Joe Rogan: Fox News and the right ‘had my back’ against far-left attacks
Joe Rogan said Fox News Channel and other conservative personalities and media outlets offered him support when he was coming under attack from the “far left” for interviewing vaccine skeptics on his Spotify podcast.
“They had my back through all the crazy s–t that happened with me. It was Fox News that f–king had my back,” Rogan said on Tuesday’s episode of his podcast, “The Joe Rogan Experience.”
Rogan, a stand-up comedian, defended his friend Dave Chappelle against accusations that he was transphobic.
During an interview with fellow comedian Fahim Anwar, Rogan recalled the recent incident in which a Los Angeles man rushed to the staged and attacked Chappelle while he was performing at the Hollywood Bowl earlier this month.
The alleged assailant, Isaiah Lee, said he was “triggered” by Chappelle’s jokes about transgender and homeless people.
Chappelle has been accused of transphobia in his stand-up act. Critics even pressured Netflix to dump the comedian, though the streaming service, which paid Chappelle tens of millions of dollars to air his specials, refused.
Rogan on Tuesday lamented the fact that it was once liberals who were “pro-free speech” and “open to other people’s ideas.”
He said that in years past, it was the right that was acting like a “suppressive, nanny state, condemn[ing] certain behaviors … that’s not the case today.”
“Today the left has gone so far left, so radical that the right are the ones celebrating comedians, celebrating Chappelle,” Rogan said.
The podcaster said it was ironic that he was being backed by the right considering that he holds liberal views.
“I’m so liberal. I talk about it all the time,” Rogan said.
“I am not a conservative, but I am pro-Second Amendment, and I am a hunter, and I am a cage fighting commentator, and I drink, and I smoke cigars, and I like to bow hunt.”
Rogan said the pandemic “opened my eyes to human nature” — especially after people who received stimulus checks and unemployment insurance from the government were reluctant to find work once the lockdowns were lifted.
Rogan, who signed an exclusive licensing deal with Spotify in 2020 for an estimated $200 million, commands an estimated audience of some 11 million listeners.
His tenure on Spotify has been controversial as critics accuse him of giving a wide platform to vaccine skeptics and others who have questioned coronavirus lockdown measures.
Grunge rock legend Neil Young pulled his songs from Spotify in protest of Rogan’s presence on the streaming service — as have other artists including Ava DuVernay, Joni Mitchell, Nils Lofgren, India Arie, Graham Nash, David Crosby and Stephen Stills.
Rogan has also come under fire for interviews with conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.
Nonetheless, Spotify management has resisted calls to terminate its arrangement with Rogan.