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On Dec. 21, 2023, Joe Rogan, a popular podcaster, insinuated that Joe Biden is mentally unfit to serve as president of the United States. To defend his claim, Rogan said that President Biden had said there had been “airports” during the American Revolution.
As Rogan continued to warn his listeners that “the media” was misleading them, his own team fact-checked him live, revealing that it was former President Donald Trump, not Biden, who made public comments about taking over airports in the American Revolutionary War.
Straight Arrow News contributor Jordan Reid flags Rogan’s gaffe as a perfect example of how disinformation spreads. Reid argues that Rogan, who apparently declined to fact-check this rumor before sharing it with his listeners, is himself “the media” that Americans should be concerned about.
Trump! Trump thought that airports existed during the Revolutionary War! Now, to their very partial credit, Rogan and his guests acknowledge, eventually, at the end of the segment, that they were wrong, okay, but then couched that statement: “I mean, you know, Trump messed up his words. And, you know, I guess you got to look into media…” You guys! You are currently the media that people have got to look into!
And by the way, people make mistakes. If you’re constantly talking in front of massive crowds, you’ll make a few gaffes. Biden definitely does.
But I do not know how a thinking human being could even begin to compare the two when it comes to whether they’re like, okay to run the country. Trump frequently appears to believe, because he says so, that he is running against Obama. He confuses Nikki Haley and Nancy Pelosi. He brags about correctly identifying whales. I’m losing my voice even more because I’m so upset about this.
The reason I draw your attention to this particular example, though, in which Joe Rogan confidently makes a false claim about Biden, one that, by the way, absolutely would speak to his cognitive abilities, and does speak to the cognitive abilities of the man who actually made the statement — but the reason I draw your attention to this clip is because if, like I would imagine most Rogen viewers, you didn’t take the time to watch the entire clip from start to beginning, or maybe you get your information from wherever Rogen got his information, and don’t take the time to follow the source.
You’re going to think that Joe Biden thought that there were airports during the Revolutionary War. You’re going to laugh about it with your friends. You’re going to spread the story. They’ll spread it further. No one will fact-check. And this is just one episode of one podcast, one in which they ultimately sort of clear up their error. Imagine what else is out there.
