The ironic thing about the mainstream media attack on Joe Rogan for allegedly peddling “misinformation” is, some observers may say, that it itself is not at all in the nature misinformation.
It’s more like disinformation.
In fact, the mainstream media becoming indignant about Rogan (or most anyone else) spreading falsehoods is a bit like Kim Jong-un slamming Switzerland for human-rights abuses.
As most know, popular Spotify-hosted podcaster Rogan has been under assault for daring to venture beyond the establishment box. In particular, for interviewing figures such as mRNA-technology pioneer Dr. Robert Malone and renowned COVID-19 physician Dr. Peter McCullough, Rogan has been branded a dangerous purveyor of “misinformation,” which deeply and profoundly offends our Truth-loving media, of course.
Sarcasm aside, what are the real reasons the powers-that-be seek Rogan’s cancellation? Fox News commentator Tucker Carlson weighed in on this last night, first noting the podcaster’s raging success.
“Rogan may be the most popular broadcaster in the English-speaking world right now,” he said. “Every episode of his podcast ‘The Joe Rogan Experience’ reaches about 11 million people, and some of the episodes get an audience many times that.”
Note here that the average show at CNN, which has lost 90 percent of its key demographic viewers during the last year, only reaches about 500,000 people. One can only imagine the insane jealousy the mainstream media (MM) pseudo-elite feel being outshined by a “regular guy” who, obviously, doesn’t know his place.
Carlson then further explained Rogan, and the attack upon him, saying:
Rogan is not a reactionary, unlike most people in the media; he doesn’t think he already knows everything. He’s genuinely curious, and so he lets his guests speak…. When Rogan does talk about politics, it’s pretty clear he’s not an ideologue. He interviews everybody. Liberals and conservatives….
He’s not an expert on politics. He’s not pretending to be one. Rogan just asks questions, and he notes the obvious. It’s this last quality that makes the people in charge hate and fear Joe Rogan. If you’re trying to sell an absurd, obviously untrue idea, it is possible that Joe Rogan is going to call you on it. Not because he’s a partisan; he’s not. But because he just can’t help but notice…. A few months ago, Rogan watched the White House press secretary lie about the FDA’s approval process for Pfizer’s COVID vaccine. So he said something about it.
“Jen Psaki’s talking about misinformation online and combating misinformation,” Rogan could then be heard saying in a clip Carlson played. “She distributed misinformation, because she said that it’s approved by the FDA and their gold standard.”
Carlson then pointed out that Rogan was right in this case — Psaki was lying. This didn’t stop her from calling for Rogan to be censored, however, as part of what is an end run around the First Amendment via use of Big Tech as a speech-stifling proxy.
Referencing a disclaimer issued by Spotify, Psaki could be seen in a Carlson clip saying that “it’s a positive step, but we want every platform to continue doing more to call out misinformation and disinformation, while also uplifting accurate information…. There’s more that can be done.”
Ironic here is that Rogan confessed to possibly having issued misinformation, which is the unintentional spreading of an untruth. Everyone, inside the media and out, is at least occasionally guilty of this because no one is omniscient.
Yet Psaki disgorges disinformation, the deliberate spreading of lies in order to deceive. She’s hardly alone, too.
For example, Carlson also played a clip of CNN’s Brian Stelter, journalism’s answer to George Costanza, tag-teaming with Psaki and saying, “You think about major newsrooms like CNN that have health departments … that work hard on verified information on COVID-19. And then you have talk show stars like Joe Rogan who just wing it, who make it up as they go along…. [So] we have … a problem that’s much bigger than Spotify, much bigger than any single platform.”
That’s rich. It’s not just that CNN and the rest of the MM have gotten COVID-19 wrong all along, either, but that they lie continually.
It was CNN figures, do recall, who were caught on hidden video in 2017 admitting that the Trump/Russia-collusion story was nonsense, but they were pushing it, anyway. And if CNN knew its falsity, so did the rest of the MM.
Then there’s the wholly valid Hunter Biden laptop story. MM interest in it is finally generating now that Joe Biden is a doddering liability. But the entire MM colluded before the 2020 election and called it disinformation, even succeeding in getting Big Tech to censor it, because they wanted to defeat President Trump.
Another example of MM malfeasance was when NBC doctored George Zimmerman’s 911 call to make him appear a “racist”; the network then did something similar again last year. Never mind that such agitation could result in racial revenge attacks (which did occur in the Trayvon Martin shooting’s wake). Eggs for omelets, you know?
But multiple volumes could be filled with such examples, and anyone paying attention knows that MM figures only lie when opening their mouths. The more interesting topic is why they are as they are.
Carlson called Rogan “genuinely curious.” But about what? If you’re curiosity is truly genuine, its object is only one thing: Truth.
And this is why the Left hates Rogan. As a regular guy seeking Truth and often bringing it to a wide audience, he’s the mortal enemy of those whose agenda is built on lies. Understand here, however, that the worst of the people in question don’t reckon lies the way you do (assuming you’re normal).
The average person does lie sometimes, but he also generally accepts that lying is wrong, or at least undesirable, in principle. When he lies (and this isn’t to justify it), he may view it as a necessary or excusable evil or even, awash in relativism, a situational good.
Devoted leftists, however, are often entirely different, so much so that they could be viewed as aliens. To them, the true-untrue distinction is entirely irrelevant, if they view it as existing at all. They have replaced it with a different distinction: that which advances their agenda — and that which doesn’t.
This mentality was explained well in a very insightful 2019 New Criterion essay entitled “Leninthink.” A “true Leninist does not decide whether to lie,” wrote author Gary Saul Morson. “He automatically says what is most useful, with no reflection necessary. That is why he can show no visible signs of mendacity, perhaps even pass a lie detector test.”
Also consider the following quotations from Morson’s piece:
“Opponents objected that Lenin [leader of the Russian Revolution] lied without compunction.”
“Yes, we are contradicting what we said before [stated Lenin] … and when it is useful to reverse positions again, we will.”
“When Mensheviks objected to Lenin’s personal attacks, he replied frankly that his purpose was not to convince but to destroy his opponent.”
“A crime was not an action or omission specified in the formal code, because every ‘socially dangerous’ act (or omission) was automatically criminal.”
“In short, Bolshevik morality holds that whatever contributes to Bolshevik success is moral, whatever hinders it is immoral.”
Sound familiar?
Lenin also stated, “We reject any morality based on extra-human … concepts…. To us there is no such thing as a morality that stands outside human society…. To us morality is subordinated to the interests of the proletariat’s class struggle [our agenda’s interests].”
Again, sound familiar?
As I’ve long pointed out, when people cease believing in God, in Truth, and make everything relative, they ultimately make everything relative to themselves.
Whether in Lenin’s day or ours, evil people proceed the same way: They place their agenda where the Truth should be, at their lives’ center, and define “misinformation” as departure from it.
In other words, when the world’s Psakis and Stelters accuse others of “lying,” it’s possible they’re being honest with you. For when you long ago stopped being honest with yourself and have become the lie, it flows from you with all sincerity.
For those interested, the Tucker Carlson segment on Rogan is below.
