Nobody asked me, but in my opinion, this whole Joe Rogan/Spotify controversy is not simply a First Amendment issue regarding the right to speak one’s mind. It is so much more than that.
It’s not like Rogan and I disagree on foreign policy or what to do about Ukraine or how to balance the federal budget. This is about the world’s largest podcast with 11 million listeners spewing lies, distortions and misinformation about a deadly pandemic that is killing hundreds of thousands of people – and getting millions to believe what he says.
For example, from what I’ve read (I’m not a follower), Rogan actively discourages young people from getting the Covid vaccine. He has also promoted the use of the horse dewormer Ivermectin to treat Covid-19 symptoms, although there is limited evidence to support its efficacy as a Covid treatment, and in spite of the fact that ingesting it can lead to serious side effects including dizziness and uncontrolled vomiting.
Rogan’s podcast has also featured many discredited physicians and academics who have spoken out against the vaccine, including a cardiologist who inaccurately claimed that Covid vaccines are “experimental” and that the pandemic was “planned.” That’s just for starters. I could go on, but I won’t.
For all of that, Rogan has been called a “menace to public health” by a noted epidemiologist, while other medical and scientific experts call his track record of airing false claims about the coronavirus pandemic “a sociological issue of devastating proportions.”
Spotify, they say, has enabled him, prompting an open letter from more than a thousand doctors, scientists and health professionals urging the audio streaming and media services provider to crack down on Covid misinformation.
For those reasons, among others, I applaud Neil Young and Joni Mitchell for pulling their music catalogs in protest. They refuse to share a platform with a dubious propaganda machine. Spotify was presented with a choice between retaining the music of two rock and roll legends or promoting an agent provocateur who spouts dangerous misinformation – and they made the wrong choice.
A former reporter and editor, I’m a staunch supporter of the First Amendment, but it only guarantees that the government won’t pass laws to stifle free speech. It doesn’t regulate the marketplace where citizens can decide what to hear and what to believe. The argument that this is a free speech issue is right-wing propaganda and spin. In truth, the First Amendment doesn’t give anyone the right to talk other people into their own deaths.
Like Joni and Neil, that’s something I can’t support.
