> That's the thing though. Joe doesn't see himself as a credible news source, a voice of a movement, or any of those other things because accuse him of
When you have an audience numbering in the millions, and have a long term presence (unlike old school radio), you are a news source, whether you like it or not.
And you have a responsibility to be careful with your words, whether you want it or not.
In this age of boundless social media, where what is true, what is false and what is mis-leading is non-existent, it is pertinent for people like JRE to absolutely not go into topic they don't know or knowledgeable about.
I would really like to see him bring on Dr. Fauci, and have a good listen to him.
He recently did a full podcast with CNN's chief medical correspondent Dr Sanjay Gupta. I'd imagine Dr Fauci would be welcomed as well to the show.
Joe's conversation with Dr Sanjay covered a variety of topics (Covid, marijuana policy, CNNs representation of Joe). On all these topics Dr Sanjay was definitely given an opportunity to make his argument - and I believe he probably reached a good number of people through Joe's platform.[1]
It is unfortunate that CNN's unprofessional representation of Joe's personal experience with Covid sucked up so much of the conversation around the episode. Dr Sanjay wasnt a part of this (until after the podcast...) And on the podcast he also took issue with CNN's coverage. Obviously this didn't go well over at CNN and I truly felt bad for Dr Sanjay being publicly steamrolled by the networks own talking heads in the days after. [2]
On their Covid discussion Joe raised some points that he has spoken about in other forums - they shouldn't surprise anyone. Primary among them are how we should account for natural immunity, clarity on the risk of side effects for children versus the risk of Covid, and treatments beyond vaccines (which given how frequently breakthru cases occur should be important conversation for pro/hesitant/anti vax alike).
These are things that Dr Sanjay (or Dr Fauci) should be able to have a meaningful discussion around. Dr Sanjay did a good job in my opinion (and his own opinion [3]) Honestly I think the feedback that talking heads should not speak with authority they don't have is something Don Lemon needs to reflect on. I think there is general disappointment in the mainstream press for not asking challenging questions and that it is related to the growing distrust of the 4th estate. Today's media has soundbytes, cheer leading puffery, and context free gotchas.
But why? Joe Rogan doesn’t publish news. The podcast is in the form of a conversation between two people. He does talk about current events, just as everybody else does when they have a conversation.
He doesn’t make any claim that is show is anything more than two people chatting. If anyone is using JRE as a trusted news source, then they are an idiot. You can’t stop people from being idiots, nor should we attempt to childproof the entire world on their behalf.
That I agree with, but that wasn't what I meant, and judging from anecdata, not everyone can make that distinction. It's easy to be convinced by presentation rather than content.
> Everyone I've ever talked to that listens to JRE thinks what they say on it is generally correct.
"Generally correct" is a much lower bar than "always correct". It might even be a bar that JRE can pass.
Edit: where they're talking about factual matters I mean, not where they talk about aliens, big foot, and other obviously outlandish ideas where they're clearly just shooting the breeze.
When you have an audience numbering in the millions, and have a long term presence (unlike old school radio), you are a news source, whether you like it or not.
And you have a responsibility to be careful with your words, whether you want it or not.
In this age of boundless social media, where what is true, what is false and what is mis-leading is non-existent, it is pertinent for people like JRE to absolutely not go into topic they don't know or knowledgeable about.
I would really like to see him bring on Dr. Fauci, and have a good listen to him.