Commentary

An Old Rocker Is Teaching Us All A Lesson

by Maarten Albarda , Featured Contributor, February 4, 2022

Neil Young: Most younger people had never heard of him, or his music. Or Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. Or Joni Mitchell and Nils Lofgren, for that matter. Maybe they knew India Arie.

All these musicians have taken a public stance against Spotify because they felt the platform was not doing enough against the spread of misinformation on COVID, specifically via the Joe Rogan show. Their music is no longer available on Spotify.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, contracted by Spotify for a $25 million content deal in December 2020, issued a statement in which they said “We have continued to express our concerns to Spotify to ensure changes to its platform are made to help address this public health crisis. We look to Spotify to meet this moment and are committed to continuing our work together as it does.”

Did Spotify crumble? Judge for yourself.

“Based on the feedback over the last several weeks, it’s become clear to me that we have an obligation to do more to provide balance and access to widely accepted information from the medical and scientific communities guiding us through this unprecedented time,” said Spotify Chief Executive Daniel Ek.

Spotify’s specific solution? It is going to add a warning label to questionable content, with a link to “better” content. But the questionable content will continue to exist. Joe Rogan made some humble noises about “wanting to do better.”

Maybe he actually will. But the damage has obviously been done, and what is on the net will live on into eternity.

The labeling seems to be the preferred solution from the tech platforms. Facebook -- I mean Meta -- Twitter and now Spotify have labeling and links to “better” content that they attach to questionable content. But none have significant measures or policies in place to simply ban or eradicate misinformation unless it is blatantly racist or violence-inciting. Why do they find it so hard to draw a line?

“Freedom of speech”!

And yes, that is a valuable human right. But surely not at any cost. It has nothing to do, of course, with the enormous amounts of traffic that Joe Rogan generates for Spotify, and the fact Spotify paid $100 million for that right. That is just me being cynical…

Earlier this week I watched a man being interviewed on my local evening news. He is suffering from kidney failure, but gave up the right to a kidney transplant (when one was available) because he refused to be vaccinated. “But aren’t you afraid you will die?” asked the reporter. The man answered that he preferred to die “in freedom.”

I don’t know if this man listens to the Joe Rogan show. I don’t know if he has a Spotify account. But he will likely die, and for that both Spotify and Joe Rogan must carry a measure of culpability.

And that brings us to advertising. Should you support this kind of culpability? Neil Young and a few others think not, and don’t want to be part of it. Something to think about, perhaps?

10 comments about "An Old Rocker Is Teaching Us All A Lesson".

Check to receive email when comments are posted.

Michael Medina from Medina Communications Corp, February 4, 2022 at 5:37 p.m.
Maarten,

Our corrupt government's covid narritaive is now crubmling as the vaxed contract covid in mass and the CDC now says masks don't work. Liberals like you and Neil Young are now cancelling youselves. Act like Americans and question the government and big pharma and stop acting like sheep to slaughter.
Reply

Kenneth Fadner from MediaPost replied, February 5, 2022 at 9:57 a.m.

Mr. Medina:

Kind of ironic, in my opinion, to call the "Vaxed" sheep to slaughter.

Ken Fadner

Paul Bledsoe from Bledsoe Advertising/Productions, February 6, 2022 at 9:46 a.m.

The American way, freedom of expression, you have your stories and views and I have a right to communicate my feelings or information received. I disagree with the author. Do you know the exact science?

Benjamin Bankoff from PMP Marketing Group, February 8, 2022 at 1:51 p.m.

"I don’t know if this man listens to the Joe Rogan show. I don’t know if he has a Spotify account. But he will likely die, and for that both Spotify and Joe Rogan must carry a measure of culpability."

Can someone explain this logic? Is Whoopi responsible for the Holocaust? Is Disney to blame for platforming someone who would make such comments?

I believe the term for what's happening here is "Kansas City Shuffle". People like Maarten tell everyone to look at this thing they pretend to be upset about, while simultaneously ushering Zucker and Gollust quietly off the stage and into retirement with the Cuomo brothers, none of whom will ever likely be held culpable for their actions during the pandemic.

It's odd to me that a "Featured Contributor" of a major industry publication would be allowed to make such incendiary and illogical accusations.

Maarten Albarda from Flock Associates (USA), February 9, 2022 at 6:29 p.m.

Fellow Mediapost contributor Colin Kirkland wrote this week: There’s a stereotype attached to Americans that has been substantiated over the past few years: "We don’t know how to have a respectful and honest conversation, especially when centered on politics. This stems from our inability to witness another point of view without unleashing a counterattack. Our inflamed passion often leads to hateful, and therefore harmful, rhetoric that undermines the term “conversation” altogether."

Exactly!

Benjamin Bankoff from PMP Marketing Group replied, February 11, 2022 at 1:32 p.m.

I completely agree with that sentiment. However, what's being addressed here isn't a conversation. We're discussing a monologue posted on a major industry publication that many people turn to for knowledge and to hear from experts in their field. Do you believe you were being "respectful and honest" when stating that Spotify and Rogan are responsible for the death of a random person?

I don't have a pony in this race. I simply don't like hypocritical public attacks. I'd be happy, and interested, to set aside some time for you and I to have a virtual coffee meeting, so I can understand your position.

Kenneth Fadner from MediaPost, February 11, 2022 at 3:05 p.m.

Mr. Bankoff:
MediaPost's position is that Maarten has a right to express his opinion in a commentary blog post. You have a right to express yours in the "comment" section. If you wish, you could submit a longer form opinion piece and we would consider that for publication. In my own opinion, misinformation like Joe Rogan traffics in DOES lead to needless death. I don't think that opinion is wrong or even controversial, do you? So, I do not understand what your beef is with Maartin or us.
-Ken Fadner, Publisher

Benjamin Bankoff from PMP Marketing Group replied, February 15, 2022 at 2:05 p.m.

Mr. Fadner:
What, specifically, do you believe Joe Rogan said that leads to needless death? From what I understand, the most controversial COVID comment he made was many months ago around healthy young people not needing to be vaccinated, which he repeatedly caveated by saying to speak to your doctor with questions. Per the CDC, there have been 2,815 COVID deaths among ages 0-24, with only 5% of those deaths listing COVID as the only cause. For the remaining 95%, on average, there were four additional conditions or causes of death. Within this data, there's no concrete way of knowing what percent of these deaths were among vaccinated individuals.

https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/covid_weekly/index.htm#Comorbidities

I don't have any beef with Maarten or MediaPost. In fact, I'm an avid reader and receive a dozen emails each day. Also, I asked Maarten if he'd like to hop on video so we can understand each other's perspectives. I was, and remain, sincere in that offer. Again, I don't have a pony in this race. I'm not friends with Joe and fully understand that life will progress, regardless of how this plays out. I simply don't like hypocrisy and these attacks seem incredibly hypocritical until we apply this same level of criticism against other media outlets.
-Ben Bankoff, Human

Kenneth Fadner from MediaPost, February 17, 2022 at 8:59 a.m.

Mr. Bankoff:

The musicians vs. Spotify debate originated after a letter from 300 scientists to Spotify in response to Joe Rogan’s 12/31/2021 interview with Dr. Robert Malone who has spoken out against vaccines ... not as a result of Rogan’s comments about 21 year olds not needing to get vaccinated, which happened in April 2021. Further, the Joe Rogan misinformation problem is not about 0-24 year olds. The scientists’ letter which led Neil Young to withdraw his music points out that the average age of Rogan listeners is 24 years and “ ... unvaccinated 12-34 year olds are 12 times more likely to be hospitalized with COVID than those who are fully vaccinated.”

In my opinion, most would agree with Maarten’s view that Rogan has contributed to a misinformation environment that causes people like the kidney transplant hopeful to refuse vaccines and thereby endanger their own lives.

It’s important that we all understand the actual facts surrounding issues we debate.

Sent from my iPhone

Benjamin Bankoff from PMP Marketing Group replied, February 28, 2022 at 2:55 p.m.

Mr. Fadner:

As you may have noticed, this comment-section debate is taking up too much time. I stand by my offer of a virtual coffee break and would love to talk through the positions of both you and Maarten, so we can better understand where each of us is coming from. I always love meeting new people, and at the end of the day, we're all on the same team here.

Best,

Ben