Podcast host Joe Rogan posted an apology video, his second in less than a week, to Instagram early Saturday morning, addressing a viral compilation video that showed him repeatedly using the N-word on his show, Fox News reported.
Rogan clarified that he only used the word in quotations or when discussing its sociolinguistic significance.
"I haven't said it in years. But for a long time, when I would bring that word up, if it would come up in conversations, instead of saying 'the N-word,' I would just say the word," Rogan said. He offered his "sincere, deepest apologies" and said watching the compilation made him feel "sick."
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He also apologized for comparing a Black neighborhood he visited to the Planet of the Apes film franchise.
Since Friday, Spotify has removed 113 episodes of Rogan's podcast, The New York Post reports.
The compilation video went viral after musician India Arie, who joined fellow artists Neil Young and Joni Mitchell in pulling her music from Spotify, shared it on her Instagram story Friday. It appears, however, that the video originated on Jan. 30 on the Twitter account PatriotTakes, which posts content critical of the political right and, according to its Twitter bio, is "[p]artnered with" the left-leaning Super PAC MediasTouch.
Public figures and former podcast guests including Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas), political commentator Ben Shapiro, journalist Bari Weiss, and conservative YouTuber Blaire White all leaped to Rogan's defense.
Rogan, who signed a $100 million deal with Spotify in 2020 giving the platform exclusive distribution rights to his mega-hit podcast The Joe Rogan Experience, has been under fire in recent weeks for interviewing guests who have been accused of spreading COVID-19 misinformation.
Rogan said on Jan. 30 that he would "balance things out."
The controversial interviews with doctors Robert Malone and Peter McCullough about COVID-19 are still available on Spotify.
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