by Jeff Miller, REPUBLICAN BRIEF February 7, 2022
Joe Rogan, host of the podcast “The Joe Rogan podcast,” is being offered a deal to join Rumble, a conservative video platform that’s a direct competitor to YouTube.
The company’s CEO Chris Pavlovski announced on Monday that it had offered Rogan $100 million for a four-year agreement.
Pavlovski wrote “Dear Joe. We stand with you, your guests, and your legion of fans in desire for real conversation. So we’d like to offer you 100 million reasons to make the world a better place.”
“How about you bring all your shows to Rumble, both old and new, with no censorship, for 100 million bucks over four years? This is our chance to save the world. And yes, this is totally legit.”
Daniel Ek, the CEO of Spotify, explained that the company will not be “silencing” Rogan after a compilation of videos featuring him repeatedly using the n-word surfaced over the weekend.
Following Rogan’s apology, Ek issued a statement stating that the company stood by him:
“While I strongly condemn what Joe has said and I agree with his decision to remove past episodes from our platform, I realize some will want more. And I want to make one point very clear – I do not believe that silencing Joe is the answer. We should have clear lines around content and take action when they are crossed, but canceling voices is a slippery slope. Looking at the issue more broadly, it’s critical thinking and open debate that powers real and necessary progress.”
Ek wrote to employees at Spotify that Rogan himself removed over 100 previous episodes of his podcast from the platform.
Here’s what else Ek wrote to Spotify employees:
Another criticism that I continue to hear from many of you is that it’s not just about The Joe Rogan Experience on Spotify; it comes down to our direct relationship with him. In last week’s Town Hall, I outlined to you that we are not the publisher of JRE. But perception due to our exclusive license implies otherwise. So I’ve been wrestling with how this perception squares with our values.
If we believe in having an open platform as a core value of the company, then we must also believe in elevating all types of creators, including those from underrepresented communities and a diversity of backgrounds.
We’ve been doing a great deal of work in this area already but I think we can do even more. So I am committing to an incremental investment of $100 million for the licensing, development, and marketing of music (artists and songwriters) and audio content from historically marginalized groups. This will dramatically increase our efforts in these areas.
While some might want us to pursue a different path, I believe that more speech on more issues can be highly effective in improving the status quo and enhancing the conversation altogether.
I deeply regret that you are carrying so much of this burden. I also want to be transparent in setting the expectation that in order to achieve our goal of becoming the global audio platform, these kinds of disputes will be inevitable.
I’ve told you several times over the last week, but I think it’s critical we listen carefully to one another and consider how we can and should do better.
I’ve spent this time having lots of conversations with people inside and outside of Spotify – some have been supportive while others have been incredibly hard, but all of them have made me think.
One of the things I am thinking about is what additional steps we can take to further balance creator expression with user safety. I’ve asked our teams to expand the number of outside experts we consult with on these efforts and look forward to sharing more details.
Your passion for this company and our mission has made a difference in the lives of so many listeners and creators around the world. I hope you won’t lose sight of that.
It’s that ability to focus and improve Spotify even on some of our toughest days that has helped us build the platform we have. We have a clear opportunity to learn and grow together from this challenge and I am ready to meet it head-on.
I know it is difficult to have these conversations play out so publicly, and I continue to encourage you to reach out to your leaders, your HR partners, or me directly if you need support or resources for yourself or your team.
Despite being taken out of context, and even though he was citing other people, Rogan issued a lengthy apology video, in which he maintains he regrets his use of the N-word.
Throughout 23 separate clips, Rogan utters the word 24 times. These clips were recorded in the months before he left YouTube for his exclusive partnership with Spotify in 2020.
Rogan said on Saturday that ‘it looks f***ing horrible. Even to me.’
According to Rogan, the slurs were the most regrettable and shameful thing he has ever dealt with, and he hasn’t used the N-word for years. Many black people, especially those in the sports world who have worked with Rogan are standing by him while white communist Democrats scream “racist!”
Rogan’s podcast was found to be missing 113 episodes by JRE Missing, a website that detects deleted episodes automatically.
Most of the episodes that were yanked were recorded before his recent controversy regarding COVID-19 and preventative medications. Some of the episodes had conservative commentators on such as Alex Jones, Milo Yiannopoulos, Owen Benjamin, as well as Gavin McInnes.
Over the past few weeks, Rogan, 54, has come under fire from progressives and others who have pushed to cancel the JRE host’s $100 million deal with the world’s most popular streaming service over what has been called misinformation regarding the Covid-19 vaccine.
Damn! Can I say that? Ha Ha.