During a recent episode of the Joe Rogan Experience, podcaster and comedian Joe Rogan spoke with fellow comedian Akaash Singh about, in part, CNN. Rogan brought up the network’s coverage of him during Covid and pointed out that the channel has, despite its massive staff, far fewer listeners and watchers than he does.
As background, Rogan fought with CNN in 2021 over its coverage of his medical prescriptions during Covid, namely Ivermectin, an anti-parasite drug that some claimed was helpful for treating Covid patients, which the MSM referred to as horse medicine. Further, CNN, according to Rogan, shifted the tint of a video of him to make him look more sickly, a claim CNN denied and the Associated Press claimed there was no evidence for.
Speaking to Singh about why he wasn’t worried about CNN’s ridiculous coverage of him during that Covid situation, Rogan argued that he has a far larger audience than the legacy network. He said, explaining his position of strength, “They didn’t understand that I have way more people that listen to my podcast than they have, way more.”
Later, torching CNN for what he alleges was manipulation of his video to make him look worse, Rogan said, “That’s crazy if you think you’re going to make me look yellow. Like, the video’s still on my Instagram, you fucking idiots. Everybody can see what I really looked like.”
He continued, explaining that, thanks to CNN and other media outlets like it, people still think he took “veterinary medicine,” saying, “There’s still people who think I took veterinary medicine. There’s still people that think I was an idiot for taking ivermectin.”
Continuing, and explaining why the network’s coverage was so problematic, Rogan said, “There’s a bunch of people, they’re surface-level readers, they read headlines, they watch a quick clip on CNN. That’s their consumption of media. But most people are not like that anymore. Most people have a real keen understanding that these people are viciously corrupt and coordinated.”
Watch them here:
This wasn’t the first time Rogan has attacked CNN. Speaking about former CNN host Brian Stelter in 2022 when talking with British political commentator Douglas Murray, Rogan said, “His pattern of communication is so strange. It’s like, do you listen to other people?” He continued, before imitating and mocking Stelter, “They talk very differently from you.”
Then Rogan joked about CNN’s ill-fated “CNN+” streaming service attempt, which has since been shuttered after costing CNN millions upon millions of dollars. Rogan, mocking them for the failed effort, said, “They spent $300 million dollars and got 10,000 subscribers.”
He continued, ridiculing the network’s attitude as shown by the matter, “Imagine the hubris of thinking that something people don’t want for free, you’re gonna charge money for it.” And, explaining why he’s uninterested in even the programs of the better hosts, he said, “Jake Tapper seems like a great guy, but I feel like I don’t have to pay for his book club.”
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video
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