Posted in: Opinion, streaming, TV, TV | Tagged: dwayne johnson, Joe Rogan, opinion, podcasts, spotify, the rock

The Rock Offers Joe Rogan Some Spotify Love & Pimps Tequila

Did we ever mention how we think it's kinda "The Manchurian Candidate" creepy that Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson has a show on NBC where he's telling his life story based on the premise that he's running for office? And that Johnson gets to control the narrative so if he ever really does run for office, people can say, "Look, the dude's an open book!" without folks knowing that it's Johnson controlling the narrative? But hey, good for him for getting a chance to tell his life story his way to the world in prime time. But then he goes and posts support for Spotify's podcast master of manipulative misinformation Joe Rogan and … yeah. For those who missed the news yesterday (check it out below), Rogan posted a 10-minute video where the host claimed that he's looking to "do my best in the future to balance things out" in response to artists like Neil Young pulling their music over Spotify's lack of action when it comes to the COVID misinformation that gets spewed during Rogan's show as well as new content warnings & advisories that the streamer is implementing. Now while we're fairly certain that Rogan's 10-minute video amounted to 9:58 of nothing, apparently The Rock found something in those two minutes to hang his support on (and use to pimp his tequila company).

Here's a look at Johnson's show of love & respect for Rogan via Instagram, with a vague promise of appearing one day on Rogan's adorably deadly gabfest to share some tequila… BROUGHT TO YOU BY TEREMANA TEQUILA! ("Teremana Tequila. The tequila so smooth it might just cure COVID. We're not saying it does, but we're sure we can find someone with a "Dr" attached to their name to say it is on the show. Because it's all about "differing opinions," people!").

Now here's a look back at Rogan's video from yesterday, which seems to be filled with a whole lot of words but none that are strung together in any way that makes sense or would make any kind of difference (though Wall Street sure fell in love again with Spotify this week, not long after Spotify that they would start putting content "band-aids" on misinformation "bullet wounds"). Following that, a look back at our thoughts on what Rogan's acolytes think he did as opposed to what he did (or didn't) do:

Of course, it doesn't take long before you realize that the video isn't really an admission of anything or an attempt to do things differently. That becomes clear when Rogan explains that he posted the video "because there's a lot of people that have a distorted perception of what I do, maybe based on sound bites or based on headlines of articles that are disparaging." Yeah, you can feel the "I'm the victim" creeping in. I mean, it's tough to claim you've seen the light when you still refer to two tinfoilers as "very highly credentialed, very intelligent, very accomplished" (no names, they don't deserve the free press). In fact, Rogan takes issue with his podcast being labeled as promoting misinformation, claiming that "many of the things we thought of as mission a short while ago is now thought of as fact." One huge problem with that. If you throw out 100 batshit crazy theories and that one barely sticks, you don't get to brag about the one when 99 others are stinking up the room.

But Rogan knows what's best, vowing to right the wrongs people are perceiving his show as perpetuating by… having more guests on with even more opinions?! Well, he would be "open" to the idea: "If there's anything that I've done that I could do better, it's having more experts with differing opinions right after I have the controversial ones. I would most certainly be open to doing that. And I would like to talk to some people who have differing opinions on the podcasts in the future." To be clear? It's not about getting rid of the crackpots… it's about having more crackpots for people to choose from. But hey, if you're upset then just imagine how Rogan feels. I mean, how did he know being handed a microphone, being paid tons of cash, and given access to millions of people around the world would result in something where his words would have meaning and he would actually have to take responsibility for what he says and does? Try walking in Rogan's shoes, people! All the man wanted was a little show that featured him "talking to some friends." How could he know that it would become "some out-of-control juggernaut" that he would "barely have control of"? I mean, you act like he's the one on the mic or that it's his name in the title, The Joe Rogan Experience.

So what did we learn today, kids? Joe Rogan knows what's best for Joe Rogan now please stop hurting his feelings.

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