Spotify, Joe Rogan and the Covid culture war
The Story
The Times
3.9 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 9 February 2022
⏱️ 32 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
It began last month when a number of musical titans began to leave Spotify, accusing Joe Rogan's podcast of spreading Covid misinformation. Rogan's name hasn't left the headlines since. Calls for the streaming platform to drop its most popular podcaster intensified after old clips emerged of Rogan repeatedly using a racial slur. What responsibilities do Rogan, and a mainstream platform like Spotify, have to the 11 million listeners of The Joe Rogan Experience?
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Guests:
James Marriott, deputy books editor, The Times.
Will Hodgkinson, rock & pop critic, The Times.
Host: Manveen Rana.
Clips: The Joe Rogan Experience, Fox News, NBC News, BBC, The Economic Ninja, Russell Brand, CNN.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Some podcasts get all the attention. |
| 0:05.8 | Joe Rogan is a media phenomenon. |
| 0:08.5 | And then you have talk show stars like Joe Rogan, |
| 0:10.8 | who just wing it, who make it up as they go along. |
| 0:13.5 | I don't think Joe Rogan does have an agenda in the reply. |
| 0:15.6 | Let me, Joe Rogan, stop that podcast, |
| 0:17.4 | which takes bloody hours and goes, |
| 0:19.0 | why? What's next? |
| 0:22.8 | It began last month when a number of musical titans |
| 0:26.5 | began to leave Spotify, |
| 0:28.4 | accusing Joe Rogan's podcast of spreading COVID misinformation. |
| 0:33.0 | Neil Young threatened to pull his music from Spotify, |
| 0:35.6 | saying they can have Rogan or young, not both. |
| 0:39.5 | Joni Mitchell is joining fellow singer-songwriter Neil Young |
| 0:42.7 | and asking for a music to be removed from Spotify. |
| 0:46.2 | Now, the former US President Donald Trump has waited in, |
| 0:50.5 | backing Joe Rogan. |
| 0:52.4 | While Spotify's shares have plummeted, |
| 0:54.8 | the company has stood by the host, |
| 0:57.4 | but now they might have competition. |
| 1:00.1 | It has been reported now that Rumble offered Joe Rogan $100 million |
| 1:05.8 | to leave Spotify and come onto their platform. |
... |
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