Co-host of ABC’s The View, Whoopi Goldberg, has been suspended by the network for two weeks following her assertion that the Holocaust was not “about race.” Podcaster Joe Rogan’s future remains uncertain as calls for Spotify to boot him from the platform over alleged COVID misinformation continue unabated. For Goldberg, the slap on the wrist will almost certainly be followed by a warm homecoming, but for Rogan, it seems the same rules will not apply.
A Career Hiccup
"Well, this is white people doing it to white people, so y'all gonna fight amongst yourselves," Goldberg said of the Holocaust during Monday's show. "If you're going to do this, then let's be truthful about it because the Holocaust isn't about race." The host further argued that the Nazi ideology was about "man's inhumanity to man" and said it involved "two white groups of people."
Goldberg is no stranger to controversy. From downplaying Roman Polanski’s abuse scandal – “it’s not rape, rape” – to admitting to writing Ted Danson’s blackface routine for a Friar’s Club roast in 1993, she has often provoked public indignation. In this heightened modern climate of offense and cancellation, ABC had little choice but to rebuke her.
"Effective immediately, I am suspending Whoopi Goldberg for two weeks for her wrong and hurtful comments," ABC News president Kim Godwin wrote in a statement. She continued:
"While Whoopi has apologized, I've asked her to take time to reflect and learn about the impact of her comments … The entire ABC News organization stands in solidarity with our Jewish colleagues, friends, family and communities."
A time for reflection and two weeks vacation, and Goldberg will be back co-hosting with all sins forgiven. But this is not an option being offered to the world’s most popular podcast host.
Not So Fast, Joe
After hosting guests who questioned the narrative surrounding COVID-19, the legacy media launched a full-scale assault against Rogan, demanding that he be censored and removed from the Spotify platform. Rogan released a video explaining that he will endeavor to have a more balanced range of guests on his show and that he has agreed to have “advisory” notices attached to any podcasts that may cause controversy.
The Joe Rogan Experience podcast has a long history of inviting guests with differing views. It has hosted Alex Jones, but also CNN’s Chief Medical Correspondent Sanjay Gupta. And Rogan himself frequently takes moments on the show to try and fact-check his guests in real-time.
But it seems the road to redemption is not a level playing field.
No Way Back?
CNN’s Brian Stelter reacted to Rogan’s promise of more diverse opinions by decrying how little trust the public placed in shows like his own. He said:
"[N]ot all opinions are created equal. You think about major newsrooms like CNN that have health departments and desks and operations that work hard on verifying 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.
"And because figures like Rogan are trusted by people that don’t trust real newsrooms, we have a tension, a problem, that's much bigger than Spotify, much bigger than any single platform."
So for Stelter, Rogan can’t be redeemed because he is trusted by people who do not trust CNN.
Joy Behar, another View host, lamented Rogan’s apology and decreed that it certainly would not be enough to achieve redemption. She pondered on the show, "Hasn't he been also chastised and corrected and then just goes back to his craziness again?" "I mean, I don't know that he can be reformed," she added.
It appears that no matter what Rogan does, whether it is apologizing or taking corrective steps to ensure a range of views are presented on his show, some media voices are unwilling to let go of their condemnation. But for Whoopi Goldberg, her penance will likely be complete in just a couple of weeks.
Joe Rogan (Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC)
The White House has also weighed in on the Rogan issue. During Jen Psaki’s press briefing on Tuesday, February 1, she noted that, "Our hope is that all major tech platforms — and all major news sources for that matter — be responsible and be vigilant to ensure the American people have access to accurate information on something as significant as COVID-19 … That certainly includes Spotify."
"So this disclaimer, it's a positive step, but we want every platform to continue doing more to call out misinformation while also uplifting accurate information," she added.
Why the Disparity?
Joe Rogan racks up an estimated 11 million views per episode, whereas, according to the 2021 third quarter Nielsen ratings, CNN doesn’t even break a million. Perhaps the heart of the issue is that Rogan has built a platform that gives him a larger voice than those in the legacy media; he is a challenge to both the Fourth Estate's hegemony and profits. On the other hand, Goldberg is a pillar of support for the dominant narrative.
This was never about acceptable opinions. It is about who gets to control the information the public is permitted to see. Rogan’s format is a long-form conversation that often lasts more than three hours. His opponents want to reduce conversations to little more than pre-packaged soundbites in which only experts approved by the networks hold sway.
At stake is not merely who gets punished and who does not, but whether free speech can still exist and whether the American public will be trusted to make its own decisions on the facts presented.
~ Read more from Mark Angelides.
