Joe Rogan has just said that he wants to be “very apolitical” in terms of which politicians he interviews. His (apparent) solution to that? Don’t interview them at all. He said this while talking to former CIA covert operations officer and current CEO of Portman Square Group, Mike Baker, on episode 1793 of his show.
“I am very apolitical,” Rogan said. “When it comes to the future and political candidates, I don’t want to have that kind of influence. I want to be someone who can watch and observe. I don’t wanna be someone who’s actually affecting this.”
This remark came off the back of a fake Trump Twitter account claiming Trump would be appearing on Rogan’s podcast.
Rogan said of this: “People love to make up a completely fake story and see if that makes it into the news – a hundred people at least have texted me and sent me emails and contacted friends because they heard Trump was coming on my podcast – the source of it is a fake Trump account on Twitter.”
“It’s not the case.”
While Rogan admitted “There’s a certain amount I’m affecting no matter what I do,” he also said he wants to reduce that (political) impact.
“I have decided I am very apolitical when it comes to the future and political candidates,” Rogan said. “What I’m actually interested in is talking to people. I’m not nearly as interested in affecting things.”
“Unfortunately because there are so many f**king people paying attention, I’m doing it the same way I’ve always done it, but now there ate more people paying attention.”
CNN has previously described Rogan as “libertarian-leaning.” Rogan has said that he holds a broad range of political views.
The top-rated answer on Quora for the question of Roga’s politics is: “He has no political affiliations, he is smart and doesn’t blindly follow a political party no matter the candidate.”
“Almost all his views are liberal, with a couple views being libertarian and republican leaning.”
“Last election he was a Bernie supporter but refused to support Hilary once Bernie was out. He seems like he will be hoping for Bernie again.”
According to JRE library, Rogan has previously hosted 11 politicians on his show (although only one of them – Bernie Sanders – is a really high profile one). He didn’t say it outright, but reading between the lines, his recent remarks would suggest that to avoid unduly influencing politics he has now decided not to interview high profile political candidates from here on out.
Some Twitter users said they thought Spotify had forced Rogan to take this stance. Others claimed that “even before Spotify, he said that he didn’t like having politicians on, except for those he liked personally.”
Another social media commenter, on Youtube, wrote: “Rogan can be wishy washy on alot of things. He prolly doesnt want to seem to be a ‘trump supplrter’ bad for his image…guaranteed he will have others in his show to talk about politics…just not Trump.”
Back to the recent podcast: Rogan then went on to say that he does see where people are coming from regarding the recent criticisms of him (though in the same breath he suggests he thinks they are being overzealous).
Rogan said: “The idea that one person can have that much influence is disturbing to a lot of folks who would like these giant corporations, which are controlled by the pharmaceutical companies and whoever the f**k else is paying their advertising, to decide what can and can’t be talked about and not said or not discussed and what’s misinformation and whats real information.”
This comes about a month and a half after Rogan posted a video on Instagram saying he wanted to take more accountability for the guests he had on his show and the information they share.
“One of the things Spotify wants to do is that at the beginning of these controversial podcasts, especially these ones about COVID is to put a disclaimer and say that you should speak to your physician and [warn people] ‘these people the opinions they express are contrary to the opinion of the consensus of experts,’ which I think is very important and I’m happy with that,” Rogan said.
“These podcasts are very strange because they’re just conversations. Oftentimes, I have no idea what I’m going to talk about until I sit down and talk with people. That’s why some of my ideas are not that prepared or fleshed out because I’m literally having them in real-time – that’s also the appeal of the show.”
That video came a month after 270 medicine and science experts signed an open letter asking Spotify to remove a December episode of The Joe Rogan Experience, which featured Dr Robert Malone, an infectious diseases specialist (and vaccine sceptic), who, according to PolitiFact, was banned from Twitter for violating the platform’s COVID-19 misinformation policies.
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