Spotify's stock dropped last week after Neil Young announced he was withdrawing his music from the streaming platform over Joe Rogan's covid misinformation, and Rogan is trying to stop the bleeding. Via Engadget:
Shortly after Spotify announced that it would add a 'content advisory' to COVID-19 podcast episodes, Joe Rogan has issued his own response to the controversy. In a video uploaded to Instagram, he apologized to Spotify for the backlash that saw Neil Young, Joni Mitchell and other artists remove their music from the platform. He also defended his his decision to book controversial guests, while promising to "balance things out" with differing opinions.
"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 and they’re just conversations, and I think that’s also the appeal of the show," he said in the video. "It’s one of the things that makes it interesting. So I want to thank Spotify for being so supportive during this time, and I’m very sorry that this is happening to them and that they’re taking so much from it."
[...] "’I'm not a doctor. I’m not a scientist. I’m just a person who sits down and talks to people and has conversations with them," he said. "Do I get things wrong? Absolutely. I get things wrong, but I try to correct them whenever I get something wrong. I’m interested in finding out what the truth is, and I’m interested in having interesting conversations with people that have differing opinions. I’m not interested in only talking to people that have one perspective."
Rogan said he agrees with Spotify's plan to apply advisory labels to episodes related to COVID-19, and promised to have experts with differing opinions following controversial guests. "I will do my best to try to balance out these more controversial viewpoints with other people’s perspectives so we can maybe find a better point of view," he said.
Look, he's clearly not smart enough to evaluate whatever people tell him. He doesn't seem to understand that some people make sh*t up for their own purposes.
So basically, Rogan has adopted the exact same amoral position as the New York Times and other mainstream publications: "It's not my job to tell you what to think, I just put it out there. And both sides!" And nothing is his fault.
UPDATE: (Karoli) His full statement, which is not an apology:
