Joe Rogan is promising to "balance things out" on his podcast as artists remove their music from Spotify in response to COVID-19 misinformation on the show.
Rogan in an Instagram video addressed the controversy after Neil Young and Joni Mitchell moved to pull their music from Spotify due to misinformation spread on podcasts like The Joe Rogan Experience. The comedian and podcast host objected to "the term misinformation" and defended interviewing guests who "have an opinion that's different from the mainstream narrative," including a doctor who was banned from Twitter for COVID-19 misinformation.
But Rogan also said he can "do better" in the future by interviewing "more experts with differing opinions right after I have the controversial ones" on the show, something he said would help "balance things out," and he promised to "make sure that I've researched these topics" before discussing them.
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"I don't want to just show the contrary opinion to what the narrative is," Rogan said. "I want to show all kinds of opinions so that we can all figure out what's going on."
Rogan, while acknowledging the "strange responsibility" he has as host of Spotify's most popular podcast, said he's "not trying to promote misinformation" and that "if I pissed you off, I'm sorry." He also apologized to Spotify over the uproar, saying he's "very sorry that this is happening to them and that they're taking so much heat from it."
Rogan's response came after Spotify announced it would add content advisory labels to podcasts that discuss COVID-19, directing viewers to facts on the subject. "To our knowledge, this content advisory is the first of its kind by a major podcast platform," Spotify said. Rogan says he supports this "very important" move by Spotify.
"Sure, have that on there," Rogan said. "I'm very happy with that."
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