Video hosting platform Rumble on Monday offered Joe Rogan $100 million to break from Spotify, and move his popular podcast “The Joe Rogan Experience” to their platform instead.
Chris Pavlovski, the CEO of Rumble, said in an open letter that he stands with Rogan, who has been targeted for destruction by the left for allowing open discussions on controversial issues on his podcast.
“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?” Pavlovski wrote in the letter.
Hey @joerogan, we are ready to fight alongside you. See the note from our CEO @chrispavlovski… pic.twitter.com/G7ahfNNjtP
— Rumble 🏴☠️ (@rumblevideo) February 7, 2022
Rogan began facing calls for censorship after his interview with noted vaccinologist and physician Dr. Robert Malone went viral.
Ironically, Malone had spent much of that conversation discussing the widespread censorship of views that contradict the mainstream COVID-19 narrative.
“What we’re experiencing is a coordinated media warfare the likes of which we have never seen before,” Malone told Rogan, adding that “Big Tech” corporations are working hand in hand with other powerful entities—including the government—to chill speech regarding COVID-19 and the experimental vaccines rolled out to treat it.
“It’s the horizontal integration across all major industries now under the control of common funds,” Malone said. “The harmonization of the tech censorship, the interests of ‘Pharma,’ ‘Big Media,’ etc., and governments.”
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki has used her platform to demand that Spotify “do more” to censure Joe Rogan.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki calls on Spotify, a Swedish company, to do more to censor Joe Rogan, an American citizen, with regard to COVID.
Totally normal. Nothing to see here. pic.twitter.com/BPf9ikXZnk
— Michael P Senger (@michaelpsenger) February 2, 2022
Over the weekend, the pretext of the backlash against Rogan morphed from outrage over his anti-vax mandate guests, to outrage over his use the N-word in past “political/sociological discussions” about the N-word.
Twitter users have been quick to post examples of woke celebrities and politicians—including Joe Biden—who have used the N-word in a similar context.
If you actually think that finding old clips of someone using the n-word is proof they're a racist, then you would find this 👇 infinitely more alarming and important given that he is kind of more powerful than Joe Rogan. But you don't think that: it's just a game to silence him. pic.twitter.com/xLBjgOsjgw
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) February 5, 2022
Nonetheless, the intense shaming campaign that ensued prompted Rogan to apologize for his past use of the racial slur, and to agree to allow Spotify to delete over 70 of his podcasts.
Rogan said it was the “most regretful and shameful thing” that he has ever had to address publicly.
“I can’t go back in time and change what I said, I wish I could, obviously that’s not possible, but I do hope this could be a teachable moment for anybody that doesn’t realize how offensive that word could be coming out of a white person’s mouth, in context or out of context,” said Rogan.
#BREAKING @joerogan
apologizes for resurfaced podcast clips of him using the N-word.@Spotify has reportedly removed 70 episodes of The Joe Rogan using racist slurs.…but he never said DIRECT Apology to the Black Community 🤔.
" sincerely sorry"🤷🏿♂️
— ANT 🐦 (@Leichtskorpion) February 5, 2022
Rogan reportedly has a $100 million contract with Spotify, which has acquired the rights to his podcast including all past episodes.
Spotify’s CEO Daniel Ek on Sunday released a public apology to company employees over the Rogan “controversy.”
“There are no words I can say to adequately convey how deeply sorry I am for the way The Joe Rogan Experience controversy continues to impact each of you.”
“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,” Ek concluded.