Tag Archives: Rogan

Business

Zuckerberg Tells Joe Rogan FBI Is a ‘Legitimate Institution’

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  • Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said he views the FBI as a “legitimate institution.”
  • He told Joe Rogan that the FBI advised him to be on guard for polarizing content around the 2020 election.
  • Far-right GOP members have called for the FBI to be defunded after it raided Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home for classified documents.

Facebook, now Meta, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said he thinks the FBI is a “legitimate institution” amid far-right GOP figures calling for the agency to be defunded following its raid of Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence.

During a 3-hour segment on podcaster Joe Rogan’s program, Rogan asked Zuckerberg how his company handles content that has heavy news attention, such as the controversial late 2020 New York Post story involving the laptop of now-President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, and if Facebook “censored that as well.”

Zuckerberg said the FBI had already approached his company, warning them to be on the look-out for polarizing content, just as Russian propaganda made the platform its home around the 2016 US presidential election.

“We just kind of thought, ‘Hey look, if the FBI — which I still view as a legitimate institution in this country, it’s very professional law enforcement — they come to us and tell us we need to be on guard about something, then I want to take that seriously,” Zuckerberg told Rogan.

Zuckerberg said it took a different approach than Twitter and did not outright prohibit users from sharing the NY Post story. It still allowed Facebook users to share it, but the story showed up less in people’s NewsFeed, meaning it got less traffic.

“‘We have it on notice that there is about to be some kind of dump that’s similar to that, so just be vigilant,'” the FBI told Facebook, according to Zuckerberg, who noted that he couldn’t recall if they warned him about the NY Post story specifically but thought they story “fit the pattern.”

The NY Post story published just a few months before the divisive 2020 US Presidential Election and became a favorite talking point for conservatives who allege major internet companies discriminate against them.

Twitter banned the URL of the story from its site, a move that then-CEO Jack Dorsey said was “wrong.”

The FBI obtained a federal search warrant for Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence earlier this month to determine if he had mishandled classified government documents. The New York Times reported Monday that the government has retrieved 300 documents bearing Trump’s markings since he left office in January 2021, including ones that the FBI seized.

Pro-Trump figures like Georgie Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Arizona Rep. Paul Gosar advocated for the FBI to be defunded, in contrast to conservatives’ longtime efforts to push back on leftists’ plans to defund the police.

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Business

Elon Musk says Feds drug tested him for a year after Joe Rogan podcast smoke session

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Elon Musk had to endure one year of federal drug testing after smoking marijuana on Joe Rogan’s podcast.

Musk, who is the richest man in the world and one of the most influential personas around, appeared on Rogan’s infamous podcast back in 2018. The CEO of Tesla and SpaceX opened up for an intimate interview with Rogan like most guests do. Musk and Rogan talked about a variety of topics before UFC’s color commentator introduced a little weed to the situation. Most speculate this was the first time Musk every tried the devil’s lettuce.

Following his appearance on Rogan’s podcast, Tesla’s stock plunged around 9 percent after investors and stockholders witnessed Musk’s smoke session with Rogan. It cost the company billions.

Earlier this week, Musk made an appearance on the “Full Send” podcast and revealed to the Nelk Boys that his smoking adventures on Rogan’s podcast also led to a year of federal drug testing.

“I did get a lot of backlash, because it’s still federally illegal,” said Musk.

According to the billionaire investor, the government drug tested him for just about everything due to the federal contracts tied to SpaceX. It was simply bad optics and Musk had to atone for his blunt-smoking ways.

“SpaceX has federal government contracts, so our competitors were like, ‘Why aren’t you doing anything? Look at him brazenly smoking weed on Joe Rogan’s podcast’,” Musk said.

“They drug tested me for everything.”

Musk, who is currently worth more than $260 billion, has recovered nicely from the incident. However, it just goes to show how a few moments on Rogan’s podcast could land even the wealthiest man in the world in hot water. With 11 million listeners per episode, Rogan’s Spotify podcast has that type of reach.

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Entertainment

Chelsea Handler Ends Kimmel Run by Going Off on Joe Rogan and Clarence Thomas

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Chelsea Handler kicked off her week of shows guest-hosting for Jimmy Kimmel by going after “pro-life” Republicans and joking that her own three abortions are all the proof Americans need that Roe v. Wade should never have been overturned.

“I have thoroughly enjoyed my time guest-hosting,” the comedian said on Thursday night. “But just like women’s rights, all good things must come to an end.” If “nothing else,” she took solace in the fact that she “got one viewer to change his stance,” highlighting a tweet that began, “Knowing she isn’t raising kids is almost justification for abortion.”

In her final monologue of the week, Handler delivered a history lesson of sorts about the 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote in 1919. Just over a hundred years later, she proposed a 28th Amendment to “end male suffrage.”

But if that’s not a realistic option, she issued a challenge to the men of America: “Guys, if you don’t want us going after your rights, then you better get up off your hairy asses and join the fight to defend ours.”

Instead of “mansplaining” to women about how to win back their rights, she said, “Shut up, OK? How about you do the work for once and don’t open your mouth unless you’re chanting, ‘Her body, her choice.’” She implored men to, “Talk to your sons. Tell them why this is so important before they get radicalized by Joe Rogan.”

“You have the power to make a difference,” Handler added. “If every man donated just one dollar to Planned Parenthood after they masturbated, this organization would have enough resources to help every woman on planet Earth.”

“And all of you have got to take some goddamn responsibility,” she said. “Abortion is a men’s issue. Because if there were no men, there would be no abortions. In fact, if there were no men, we’d all be going down on each other in space right now.”

Handler ended her rant with “one small piece of encouraging news,” the swearing-in of Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson. “For the first time ever, there are now four women on the Supreme Court,” she said to cheers. “And five if you include that bitch Clarence Thomas.”

For more, listen to Chelsea Handler on The Last Laugh podcast.

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Entertainment

Joe Rogan claims Spotify controversy led to 2 million in subscriber growth

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Check out what’s clicking on FoxBusiness.com.

Joe Rogan’s online controversy regarding his use of the n-word and his opinions on COVID-19 apparently didn’t deter potential subscribers.

Rogan, who hosts “The Joe Rogan Experience” on Spotify, claimed that he gained subscribers during the controversies during Friday’s episode featuring British political commentator Douglas Murray.

“You have been put through the wringer since we last met,” Murray told Rogan, seemingly referencing the online attempt to “cancel” Rogan. “They did a number on you. Wow.”

“It’s interesting, my subscriptions went up massively – that’s what’s crazy,” Rogan responded. “During the height of it all, I gained two million subscribers … Yeah, [the media] went for it. It’s also fortunate that the people who went for it were CNN. They’re so untrustworthy and people know how biased they are and socially weird their anchors are.”

Joe Rogan claimed he gained 2 million subscribers while going through his most recent online controversies. (Michael Schwartz/WireImage / Getty Images)

SPOTIFY EXEC: JOE ROGAN SAGA HAS BEEN ‘REAL LEARNING EXPERIENCE’

Spotify does not reveal subscriber growth numbers, but a source familiar with the matter told FOX Business that the increase in subscriber growth was at the normal rate for the podcaster and was not considered a surge.

Spotify did not immediately respond to FOX Business’ request for comment.

Rogan publicly apologized for his use of the n-word at the time. The mea culpa came after Grammy award-winning singer-songwriter India.Arie posted a compilation on Instagram and announced that she was removing her music from Spotify’s streaming service because of it.

Rogan faced criticism after videos of him using the n-word surfaced. (Dylan Buell/Getty Images / Getty Images)

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In a video posted on his Instagram account, Rogan, who hosts a podcast called “The Joe Rogan Experience,” said his use of the n-word in the compilation Arie posted was the “most regretful and shameful thing that I’ve ever had to talk about publicly.” But he said the clips were “taken out of context.”

“It’s not my word to use. I am well aware of that now, but for years I used it in that manner,” he said during the six-minute video on his Instagram account. “I never used it to be racist because I’m not racist.”

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The podcaster has also been heavily criticized over his COVID-19 stances. (Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC / Getty Images)

Following criticism that Rogan was spreading misinformation about COVID-19, Spotify decided to add advisories that link to Spotify’s fact-based COVID-19 hub.

Rogan previously addressed the controversies during a comedy show in February. 

“I talk s— for a living – that’s why this is so baffling to me,” he said. “If you’re taking vaccine advice from me, is that really my fault? What dumb s— were you about to do when my stupid idea sounded better? ‘You know that dude who made people eat animal d—- on TV? How does he feel about medicine?’ If you want my advice, don’t take my advice.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Health

Study finds ivermectin, the horse drug Joe Rogan championed as a COVID treatment, does nothing to cure the virus

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When doctors and scientists scoured for a cure to COVID-19 during the early days of the pandemic, initial studies suggested a number of potential cures that turned out to be bogus. But few dubious solutions have had the staying power of ivermectin, an antiparasitic drug used to treat large farmyard animals.

Ivermectin has been promoted as an “alternative” COVID cure by the likes of podcast host Joe Rogan—who has supported the horse deworming drug over COVID vaccines, even using it himself—and doctors have prescribed the treatment to COVID patients. In small doses, ivermectin can be prescribed to treat head lice or other parasites in humans, but the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has not approved the drug as a COVID treatment.

In the U.S., ivermectin prescriptions soared to 88,000 per week last August, from a baseline of 3,600, prompting the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to issue a warning against using the drug. The CDC said its poison control center had witnessed a fivefold increase in calls related to ivermectin overdoses and adverse effects.

Maybe that madness is coming to an end as, on Wednesday, a largescale scientific study showed that ivermectin has “no significant effects” in treating COVID.

The so-called TOGETHER study, conducted in Brazil, is the largest clinical trial into the effects of ivermectin on COVID to date and generally supports the findings of smaller studies, which have also found no significant benefit to ivermectin treatment.

The TOGETHER trial took 3,515 COVID patients and randomly assigned treatment of either ivermectin, a placebo, or a third intervention. The study was double blind, meaning neither the patients nor the doctors knew which of the three options each participant received at the time.

“Treatment with ivermectin did not result in a lower incidence of medical admission to a hospital due to progression of COVID-19 or of prolonged emergency department observation among outpatients with an early diagnosis of COVID-19,” the researchers concluded.

The scientists behind the Brazil trial presented initial results from their experiment last August, but the full peer reviewed study was only published this week in the New England Journal of Medicine.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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Entertainment

‘The Joe Rogan Experience,’ Spotify’s flagship podcast, mysteriously vanished from the streaming platform twice in the span of a week

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“The Joe Rogan Experience” disappeared from Spotify’s catalogue of episodes on Friday and Monday.Vivian Zink/Syfy/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images

  • Joe Rogan’s podcast disappeared from Spotify’s catalogue on Monday and Friday.

  • The initial outage prompted some speculation from fans that Rogan had been removed, The LA Times reported.

  • Spotify said the first incident was due to a technical issue, but has not responded to Monday’s outage.

“The Joe Rogan Experience,” the top podcast on Spotify, disappeared from the streaming platform’s mobile apps and website twice within the span of a week, several media outlets reported.

All episodes of Rogan’s podcast were inaccessible on Monday morning, The Independent first reported, but it was back online as of Monday evening.

The popular show also vanished briefly last Friday, though Spotify said at the time that several other podcasts had been affected and blamed technical issues, Rolling Stone reported. The hour-long shortage had instigated speculation among fans that Rogan was blocked from the platform, The Los Angeles Times reported.

While Spotify hasn’t publicly stated why the podcast went down a second time, the outages occurred several weeks after Rogan drew controversy for spreading COVID-19 misinformation and became the center of a debate around free speech on the platform.

Musicians Neil Young and Joni Mitchell both asked Spotify to remove their music from the platform in protest of Rogan’s comments. Spotify CEO Daniel Ek defended Rogan, saying his platform wouldn’t silence the former “Fear Factor” host, adding that “canceling voices is a slippery slope.”

“The Joe Rogan Experience” signed exclusive rights to Spotify in May 2020, a deal that was reported by The New York Times to be worth $200 million.

Spotify did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment.

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Entertainment

Spotify’s Joe Rogan Deal Is Said to Be Worth Over $200 Million

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Management of the crisis in the United States may have been further complicated because Spotify’s headquarters is nearly 4,000 miles away, in Sweden, where Mr. Ek, a publicity-shy executive who grew up in a suburb of Stockholm, and many of the company’s engineers and longest-tenured employees are based.

Free expression is a deeply held belief in Sweden. Many employees there — and in the United States — were angry when Spotify removed music by R. Kelly and XXXTentacion from playlists in 2018 for content or conduct deemed offensive, a decision the company quickly reversed.

Mr. Ek has made it clear that he is wary of taking on the role of censor. “We’re not in the business of dictating the discourse that these creators want to have on their shows,” he told employees earlier this month in a speech first reported by The Verge, adding that “if we only wanted to make content that we all like and agree with, we will need to eliminate religion, and politics, and comedy, and health, and environment, and education, the list goes on and on and on.”

And as a business matter, censoring Mr. Rogan could alienate his legion of fans and set a slippery precedent with other podcasters, according to Mark Mulligan, an industry analyst with Midia Research.

“That could put at risk their future podcast strategy,” Mr. Mulligan said.

In a recent memo to employees, Mr. Ek wrote that “canceling voices is a slippery slope” but acknowledged that a number of episodes of Mr. Rogan’s show had been removed from the platform. He wrote that Mr. Rogan had decided to remove them after meetings with Spotify executives and “his own reflections.”

Katherine Rosman and Ben Sisario reported from New York, Mike Isaac reported from Oakland, Calif., and Adam Satariano reported from London. Additional reporting was contributed by Nicole Sperling in Los Angeles and Marc Tracy and Jessica Cheung in New York.

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Sports

Dana White calls Joe Rogan schedule conflict ‘bulls***’

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The plot has thickened around Joe Rogan’s conspicuous absence from UFC 271.

The UFC broadcast stalwart, currently embroiled in controversy over what some have called vaccine misinformation and use of racial slurs on his popular podcast, was reported as having to miss Saturday’s event due to a “scheduling conflict.”

After the event, UFC president Dana White was asked about Rogan’s absence. He painted the decision for Rogan not to work entirely as Rogan’s choice, but said he didn’t know why. He also used some coarse language to react to the idea Rogan wasn’t allowed to work.

“There’s no conflict of schedule. Joe Rogan didn’t work tonight. Joe Rogan could have worked tonight … I don’t know what Joe Rogan had to do, you guys will have to ask Joe Rogan. There was no ‘Joe couldn’t work tonight’ or anything like that. I know that came out, it’s total bulls***.”

Former UFC middleweight champion Michael Bisping filled in for Rogan alongside play-by-play man Jon Anik and former heavyweight champ Daniel Cormier.

Whatever kept him away from the broadcast table, Rogan was apparently still watching, as Anik mentioned he received a text from Rogan during the main event between Israel Adesanya and Robert Whittaker, in which he speculated about a hand injury sustained by Adesanya.

Joe Rogan’s tidal wave of controversy

Last week, Rogan issued an apology for past things said on his podcast and said his use of racial slurs was “regretful and shameful,” though he also said on the same podcast this week that the controversy was a “political hit job.”

Spotify, which paid more than $100 million for the right to air Rogan’s “The Joe Rogan Experience,” has pulled over 100 episodes of the podcast and will start including disclaimers before future episodes.

Speculation was rampant around Rogan’s absence for obvious reasons, most notably the possibility that ESPN, which aired UFC 271, and parent company Disney did not want such a divisive figure on their broadcast. YouTuber-turned-boxer Jake Paul, never one to avoid needling the UFC, even claimed that Disney should have pulled White instead.

This is obviously not the first time the comedian has courted controversy, though that never seemed to hurt his relationship with the UFC and White in the past. Rogan has been working for the promotion since UFC 12 in 1997 and started calling fights in 2002.

Joe Rogan and the UFC go way back. (Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images)



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Entertainment

Joe Rogan is ‘unstoppable’ after confronting cancel culture: Concha

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Fox News contributor Joe Concha told “Jesse Watters Primetime” on Friday that Joe Rogan is “bigger than ever” after confronting cancel culture.

JOE CONCHA: That is one hundred percent the playbook: Never back down, never apologize, go forward and believe in free speech. … Meanwhile, here’s how the scoreboard is going. Eleven million people listen to Joe Rogan on a daily basis. CNN international brand, 42 years with thousands of employees, is watched by less than 500,000 viewers. Now here’s what all this effort to cancel Joe Rogan has resulted in. He’s bigger than ever. He’s more powerful than ever, and all the press he’s received good, bad, ugly has only resulted in more people like me who really never listen to Joe Rogan’s podcast before now checking him out on a daily basis.

…

Rush Limbaugh, they tried to cancel him, Howard Stern, they tried to cancel him and they only got bigger. Rogan has created a bigger market for himself now. If Spotify were to fold, there’s Rumble to pay $100 million to him because in the end, greed, Jesse, works. Greed is good. Greed clarifies, cuts through and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Joe Rogan is unstoppable now.

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Entertainment

Joe Rogan blasts CNN over Spotify flap

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Joe Rogan once again took aim at “dishonest” CNN and other legacy media outlets on Thursday, accusing them of taking an “editorial perspective” toward his Spotify podcast in an attempt to “silence me” and censor his show.

The host of “The Joe Rogan Experience” called out CNN media reporter Brian Stelter and primetime host Don Lemon personally, saying: “Stop this editorial perspective with guys like Brian Stelter and Don Lemon that nobody listens to.”

Rogan added: “Nobody is, like, chiming in saying, ‘Oh yeah, finally we get the voice of reason.’ Nobody thinks that.”

He made the remarks during Thursday’s episode of his podcast, which included comedian Dave Smith.

Rogan said viewers no longer trust CNN, which has struggled in the cable news ratings race, because the network is not “honest.”

“If you’re in business and your business is the news and you want to get more people to pay attention, you should be honest,” Rogan said.

Rogan was critical of the media coverage of “attempts to silence me” after rocker Neil Young pulled his music from Spotify to protest the podcast’s presence on the platform.
Getty Images for SXSW

“And my thoughts for CNN, my advice to them: I don’t hate CNN. I used to go to them every day for the news until they start f—-ng hatin’ on me.” 

“If you want to do better, just f—-ng change your model, change the way you do it.” 

Rogan has been at the center of controversy in recent weeks after rocker Neil Young pulled his music from Spotify to protest the podcaster’s show. Young and others have assailed Rogan for interviewing medical officials who have been accused of “spreading vaccine misinformation.”

After Young pulled his content from the popular streaming platform, other artists like Joni Mitchell and India.Arie followed suit.

Spotify, which signed Rogan to a $100 million licensing deal in 2020, said it has no plans to sever ties with the popular podcaster.
NurPhoto via Getty Images

Calls for Spotify to cut ties with Rogan intensified even further over the past week after viral videos on social media show the host uttering the N-word — though the clips were spliced in a way that decontextualized the comments.

But Spotify’s CEO told staffers that while he condemned Rogan’s use of racial slurs, he had no plans to terminate the $100 million contract with the popular podcaster, who commands an audience of some 11 million listeners.

Spotify tried to appease Rogan critics by culling more than 100 old episodes of the podcast from its platform.

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