During a recent segment of “The View,” co-host Joy Behar claimed that podcasting legend Joe Rogan was a “dragon believer” when the ABC panel went on a tirade against non-mainstream media news sources that are growing in relevance. Particularly with Rogan, many have argued he played an outsized role in the election with his critically acclaimed interview with Donald Trump, undermining the authority of legacy news outlets.
After co-host Sarah Haines claimed that foreign adversaries had been infiltrating social media networks to sow division, Behar opined that was why people liked “The View.” Behar said, “I think that that’s why people like our show, because they know that we are checked by ABC News,” suggesting this implies trustworthiness.
Behar continued, “We went from Walter Cronkite, basically, to this guy, Joe Rogan, who believes in dragons. I checked it. He believes in dragons. He believes in dragons …. And he also thinks that dragons, like, I guess, dinosaur type of animals roamed the earth when people did.” Using this supposed belief in mythical creatures, Behar discredited Rogan’s platform. “So this is the type of really, really bad information that’s going out,” she said.
The dissenting conservative voice on the panel, Alyssa Farah Griffin, pushed back and noted that not all forms of decentralized independent media were negative. “There are some really good news kind of influencer types,” she said. “And I think it’s great that they’re getting information about global and current events in front of younger people who maybe don’t tune into traditional media.”
However, Griffin said there should be some standards applied to these new sources of information. “But to Sarah’s point, there has to be some fact-checking and actual verification of the things that are shared, because I spent a lot of time on Instagram reels, and I’m served up things that I get outraged about, and then I realize, Oh, that’s not even true, but I have the sense to go and look it up.”
Griffin then worried about further polarization occurring along political lines as people dive into their respective echo chambers. Speaking about the advent of the platform Blue Sky, which has drawn liberal irritated with Elon Musk, the co-host said, “But what I do worry about with this, like the blue sky versus X, because a lot of people I follow on X Twitter have now left to go to Blue Sky. I worry we’re all going into our own echo chamber.”
Whoopi Goldberg then chimed in, “Unfortunately, I will have to say the other side I think has driven people away because you it’s, you know, it’s not just discourse, it’s nasty name calling coming after your family, and I’m going to do this to you, and I don’t think anyone should have to take that from anybody if they don’t have to. So I’m not, and I think a lot of Republicans who also are getting that because they have opinions that may differ from what is being said, they’re moving as well because, you know, and I know why, also because, you know, as I believe, Elon Musk is the actual vice president.”
Watch Behar attack Rogan below:
Note: The featured image is a screenshot from the embedded video.
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