Tucker Carlson on Wednesday jumped to the defense of podcaster Joe Rogan.
The Fox News personality downplayed the rising controversy over COVID and vaccine misinformation amplified on Rogan’s show, saying it mainly came from “D-listers.”
Carlson took particular aim at Meghan Markle and Prince Harry — who have an exclusive production partnership with Spotify, which hosts Rogan show — after they called on the streaming service to “meet this moment” in combating coronavirus misinformation on the platform. They did not mention Rogan or his popular podcast “The Joe Rogan Experience” by name.
Carlson, no stranger to attacking the couple, sneered at “that annoying fake duchess from L.A. and her brain-dead husband.” “But of course, they don’t mean it. They’re not going anywhere,” he continued, calling them “grifters.”
“These two have been paid about a million dollars for each minute of talking they’ve done,” Carlson added, referencing the 35 minutes of content their deal has reportedly created to date. “That’s a good gig. It’s too good to leave.”
Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, India Arie and other artists have pulled their music from Spotify in protest of Rogan’s show.
Rogan apologized on Sunday. Spotify said it would add content advisories to his podcasts on COVID, to which actor Sharon Stone responded: “He should put a disclaimer that he’s an asshole and that his behavior is dangerous.”
