Spotify bosses are ‘nervous’ about firebrand podcaster Joe Rogan’s comments about Jewish people being ‘into money’ as his $200m megadeal with the company comes up for renewal.
The 55-year-old was decrying cancel culture in a January episode of The Joe Rogan Experience when he denounced Republicans for booting Ilhan Omar from the House Foreign Affairs Committee over her past anti-Semitic statements.
He referenced a tweet from 2019, in which Omar spoke out against American support for Israel, saying: ‘It’s all about the Benjamins, baby.’
Omar has since apologized for the tweet and conceded that it was anti-Semitic – but Rogan doubled down and said she should not have done so, claiming: ‘The idea that Jewish people are not into money is ridiculous. That’s like saying Italians aren’t into pizza.’
Almost immediately afterwards, people took to social media to denounce his remarks, saying he was ‘casually spouting anti-Semitism.’ Rogan has also previously made jokes using the trope that Jewish people control the media.
Now, with the star comedian and MMA broadcaster’s deal with Spotify set to expire, sources tell Radar Online that comments like these, plus his past use of racial slurs and COVID misinformation, have pushed Spotify bosses to the edge.
Podcaster Joe Rogan has allegedly left his Spotify bosses nervous over his comments about Jewish people as the audio streaming giant faces renewal talks over his $200million megadeal
This isn’t the first time that relations between the two parties have appeared strained.
Last year, Rogan’s comments on the COVID vaccine – saying people ‘didn’t need to worry’ about getting the jab – led musicians like Neil Young to pull their music from the streaming service.
Spotify boss Daniel Ek pushed back at employees demanding Rogan be ousted at the time, saying the controversial podcaster is vital to the platform’s future and it’s not the company’s place to ‘dictate the discourse’ of his show.
‘There are many things that Joe Rogan says that I strongly disagree with and find very offensive,’ Chief Executive Ek said at a company town hall.
‘But if we want even a shot at achieving our bold ambitions, it will mean having content on Spotify that many of us may not be proud to be associated with.’
However, Rogan is always controversial and in the wake of Kanye West’s anti-Semitic rants causing hyper-awareness of comments disparaging Jewish people, a source told Radar that Spotify may have had enough.
‘Spotify is tired of making apologies for comments they don’t agree with and in some cases are appalled by,’ a source alleged, referring to Rogan’s comment that Americans ‘didn’t need to worry about’ getting the COVID-19 vaccine.
In February, Semafor reported that the relationship between the company and the ex-Fear Factor host had ‘frayed.’
Rogan signed a three-and-a-half year contract with Spotify in 2020. Company reps have previously told the New York Times that the deal does not expire this year and the deal included options to renew.
A year later, the source told Radar that ‘many execs believe walking away from him would be the best business decision.’
Podcaster Joe Rogan likened the trope that Jews are ‘into money’ to Italians liking pizza in the most recent episode of the Joe Rogan Experience
Spotify CEO Daniel Ek has defended Rogan in the past
DailyMail.com has reached out to both Spotify and reps for Rogan for comment.
The podcast is often the target of ire but, lately, Rogan has been angering people on all sides of the aisle with his commentary.
Rogan joked that Democrats want people to ‘just eat donuts and just fu**ing vote’ after the controversial podcaster discussed a story about the far right being connected to ‘being healthy.’
Rogan, speaking to writer and podcaster Bridget Phetasy on, was likely reacting to an MSNBC article titled ‘Pandemic fitness trends have gone extreme – literally.’
Phetasy asked: ‘Aren’t they connecting being healthy to the far-right now? I’ve seen so many articles that are like “oh the far-right obsession with being in shape,” like it’s a bad thing somehow.’
Podcast host Joe Rogan mocked Brian Stelter for his recent panel appearance at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland
Stelter’s CNN show Reliable Sources was axed back in August. He said he went to Davos on his own dime to cover the global summit, where he hosted a panel about hate speech and disinformation
The comic and MMA commentator agreed: ‘There’s a giant percentage of our population that is really lazy and fat, and if you want those people on your team you have to say: ‘There’s nothing wrong with being lazy and fat, in fact; not being lazy and fat is actually connected to misogyny, racism, and fascism, and the far right.’
He concluded that people on the left who think this way ‘are like, “Great, let’s just eat donuts and just fu**ing vote blue.”‘
Former CNN host Brian Stelter took a shot at Rogan after the latter accused him of working for the ‘lizard’ people who run the World Economic Forum.
Last month, Rogan went off on Stelter while discussing the much-maligned global conference that takes place annually in Davos, Switzerland.
He and journalist Matt Taibbi mocked and criticized Stelter’s appearance on a panel that he hosted, calling him ‘basically a prostitute,’ and comfortable grinning around the elitists who seek to impose restrictive laws on the global masses.
However, Stelter said that, contrary to Rogan’s claim, he had no ‘bosses’ who were puppeteering his panel performance and the journalist traveled to Davos at his own expense.
‘Joe Rogan got it all wrong, again. The World Economic Forum did not “hire” me to “work” in Davos. I went there on my own dime to write about the conference,’ Stelter said in response to a story from the New York Post about Rogan’s attack.