Image credit: Joe Rogan
One’s role as a public figure is to speak to their audience and create new fans. They do this through public appearances, social media, influencing, and other forms of effective public relations. As a public figure, it is one’s job to stay away from misinformation or saying things that could influence the public view. During the global pandemic, COVID-19, many celebrities and public figures ruined their reputation by spreading misinformation, flaunting political narratives, and causing fear or false contentment to their audience. In particular, content creators such as social media influencers, podcast hosts, and news hosts used their platforms to often spread false information regarding the pandemic, vaccines, or social distancing. Joe Rogan, on his hit podcast The Joe Rogan Experience, was found spreading misinformation about vaccines and the effect of the pandemic on young people. This issue created a plethora of problems with the general public and led to Joe Rogan eventually getting “canceled.” Scientists called this a "sociological issue of devastating proportions" (Bond, 2022), and warned that influencers such as Rogan were a detriment to the mindset of the population.
Joe Rogan’s choice to spread misinformation about the COVID-19 vaccines and their effectiveness, as well as emphasizing that the younger population is unaffected by this pandemic, was morally unethical. As the entire world had suffered from this devastating pandemic, he was creating narratives that could lead to widespread mistrust of science officials. This creates two major groups in the listening population: those who are falsely comforted by the idea that they won't have to worry about the virus and those with health concerns who are worried about resuming normal. This problem also leads other public figures and the general public to believe the misinformation and spread it themselves. Each ethical issue combined created a mass anger surrounding Rogan and his podcast.
National Public Radios (NPR) reporter Shannon Bond reported on the ethical issues surrounding the episode of the Joe Rogan podcast, and what it shows about the misinformation system as a whole. Through his inclusion of a doctor who had false doubts about the mRNA vaccines, he used scientific authority figures to help spread his unethical narrative. “We are in a global health emergency, and streaming platforms like Spotify that provide content to the public have a responsibility not to add to the problem” (Bond, 2022). This article drew attention to the importance and ethical responsibility of a company to regulate such misinformation and to lead with a duty to give the general public the correct information without encroaching on freedom of speech.
The Independent, a non-partisan news source, reported on this event and focused on the doctor's presence and its effect on the population as a whole. The doctor apparently claimed that “health officials withheld the treatment to COVID-19” (Sharp, 2021), which was proven to be false. This is unethical not only because it is misinformation but because this could cause widespread chaos and anger. Such information could cause riots, protests, and acts of violence towards health officials and members of the government. During such an emotionally charged international health crisis, sharp claims that this could have spread panic and mistrust to the officials that were helping the globe.
The business insider's reporter, Gabby Landsverk, kept track of each misinformative fact spread by Rogan in his famed podcast. In this podcast, he made six general statements about the pandemic that contradicted the advice from medical professionals. This unethically clouds the online information pool and causes a mixed mindset by many of his listeners. He approaches the matter from the standpoint of someone trying to spread the “truth” and offers up many false reports and data to support his claims. The six times he misinformed his audience caused lies by word of mouth and created a population of science doubters.
Overall, while Joe Rogan’s podcast has been a hit since its creation and still likely has many loyal listeners, his spreading of misinformation about the COVID-19 pandemic significantly hurt his public image. Not only were his claims unethical, but they also created mass media coverage that drew people to listen to the false information he spread. By doing this, he lied to the general public and created drama in a time of world chaos and tragedy.
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