Controversial Spotify podcast host Joe Rogan is once again under fire after making another easily refutable and baseless claim on his show "The Joe Rogan Experience."
This time, Rogan's claims center around a proposed new law in Australia that would outlaw citizens growing their own food in home gardens, which he implied is intended to retaliate against those who refuse to get vaccinated.
The problem is: not a word of it is true.
And as NBC News reporter Brandy Zadrozny broke down in a Twitter thread, it all stems from an article Rogan admitted he didn't read--likely the same viral fake news article circulating on social media from which this conspiracy theory stems.
OK. So I've got a minute. Why Does Joe Rogan think Australia is trying to make growing your own food illegal? Let\u2019s investigate.https://twitter.com/KnowNothingTV/status/1526454217858236416\u00a0\u2026— Brandy Zadrozny (@Brandy Zadrozny) 1652808223
Rogan claimed the Australian government's proposed food safety bill was aimed at home gardeners, and that the whole thing was a ploy to gin up fear of future pandemics and root out anti-vaxxers by isolating them from participating in everyday life.
In a mocking Australian accent, Rogan said:
"They were saying, ‘Whoa, you could grow your own food. And what else? The disease was from your food. It infects the population, kills us off. Oh, we can’t have that.'..."
"...[T]hese fu*king creeps, they got a good grip on people during the pandemic..."
"...That’s how you motherfu*king smoke out an anti-vaxxer, you can’t even go to the grocery store anymore and you can’t grow your own food."
So where on Earth did Rogan get this ridiculous information?
As Zadrozny details in her thread, this story has a huge presence across social media platforms, and it all links back to a fake news site called Apex World News.
So who is @apexworldnews? The account is a typical "breaking news" type of misinfo account. No ownership listed, spammy and unverified content. It does list a website. But ... expired.pic.twitter.com/37EE2jCKH9— Brandy Zadrozny (@Brandy Zadrozny) 1652808225
As Zadrozny makes clear, the site has no credentials--not even a functioning website.
So she went to the Library of Congress's Wayback Machine to find Apex's origins, and it took very little research to figure out it is linked to an evangelical preacher of the "prosperity gospel," Uebert Angel.
Uebert Angel a British-Zimbabwean who preaches the prosperity gospel. ("God wants you to be rich and he'll make it so if you ... give me money?" I don't know just go with it.) \nAnd a little Googling shows us that. Angel founded Apex in 2020. https://www.uebertangel.org/2020/07/17/prophet-uebert-angel-announced-the-debut-of-a-global-news-channel-called-apex-world-news/\u00a0\u2026pic.twitter.com/redsH29UJd— Brandy Zadrozny (@Brandy Zadrozny) 1652808226
And a deeper dive into Apex's stories in the past revealed what Zadrozny calls "Misinformation Madlibs–story after story sharing disinformation, conspiracy theories, vaccine skepticism, and character attacks on figures like Dr. Robert Fauci.
Zadrozny sums up her analysis with a very simple directive to Rogan (and to all denizens of the Internet):
"don't get your news from here."
Anyway, @joerogan. Don't get your news from here.— Brandy Zadrozny (@Brandy Zadrozny) 1652808228
On Twitter, many people shared Zadrozny's exasperation with Rogan and his acolytes' gullibility.
This is one of the most ridiculous conspiracy theories I\u2019ve seen in a while, and anyone who takes it or Joe Rogan seriously is an idiot.https://twitter.com/BrandyZadrozny/status/1526614453244112896\u00a0\u2026— Alice Clarke (@Alice Clarke) 1652825097
pic.twitter.com/a8phIRzitM— _ (@_) 1652809568
What this guy knows I can put in a thimble and have room leftover.— Krbthedoc (@Krbthedoc) 1652809230
Hilarious. Make a specious claim about an imaginary event. Then when no evidence exists (because it's imaginary) claim that the lack of any evidence is, in fact, evidence of a "warning" that it's real. I'll be kind and write it off as just clumsy comedy.— Wayne Colless (@Wayne Colless) 1652832169
Well as I live in NSW I can assure you that this is a load of BS. I have chickens, a vegetable garden & fruit trees in my backyard.— Margot McLennan \ud83c\udf3b (@Margot McLennan \ud83c\udf3b) 1652820830
The people asking you to reject mainstream sources of information are not out applying rigorous epistemic standards to find new/better sources. They're just giving themselves (and you) permission to believe any old bullshit that sounds vaguely plausible or feels good.https://twitter.com/BrandyZadrozny/status/1526614453244112896\u00a0\u2026— David Roberts (@David Roberts) 1652823957
And of course, some couldn't help but make fun of Rogan a bit.
Eventually, we all turn into our parents.\n\nJoe Rogan is turning into Alex Jones\u2026\n\nso Alex Jones is Joe\u2019s biological father.— Tyler Digital (@Tyler Digital) 1652809582
https://vm.tiktok.com/ZTdGU5wEQ/?k=1— Kevin Spross (@Kevin Spross) 1652811944
growing my own fruit. in australia.pic.twitter.com/6jO0bB71fZ— \ud83e\udd55 RageCraftAU \ud83c\udf45 (@\ud83e\udd55 RageCraftAU \ud83c\udf45) 1652834072
In the end, it didn't even require all the research Zadrozny did to figure out the story was fake.
After Rogan's producer alerted him he'd Googled it and found nothing, Rogan did the same. And sure enough, after just moments of searching, Rogan said:
"Damn it, it better not be fake... It might be fake."
Narrator:
It was fake.
See how easy that was, Joe?
