Joe Rogan is calling himself out for spreading a harmful conspiracy theory about the West Coast Wildfires on his wildly popular podcast. That episode arrived shortly after Rogan learned that Trump wants him to moderate a 4-hour, no-holds-barred debate between himself an Joe Biden. So of course, the spreading of misinformation whipped up quite a storm upon a storm following Thursday’s Joe Rogan Experience (which recently moved over to Spotify) podcast episode with author Douglas Murray.
Here’s the clip in question, as posted to Twitter by Media Matters researcher Alex Paterson. “They’ve arrested people for lighting forest fires up there,” Rogan said while discussing the Portland, Oregon fires. “They’ve arrested left-wing people for lighting these forest fires, air-quote ‘activists.’ This is also something that’s not being widely reported, you know, that people have actually been arrested for lighting fires up there.”
https://twitter.com/AlexPattyy/status/1306690180452167680
As the New York Times had already reported, those claims had been debunked as false. Further, the Portland division of the FBI tweeted about the matter last week: “Reports that extremists are setting wildfires in Oregon are untrue. Help us stop the spread of misinformation by only sharing information from trusted, official sources.”
Reports that extremists are setting wildfires in Oregon are untrue. Help us stop the spread of misinformation by only sharing information from trusted, official sources. pic.twitter.com/ENc4c3kjep
— FBI Portland (@FBIPortland) September 11, 2020
Rogan hasn’t yet returned with another podcast episode, but on Friday, he took to Twitter with an apology:
“I f*cked up on the podcast with Douglas Murray and said that people got arrested lighting fires in Portland. That turns out to not be true. I was very irresponsible not looking into it before I repeated it. I read one story about a guy getting arrested for lighting fires… turned out to be true, but the other shit I read about people getting arrested for lighting fires in Portland was not true. I repeated it without looking into it and it was a really fucking stupid mistake that won’t happen again… I’m sorry.”
I fucked up on the podcast with Douglas Murray and said that people got arrested lighting fires in Portland. That turns out to not be true. I was very irresponsible not looking into it before I repeated it. I read one story about a guy getting arrested for lighting fires…
— Joe Rogan (@joerogan) September 18, 2020
…turned out to be true, but the other shit I read about people getting arrested for lighting fires in Portland was not true. I repeated it without looking into it and it was a really fucking stupid mistake that won’t happen again.
I’m sorry.— Joe Rogan (@joerogan) September 18, 2020
Given that his podcast reportedly scores at least 200 million listeners per month, Rogan surely realized (upon more investigation) that this was a grave matter, and a correction was in order. Good on him, and hopefully, he’ll also address the subject in a future podcast episode for people who missed his Twitter edition.