Joe Rogan responded to nasty comments from ABC president Kim Williams, who launched a brutal tirade against the podcasting giant.
Williams claimed that Rogan “preys on people’s vulnerability” and that he was “not a consumer or enthusiast” of his work while speaking at the National Press Club on Wednesday.
‘People like Mr. Rogan take advantage of people’s vulnerabilities. They take advantage of fear. “They take advantage of anxiety,” he said.
He even went so far as to say that he found Rogan’s reach in the United States “deeply repulsive.”
“I am also absolutely appalled that this could be a source of public entertainment, when in reality it is treating the public as loot for purposes that are actually quite malevolent.”
A clip of Williams’ comments was shared on social media platform
The owner of the platform, Elon Musk, similarly denounced the head of ABC. “From the head of the Australian government-funded media, his Pravda,” Musk said.
Pravda is the former official newspaper of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, which still operates in the Russian Federation.
ABC president Kim Williams (pictured) claimed that people like Joe Rogan ‘prey on people’s vulnerabilities’.
The influential podcast host responded to comments about X, saying ‘LOL WUT’
Daily Mail Australia has contacted ABC for comment.
Williams’ comments come after Rogan told his audience that he would not move to Australia because the country put people in “concentration camps” for “a cold” during Covid lockdowns.
The broadcaster said he had once considered Australia as a viable alternative to the United States, but had since changed his mind.
“I used to think about Australia, but then I saw how they handled the pandemic and I thought, ‘Oh, fuck, that’s what happens when no one has guns,'” he said.
“Yeah, the army just comes and tells you what to do and puts you in concentration camps because you have a cold, like it’s crazy.”
During the Covid pandemic, Australia quarantined people arriving into the country for weeks before they could enter the community.
Most were placed in hotels, but some were also housed in temporary isolation camps.
Australia’s national specialist quarantine facility, Howard Springs, outside Darwin, took in about 64,000 people for a two-week mandatory isolation period.
The owner of the social media platform, Elon Musk (pictured), also attacked Williams and the ABC, which he compared to ‘Pravda’, the former official newspaper of the USSR.
Opponents of the quarantine agreement described downtown Howard Springs as a “concentration camp.”
The Joe Rogan Experience is Spotify’s most popular podcast with 14.5 million followers.
Rogan signed a $200 million deal with the streaming giant in 2020.
His interview with Donald Trump was cited as a key factor in deciding this month’s election, with the Republican candidate’s vote among young men – the core of Rogan’s audience – reaching new highs.
Williams, who took over as ABC president in March, has since criticized his own journalists for the quality of the news they were producing.
In August he said the national broadcaster was producing too much news and current affairs that was “filler and boring”.
“Sometimes we tend to resort to what is more representative of tabloid sensibilities than what I would consider national responsibility.”
He inherited a “severely depleted” station and largely attributed the ABC’s decline to a lack of funding, specifically a 13.7 per cent reduction during the Coalition Government’s time in power.
It has also had to deal with complaints from Sydney staff about a move from headquarters near the CBD to an office in Parramatta.
The decision to ‘modernise’ has been widely regretted by ABC staff as the 25-minute journey from the city center has caused logistical problems.
The ABC plans to move about 300 employees to the new location, a project that will cost $39 million, to improve its services in the western suburbs, which Williams has called “the fastest growing residential region in the country.”