Joe Rogan responds to podcast controversy, vows to ‘steadiness issues out’ amid misinformation backlash

By ANI

WASHINGTON: American comic and podcaster Joe Rogan has lastly opened up in regards to the controversy associated to his Spotify podcast, ‘The Joe Rogan Experience’, saying, “I’m not trying to promote misinformation”.

The 54-year-old star posted an almost 10-minute video on his Instagram account to deal with the continued criticism surrounding his content material after a number of artists eliminated their music from the platform in protest of Rogan’s podcast, the place he has, amongst different issues, advised that wholesome younger individuals do not want the COVID-19 vaccine.

“Now, because of this controversy … Neil Young has removed his music from the platform of Spotify and Joni Mitchell and apparently some other people want to as well,” he mentioned.

“I’m very sorry that they feel that way. I most certainly don’t want that. I’m a Neil Young fan, I’ve always been a Neil Young fan,” he added.

Rogan, who mentioned he agrees with Spotify’s latest choice to incorporate disclaimers on podcast episodes discussing COVID-19, promised to make extra of an effort to “balance out” the controversial opinions on his present.

“My pledge to you is that I will do my best to try to balance out these more controversial viewpoints with other people’s perspectives, so that we can maybe find a better point of view,” he mentioned.

Rogan added, “I don’t want to just show the contrary opinion to what the narrative is. I want to show all kinds of opinions so that we can all figure what’s going on…”

While Rogan identified that he has had medical professionals like Dr. Sanjay Gupta, Dr. Michael Osterholm and Dr. Peter Hotez on his present as company, he additionally admitted that he by no means anticipated to have hundreds of thousands of followers.

“It’s a strange responsibility to have this many viewers and listeners,” he mentioned. “It’s very strange, and it’s nothing that I prepared for and it’s nothing that I ever anticipated.”

“I do all the scheduling myself, and I don’t always get it right,” he added. “These podcasts are very strange because they’re just conversations, and oftentimes I have no idea what I’m going to talk about until I sit down to talk to people, and that’s why some of my ideas are not that prepared or fleshed out because I’m literally having them in real time. But I do my best.”

He continued, “If I pissed you off, I’m sorry. And if you enjoyed the podcast, thank you. … Thank you all the supporters and even thank you to the haters because it’s good to have some haters. It makes you reassess what you’re doing and put things into perspective and I think that’s good too.”

Many of Rogan’s associates and supporters, together with Dwayne Johnson, applauded his response to the controversy within the feedback. “Great stuff here brother. Look forward to coming on one day and breaking out the tequila with you,” Johnson wrote.

The video comes days after Neil Young demanded Spotify take away his music from the platform after he claimed that Rogan was spreading misinformation relating to the COVID-19 pandemic on his podcast, reported People journal.

Joni Mitchell and Nils Lofgren later joined Young in having their music pulled from the streaming service.

As per People journal, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have additionally known as on Spotify to deal with the “serious harms” attributable to COVID misinformation after signing an unique multi-year podcast cope with the corporate in 2020.

To fight inaccurate info relating to the coronavirus and vaccines, Spotify not too long ago introduced plans so as to add a content material advisory to any podcast episode that features a dialogue about COVID-19.