Joe Rogan's apology 🎙️

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Joe Rogan's apology 🎙️

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Tonight: My default state of ignoring Joe Rogan is upended by legit news we have to cover. I apologize in advance. Let's get into it.

By Allison Morrow

🎙️ SPOTIFY SCANDAL

Spotify made an estimated $100 million bet on a Covid-skeptic who dabbles in conspiracy theories when it secured exclusive rights to "The Joe Rogan Experience" in 2020. Now the streaming company is finding out just how much of a liability its star podcaster can be.

In case you missed it: Late last week, Neil Young and other artists began pulling their music from Spotify, protesting the streaming platform's most popular host, Joe Rogan. The artists' backlash came in response to a letter from 270 medical experts who wrote that Spotify is "allowing the propagation of false and societally harmful assertions" from Rogan and his guests.

If you're not familiar with Rogan, here's a brief look at what the medical community is angry about:

Rogan recently hosted Robert Malone, a doctor who was suspended from Twitter for spreading Covid misinformation. Malone used the show to promote several baseless claims, the medical experts said, including several misleading or false statements about vaccines and an unfounded theory known as "mass formation psychosis," which suggests that much of the population has been hypnotized to follow Covid protocols.
Rogan has also endorsed using ivermectin, a de-worming medicine used in livestock, despite repeated warnings from US health officials that ivermectin is not only an unproven defense but a potentially harmful one. (When unvaccinated Aaron Rodgers contracted Covid, he said he consulted with his pal Joe Rogan on using the drug.)
The host also said he believes — and again, this is demonstrably false — that younger people who exercise and eat healthy don't need to get vaccinated and have little to worry about if they become infected with Covid.
His guests' commentaries are so full of nonsense they're hardly worth debunking (though if you're interested, that debunking exists courtesy of CNN, the Associated Press, CNBC, NPR, and many others.

SPOTIFY'S RESPONSE

On Sunday, the company said it was adding a "content advisory" to episodes that mention Covid that will direct listeners to trusted sources on Covid-19. Spotify also publicly posted its Platform Rules.

In other words, as Recode's Peter Kafka summed it up: "Nothing is changing."

ROGAN'S 'APOLOGY'

It's a classic "I'm sorry you were offended" celebrity apology.

"If I've pissed you off, I'm sorry," Rogan said in a nine-minute Instagram video Monday.

Another classic from the Book of Disingenuous Deflection and Spin:

"I'm not trying to promote misinformation … I've never tried to do anything with this podcast other than just talk to people and have interesting conversations."

MY TWO CENTS

Rogan has often insulated himself from critics by positioning himself as a simpleton who's just asking questions.

It's the "I'm just a regular guy" defense, in which he casts himself as the One Courageous Soul willing to ask the hard questions that the lamestream media isn't willing to touch. (Psst, hey, Joe — mainstream media lemming here. The reason we don't put people like Doc Malone on air is because their Covid opinions have been widely discredited and could endanger public health. We practice this thing called journalism, which involves vetting sources and speaking to a range of experts before putting their ideas on blast. HMU if you want to know more.)

And that simpleton defense comes with something of a wink and nod to his followers, who tend to take his word as gospel. After all, it is the irreverent, ostensibly anti-establishment hot takes that have made him rich and famous. His lucrative Spotify deal speaks to, as the New York Times put it, "the durable allure of convincing people they are listening to something subversive and undiluted."

#️⃣ NUMBER OF THE DAY

$5,000

Elon Musk, the world's richest person by a mile, offered a 19-year-old college freshman a measly $5,000 to take down a Twitter account that tracks Musk's private jet. Jack Sweeney, who runs the @ElonJet account, politely told Musk to take a walk. Sweeney countered, asking for $50,000 to help pay for school and maybe even a Tesla. Musk apparently balked at the sum, saying it didn't feel right to "pay to shut this down."

So, in summary, Musk is worried about "being shot by a nutcase," but only enough to spend 5,000 bucks. In regular-people terms, that's about three-tenths of one penny, according to my colleague Chris Isidore, who did the math based on the average American household's net worth versus Musk's astronomical $222 billion net worth.

🥤 SAVE TAB

Coca-Cola has put some of its most beloved (but least profitable) products on the chopping block. No one is more outraged than the Tab stans. And they're fighting to keep their weird diet drink alive.

Tab devotees who've been stockpiling the soda for years say Coke made the wrong call, my colleague Danielle Wiener-Bronner writes. They say sales lagged because Coca-Cola neglected the brand, letting it linger without advertising for decades. A little marketing and a little appeal to 80s nostalgia, and who knows how popular it could be…

Probably not popular enough for Coke to keep it alive, tbh. The artificially sweetened, zero-calorie soda has been described as" bitter" and "like bad medicine," with a metallic aftertaste. It was heavily marketed to women in the late 70s and 80s — you can just imagine the Mad Men-like scene with the young designer saying "let's make the can bright pink!"

Once Diet Coke came along in 1982, with its perfect flavor profile, Tab sales dropped. Finally, in 2020, Coke said it was culling some 200 underperforming products, including Tab.

Diehards have formed the SaveTabSoda Committee, which is encouraging fans to bombard Coca-Cola's customer service line with (polite) phone calls and to send notes to Coca-Cola's leadership team.

A petition to bring back Tab has garnered nearly 1,100 signatures, and the committee is currently raising money for billboards in Atlanta that will blast its message to passing motorists and any Coke executives who drive by.

It's a long shot, but we here at Nightcap applaud the passion.

A Coca-Cola spokesperson said discontinuing Tab was a tough call, but there are no plans to bring it back. Ah, well. As a wise man (was it Dr. Seuss? The internet can't be sure) once said, "don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened."

WHAT ELSE IS GOING ON?

🧩 New O-W-N-E-R: Wordle, the no-frills daily puzzle that has charmed the internet, was acquired by the New York Times for a price "in the low seven figures"

🎮 Sony is acquiring Bungie, the video game studio that created hit franchises such as "Halo" and "Destiny," in a $3.6 billion deal that further centralizes the rapidly consolidating game industry.

📚 Within weeks of a Tennessee school district moving to ban "Maus," the Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel depicting the horrors of the Holocaust, readers are propelling it to the top of best seller lists.

🇨🇳 China is facing an economic crisis after a real estate boom ended with a bang last year, says billionaire George Soros.

🍕 Domino's, facing a shortage of workers, will tip you $3 if you choose carryout over delivery.