“Do we only do these conversations so that I will get in trouble?”
That’s Jon Stewart, at around the 4-minute mark above after a swiftly moving conversation (for a The Problem With Jon Stewart-associated podcast episode), in which he attempted to faux-argue that Taylor Swift spread disinformation about a scarf and Jake Gyllenhaal. That subject also brought Jon’s revelation that “I’ve gotten less blowback for Israel-Palestine than I did for a One Direction joke,” but the real subject here was a common one of late: Joe Rogan prompting a Spotify controversy with his Covid disinformation, which led Neil Young and Joni Mitchell to pull their music in protest.
Jon is stepping up (during a discussion with writers Chelsea Devantez and Jay Jurden) to semi-defend Rogan here (following Spotify’s decision to put a “content advisory” warning on his episodes), and that’s largely tied to how he views Joe compared to Tucker Carlson. Let’s back up a moment.
Tucker Carlson’s perpetual wallpaper face of confusion has become the stuff of nightmares for many, although he’s certainly claimed a devoted Fox News audience. One person who is most certainly not a Tucker fan: Jon. And he first gave his thoughts on the Rogan-Spotify controversy:
“Don’t leave, don’t abandon, don’t censor. Engage. I’m not saying that it’s always going to work out truthfully, but I am always of the mindset that engagement, and especially with someone like a Joe Rogan, who is not in my mind an ideologue in any way.”
From there, Jon discussed how Rogan made a false claim about myocarditis and younger people getting the Covid vaccine, and how Joe was called out on this BS by guest Josh Szeps. And in Stewart’s mind, Rogan handled this a lot better than Carlson would have done:
“If you are an ideologue, or if you are a dishonest person — Tucker Carlson never would have looked it up and would have given that look he gives, like somebody’s giving him a confusion enema. Like they’re just firing confusion up his ass. And Joe just went, ‘Oh, I didn’t know… uh, okay. I didn’t get that.'”
From there, Stewart argued that Rogan seems like “a person that you can engage with,” so he believes that there’s too much “overblown rhetoric” about this Rogan controversy. Yet Stewart really doesn’t address how Rogan’s claims affect millions of listeners each day, including UFC president Dana White and Green Bay Packers QB Aaron Rodgers, and all of that dangerous misinformation can work disastrous effects. So yup, a “content advisory” from Spotify ain’t so harsh.