Brianna Keilar spoke today to reporter Miguel Marquez, who had a plea from firefighters risking their lives battling the wildfires in Oregon to stop spreading baseless rumors about how the fires have started.
What type of rumors, you ask? Well, the very type PodBro Joe Rogan spouted on his show: that it was left-wing activists, and Antifa who have started them. Keilar played the Rogan clip on her show:
MURRAY: Yeah.
ROGAN: They've arrested left wing people for lighting these forest fires, you know, air quote activists, and this is also something that's not widely being reported.
"It's not being widely reported because it's not true," Keilar shot back. She pointed to the large number of local and state officials refuting these conspiracy theories. She then threw it to reporter Miguel Marquez, who was in Oregon and had spoken to the firefighters.
[...]
That's National Guard down there, they have police and sheriff's officers in other areas, but they are begging people to stop spreading this stuff, because it's just not true. There was one report of six people being taken into custody in one county. It never happened! They said they were Antifa individuals. Never happened.
[...]
There was even a rumor at one point that there were people stashing gas in — this was in Clackamas County — stashing gas in the forest and afraid that they were going to start fires with it. It turned out it was good samaritans helping others keep their generators running. The sheriffs across Oregon, and certainly in the counties that are affected are just begging people to stop sharing bad information, stop calling in with bad information and know what you're talking about if you are going to report something. They want to hear it but you have to have seen something and you have to actually know what it is you're talking about...
Know what they're talking about? When has that ever been a requirement of right-wing media, or even 99.9% of Republican politicians in the last four years?
Apparently, though, Joe Rogan not only heard the pleas of these firefighters and officials, he retracted his bullsh*t accusations and lies via Twitter, even going so far as to apologize.
I fucked up on the podcast with Douglas Murray and said that people got arrested lighting fires in Portland. That turns out to not be true. I was very irresponsible not looking into it before I repeated it. I read one story about a guy getting arrested for lighting fires...
— Joe Rogan (@joerogan) September 18, 2020
...turned out to be true, but the other shit I read about people getting arrested for lighting fires in Portland was not true. I repeated it without looking into it and it was a really fucking stupid mistake that won’t happen again.
I’m sorry.— Joe Rogan (@joerogan) September 18, 2020
He also apologized in an Instagram video:
How refreshing! I mean, damage done, and f*ck all the right-wing assholes for telling him not to apologize, instead of taking a cue from him and following his example. He sounds genuinely upset with himself for spreading false information, and really unconditionally sorry. If only the GOP in Congress knew how to take responsibility for the potentially irreparable damage they have done to this nation by elevating a monstrous dictator and doing all they can to keep him in power, and promise to not repeat their mistakes, the nation's future wouldn't look so bleak.
