Popular yet controversial podcast host Joe Rogan has made headlines yet again for his recent tirade against CNN.
The intense criticism of the mainstream media outlet was sparked by comments from Stephen Colbert on a recent segment of his “Late Show,” during which the host said that CNN was “objective.” When interviewing an anchor at the outlet, Kaitlan Collins, on August 12, Colbert said in all seriousness that he “know[s]” the journalists at CNN are “objective” and “just report the news.”
His comment sparked laughter from the audience, to which he clarified that his line was not “supposed to be” entertaining. Just two days later, the incident made it onto “The Joe Rogan Experience,” where the host was interviewing stand-up comedian Adam Ray.
On the podcast, Rogan instructed his producer to show the clip from Colbert’s show “from the beginning” and on the “big screen,” saying it was “so preposterous” it needed to be viewed in that setting. The host then said that the live audience’s reaction to laugh at the comment about CNN’s so-called unbiased journalism is a sign that society has become “crazy.”
Rogan went off, saying it was “hilarious” that the crowd assumed Colbert’s comment was “a joke.” According to him, the mainstream outlet has replaced the integrity of journalism with financial gain. The host explained that a business which operates in this way ends up “ruined” because consumers will be led to believe that it is “full of sh**” instead of doing upright reporting that gained respect from the public.
However, he pointed out, the path of integrity and honesty would not have resulted in “as much money,” sarcastically saying that they had to “get those ads in.”
And this is not the first time that Rogan has criticized mainstream media. In 2023, when speaking with neuroscientist Andrew Huberman during a podcast episode, the host described the entire field of dominant media as “corrupt.” The two men got into a discussion about how the media shapes the narrative of a given issue and portrays it to the public through a certain lens—such as controversies surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic.
At the time, Rogan said that society would be “in a pickle” if “independent journalism” were not a thing. He lamented the reality that plenty of people “got duped” by large corporations in the medical and military industries which are focused on “getting one narrative out.”
CNN, for its part, became notoriously left-wing while Donald Trump was in the White House. The primetime programs during those four years were largely opposed to the former president. Notably, Jim Acosta, who used to work for the outlet as a White House reporter, gained a reputation for routinely butting heads with the administration.
This led to Trump describing CNN as a “fake news” outlet—an opinion which, as demonstrated by the audience laughter when Colbert described it as “objective,” is not such an uncommon view.
