Don Lemon thinks Joe Rogan’s recent complaints that straight white men are being silenced or canceled for not being “woke enough” are a bit much, and mocked the popular podcast on the latest episode of his new-ish CNN show.
During Tuesday’s episode of “Don Lemon Tonight,” Lemon pointed out that Rogan has an absolutely huge platform to share his ideas with the world and that he’s being anything but silenced.
“No matter what he has said, he has not been silenced. He has a huge megaphone with millions of loyal listeners, all of whom every single day say whatever they want,” Lemon said. “Joe Rogan is part of the conversation.”
Rogan previously said in a recent episode of his podcast “The Joe Rogan Experience” that he thought “cancel culture” and “wokeness” had gone too far. He told podcast guest Joe List during a May 13 episode that “you can never be woke enough” and that he feared he’d one day see a world where straight white men are not allowed to talk or even go outside.
Lemon said, “look, there is an important debate right now about cancel culture and wokeness; questions about what either term even means and what happens if it goes too far. There legitimate questions about that, but acknowledging the oppression, discrimination or differences of others does not silence anyone else, let alone lock them up.”
Lemon continued to point out the irony of Rogan — a former UFC commentator with a podcast platform that reaches roughly 11 million listeners per episode and is hosted on Spotify thanks to a $100 million deal — saying he’s being silenced.
“For years now. Joe Rogan has had a massive podcasting platform,” Lemon said.
Lemon then segued into an aside noting that Rogan’s guests aren’t always the most credible sources. “He has used it at times to interview controversial figures, like conspiracy nut Alex Jones (the guy infamous for saying that the Sandy Hook school shooting was a hoax),” Lemon said about the “Joe Rogan Experience.”
Lemon seemed equal parts bemused and exasperated when he ended his bit on Rogan, noting, “there’s a lot I can go on about, especially about straight white men… Oh, you’re aggrieved now? Okay.”
“No one is stopping Joe Rogan or any other straight white man from expressing themselves. Period,” Lemon added.
Rogan is not only given a platform to publicly mess up — he’s also given ample air time to apologize for past mishaps. Lemon pointed to this on his show tonight as further proof that Rogan is nowhere close to being silenced. Lemon noted that Rogan recently walked back claims that young and healthy people don’t need coronavirus vaccines and also apologized last summer after he used his podcast to share misinformation about how wildfires in the Western U.S. at the time were started.
Check out the video clip, which a “Don Lemon Tonight” viewer clipped below.