponsible people are spreading lies that are costing people their lives.”)

It’s the latest public relations fiasco for the audio content giant Spotify, the billion-dollar media behemoth that made a huge bet on GOP favorite Rogan, signing him to a $100 million contract despite knowing about the host’s long history of bigotry and baseless conspiracies.

Spotify’s unfolding Rogan fiasco comes as the company does deep damage to its own brand by steadfastly defending a chronic purveyor for right-wing lies and hate; a modern-day Rush Limbaugh. Rather than setting common-sense guidelines for Rogan, Spotify has opted to treat him as untouchable as he wreaks havoc on the company’s image.

Once seen as a fun, feel-good brand for music and podcasts, Spotify is now synonymous with Fox News in terms of peddling toxic content; a poster child for corporate cowardice.

“Its failure to take any meaningful responsibility, other than adding a few disclaimers, is all too reminiscent of the way Facebook, for years, has dodged accountability for spreading so many harmful lies,” noted Margaret Sullivan in the Washington Post.

In refusing to take meaningful action, Spotify is trying, and failing, to present itself as both a steward of free speech, guarding the rights of hosts to say whatever they want, while at the same time paying lip service to the idea of maintaining editorial guidelines.

Here’s the simple fact: When Spotify made Rogan a millionaire one hundred times over with a nine-figure deal to be the exclusive home of “The Joe Rogan Experience,” they knew exactly what they were getting. They knew some of Rogan’s content was so objectionable that Spotify wanted nothing to do with it.

How do we know? Because in 2020 when Spotify purchased the entire Rogan catalog of podcasts and hosted them, dozens of older episodes were deleted, featuring friendly interviews with reprehensible, far-right figures such as Sandy Hook shooting conspiracist Alex Jones, Holocaust denier Chuck C. Johnson, neo-Nazi fan Milo Yiannapoloulos, and Proud Boy founder Gavin McInnes. (Rogan dubbed his interview with the white supremacist McInnes to be “fun times.”) Those chummy chats on a national platform helped normalize their racist and deranged behavior.

At the time, Spotify agreed to silence those interviews because they were, presumably, so objectionable that the company did not want to be associated with them. The same thing happened last week when 70 episodes mysteriously vanished while Spotify was in damage control mode.

But Spotify has remained silent when Rogan and his guests have claimed, “It’s more dangerous to get vaccinated than it is to get Covid,” that you’re “more likely to get infected if you’ve had three jabs,” that Dr. Anthony Fauci “produced the pandemic,” that Biden got a fake booster shot on TV because his aides were afraid he’d die if he got a real one, and the government is monitoring everyone’s texts looking for anti-vaccine messages.

Rogan last year bragged that the company was letting him say whatever he wanted about the pandemic and the vaccine — “They’ve been amazing. Spotify has given me no pushback whatsoever.” That, despite the fact Spotify had in place a policy that “prohibits content on the platform which promotes dangerous false, deceptive, or misleading content about COVID-19 that may cause offline harm and/or pose a direct threat to public health.”

Spotify recently told the Wall Street Journal that it has taken down thousands of podcast episodes in violation of “detailed content policies” related to COVID-19. Just none of Rogan’s. He has violated those rules countless times and none of his Covid episodes have been touched. Last year, when Rogan urged people under the age 21 not to get vaccinated, Spotify somehow concluded those comments were not anti-vaccine.

Late last year, Rogan hosted Dr. Robert Malone, a world-class Covid denier and medical quack, who told Rogan’s millions of listeners that public health experts advocating for vaccines today are akin to Nazis in the 1930s. The episode got banned by YouTube, where the Joe Rogan Experience often gets uploaded, for violating the platform’s rules about trafficking in pandemic lies. For Spotify, the interview, conducted at the height of the Omicron surge which flooded hospitals with Covid patients nationwide, was deemed to be just fine.

Today, the public face of Spotify is an anti-vaccine zealot who has a long history of spouting racial slurs. Rupert Murdoch would be proud.

Reprinted with permission from Press Run

Rogan Dragged By Right-Wing Media For Racial Slur Apology

Rogan Dragged By Right-Wing Media For Racial Slur Apology

On February 5, podcast host Joe Rogan issued an apology for his past use of a racial slur. The apology came after a compilation video circulated featuring Rogan’s repeated use of the n-word. Rogan, who has a $100 million contract with Spotify, was already under intense criticism for using the platform to spread misinformation regarding COVID-19 and vaccines.

Support for Rogan tends to run high in conservative media. The Daily Wire’s Ben Shapiro tweeted that Rogan was “laughing” at those who called for outreach to be mitigated. YouTuber Steven Crowder called Rogan a “great guy” and defended his misinformation about the COVID-19 vaccine. And Fox News host Tucker Carlson praised Rogan for being “strong” under pressure.

After Rogan apologized for repeatedly using a racial slur, however, some in the conservative media turned on him. The Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh said Rogan should’ve “laughed” at his critics, adding, “Spit in their face. It’s the only way.” Commentator John Cardillo, who spreads misinformation regarding the COVID-19 vaccine, said Rogan “never should have given a millimeter” and he should “be more savage than they are.” And The Post Millennial columnist Blaire White said “The only thing Joe Rogan did wrong was apologize.”

Crowder, who has repeatedly been suspended from YouTube for misinformation and hate speech, said he was “angry” and “upset” with Rogan for issuing an apology, saying, “He caved a little bit.” Crowder went on to call it “ill-advised” and something he “strongly disagreed” with.

STEVEN CROWDER (HOST): I'm not going to lie, I was upset. I was angry -- no -- with Joe as well. And I'll explain why. I was more angry with the people who tried to -- I hate the term cancel culture -- but the people who tried to destroy his life and his livelihood. Now, Joe Rogan is bigger than them so good for him. It shouldn't affect him. I hope he understands the power that he has. Unfortunately, he's caved a little bit, and I just -- it makes it harder for everybody else.

...

Now, Joe Rogan issued an apology, with which I strongly disagree. And I'll explain to you why. I think it was very thoughtful, though, and I think the way he delivered the apology was as well delivered as an ill-advised apology like this could be delivered.

Misinformation kingpin and former Trump administration adviser Steven Bannon told Rogan to “man up” and not to “grovel” or “kowtow” to “these people.”


STEVE BANNON (HOST): Note to Joe Rogan: the more you grovel, the more episodes they'll take down. The more you grovel, the more you kowtow, the more you appease these people -- you must fight these people. You must fight the power. So man up, right? Show some resolve.

Glenn Beck, who has spread misinformation regarding the COVID-19 vaccine, told Rogan to “never apologize” to “these people.”

Reprinted with permission from Media Matters

Spotify Removes 70-Plus Joe Rogan Episodes — But Not Over COVID-19 Issues

Spotify Removes 70-Plus Joe Rogan Episodes — But Not Over COVID-19 Issues

Spotify has opted to remove 70 podcast episodes of The Joe Rogan Experience from the platform's archive.

While the deletion comes amid controversy Rogan has faced for his spread of misinformation on COVID-19, Consequence.net, reports that the now-deleted episodes date back to 2019 and are unrelated to what initially caused the problem.T

he discovery of the latest podcast episodes in question has opened the door to even more criticism of Rogan as they contain repeated use of the N-word. Earlier this week, soul singer India.Arie took to social media to raise awareness about the episodes as she announced she'd be pulling her music from the platform over Rogan being allowed to use the N-word in multiple podcast episodes.

"He shouldn’t even be uttering the word. Don’t even say it, under any context. Don’t say it. That’s where I stand. I have always stood there,” said Arie as she condemned Rogan’s “language around race.”

Although Spotify has taken the initiative to remove some of his podcast episodes, there are still deep concerns about him still being allowed to spread misinformation about COVID-19 with his continued use of the platform. The podcast episodes that initially sparked controversy also remain on the platform.

However, in wake of the latest controversy, Rogan has responded.

On Saturday, February 5, Rogan addressed the removal of his podcast episodes over his use of the N-word and issued a statement of apology for his remarks. “It’s a very unusual word, but it’s not my word to use,” Rogan said. “I’m well aware of that now, but for years I used it in that manner. I never used it to be racist, ’cause I’m not racist.’ But whenever you’re in a situation where you have to say ‘I’m not racist,’ you fucked up, and I clearly have fucked up.”