Attackers swooped in once again to try to take Joe Rogan off Spotify. Only this time it wasn’t the Covidians; it was race hustlers who found old videos of him making racial slurs.

Or was it really? There’s more behind this attack — it’s all the machinations of a leftwing Super PAC.

Joe Rogan and Racist Comments

Over the weekend a video surfaced showing Rogan using racial slurs and uttering the N-word. The singer India Arie shared the video, then also threatened to remove her music from Spotify. However, another group, Patriot Takes, posted the video over a week ago at Twitter. It’s heavily edited, making it quite jarring to watch, but here it is:

https://twitter.com/patriottakes/status/1487805512561266688?s=20&t=v1Rj2u35aKSIvWCPHsQLAQ

So how did Joe Rogan respond? He confessed his crimes:

“It’s a video that’s made of clips taken out of context of me of 12 years of conversations on my podcast, and it’s all smushed together, and it looks [expletive] horrible, even to me. I know that to most people, there’s no context where a white person is ever allowed to say that word, never mind publicly, on a podcast, and I agree with that now.”

“It’s not my word to use. I’m well aware of that now, but for years I used it in that manner. I never used it to be racist, because I’m not racist.”

Rogan then requested that Spotify remove over 100 episodes of his podcasts — episodes which he made before coming onboard with the streaming service.

And As For Spotify. . .

And as for Spotify — well, their response was a mixed bag.

The service honored Rogan’s wish to remove those episodes. It also committed $100 million to add more material from “marginalized” groups. However, CEO Daniel Ek refused to take Joe Rogan off their lineup; after all, he’s their star and makes them lots of money.

But then Ek groveled before his staff in a memo, apologizing “deeply” for hurting their feelings. You can find the full text of Ek’s bowing and scraping at this Twitter thread.

“There are no words I can say to adequately convey how deeply sorry I am for the way The Joe Rogan Experience controversy continues to impact each of you. Not only are some of Joe Rogan’s comments incredibly hurtful – I want to make clear that they do not represent the values of this company.” 

Oh stop. No one at Spotify is damaged beyond repair by Rogan’s vulgar language. As National Review‘s Charles Cooke wrote: If Spotify’s Staff Can’t Cope with Running a Content Library, They Should Find Another Job. 

The Joe Rogan Attack Was Slick and Professional

If you think that some no-name media user just happened to stumble on these old podcasts, think again. This attack was slick and professional.

The Free Press Report, which publishes at Substack, has unearthed the dirty dealings, and they all go back to a leftwing SuperPAC.

So here’s how it all went down.

First, we have the group Patriot Takes — which sounds conservative but don’t let the name fool you — which dropped that video which I posted above. Later the group pinned its response to Joe Rogan at the top of its Twitter feed. Here’s that response:

Screenshot: patriotone.substack.com. 

Plus, if you look at the description at the home page of Patriot Takes they claim that they’re partnered with “Meidas Touch.” So who is Meidas Touch?

The faces behind @MeidasTouch include three brothers: Ben, Brett, and Jordan Meiselas. All three have deep connections to the entertainment industry, especially since father Kenny Meiselas is a high-powered music attorney. Meiselas represents Sean “Diddy” Combs, Lady Gaga, Lizzo, and the Weeknd, among others.

As for the brothers: Ben is a litigator who represents Colin Kaepernick; Brett is a video editor who formerly worked with Ellen Degeneres; and Jordan is an executive with a branding and marketing firm. It’s highly likely that they dug up Rogan’s videos and compiled them into that slick, heavily edited video.

Meidas Touch is a SuperPAC

According to Variety, in October of 2020, the three Meiselas brothers were releasing “razor sharp viral videos” that slammed Donald Trump on a daily basis. And those videos are the work of. . .

“. . . Meidas Touch, a political action committee formed earlier this year (2020) by brothers Ben, Brett, and Jordan Meiselas. . .”

So what does a Super PAC do? Well, according to Open Secrets:

“. . .super PACs may raise unlimited sums of money from corporations, unions, associations and individuals, then spend unlimited sums to overtly advocate for or against political candidates.”

Super PACs also work against voices they don’t agree with, apparently. And considering that Meidas Touch partners with Patriot Takes, they very likely worked together to attack Joe Rogan with that video.

But that’s not all. There is a petition at MoveOn.org which demands that Spotify remove Joe Rogan. Curiously, Twitter users are posting pre-made scripts to call for Rogan to be canceled which all say the same thing: 

“It’s time for @Spotify to be accountable to listeners and stop the spread of disinformation on the platform. $SPOT shares are down ~30% & they’ve lost $4B in market value in the past few  days. Sign the petition if you agree Spotify needs to #DropJoeRogan.”

That’s not organic. And who’s behind it? Probably the Meidas Touch Super PAC.

The Threat to Joe Rogan is a Threat To All

So why are Patriot Takes and Meidas Touch out to get Joe Rogan? Simply put — they don’t like what Rogan says. But more than that, if these two manage to take out Rogan, they not only gain a lot of monetizable clout, they can easily go after other fish. After all, as Free Press Report put it: The group that can say “we cancelled Rogan. If we can get him, we can get you too.”

The shocking comments that Joe Rogan made on his podcasts years ago are immaterial here. What matters is that this cancel crowd will not stop. Rogan may have been nicked up a bit, yet he’s still on Spotify. But the Left plays the long game: they may not be able to take out a rogue voice like Joe Rogan now, but they won’t stop until he’s gone. And when they do, they’ll go after some other poor sap with whom they disagree. If they can eventually silence Rogan, they can silence any of us.

Featured image: Do512/flickr/cropped/CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.