I mean the question he poses may sound naive, but we have suffered propaganda because naive question were not asked. I get the criticism as such questions can indeed distort a discussion. But I don't think that is the current problem with disinformation.

Yeah I don't know if you listen to Jon Stewart's podcast at all, but he talks a bit about Rogan and the difference between disinformation and misinformation. Rogan's definitely the latter. I don't think he's actively trying to spread lies, and he's frankly fun to listen to sometimes. It also annoys me that the woke train have suddenly gotten their panties in a knot over him when they've probably never listened to him. But as someone who has listened to him, I think where I got pissed off is exactly what this author is talking about... it's not that he has lousy people on his show, it's that he plays this role of the naive supplicant, and puts his guests on a pedestal where it seems like they're exposing some amazing secret truth. It's like old time radio, except that was at a time where it was accepted as fiction. Times where these kinds of conspiracy theories are widely aired on the radio as nonfiction or more than ghost stories are like, Rwanda, and Nazi Germany. I don't think he's malign (or like, maybe he is now? I don't think he used to be malign a couple years ago)... but it's like, you can't be that big and act that credulous toward crazy people on air for an audience of millions at the same time without their smell tainting you. I can see him having Louis Farrakhan on and being like "No way... Jews are the synagogue of Satan?" Or equally having, IDK, some supporter of the Myanmar military or someone who says Blacks were happier when they were slaves. And maybe it's okay to air all of those things in the name of free speech. But a dude who's willing to nod along with any of them, in the end, deserves to get some shit.

I get what you mean, I don't like it either. I just prefer it to the guilt by association and the allegedly clean vest requirements classical PR has. That won't work in a fully connected world anymore and rules have to be revised and they constantly are.

The Malone interview ruffled some feathers and he might be wrong. I think it is a valuable opinion and hearing it provides a benefit. Of course he isn't perfect either. Maybe he has a bruised ego because others get the recognition of work he was involved in. Perhaps he wants to see his own miracle cure. I just think it is more interesting to listen to him than to any contemporary "fact checker" which ironically are often declared as opinion mouthpieces in any legal context if they have to defend what they are saying.

I believe this is plainly a power struggle of some outlets to stay relevant. Is Rogan better than good journalism? No, but there is an absence of good journalism today. Steward is great, I much prefer him to Rogan and believe he is on another level when it comes to question things. Many see him as woke and therefore don't listen to him. That is stupid as well, but neither Steward nor Rogan are always correct and that should not be the expectation.

I think that's a fair summary. I don't think it's anyone's job to say "no one should be allowed to listen to this guy." But that Malone interview and the one I heard tonight... there's just so many things that a rational person would want to stop and say hey, that sounds like bullshit. Malone said if you die of a gunshot wound and have covid, it's counted as a covid death. He also said a bunch of times that doctors get paid every time they declare a covid death. That can't possibly be true. But Rogan just let it fly and was like "no way!" This is what I mean, the woke make it worse because they get angry over the identity politics of it and make it seem like people like Malone might have some real points that are just being suppressed. But actually without the woke twitter backlash, those people would have nothing to ride on... they wouldn't be able to claim anyone was trying to silence them. And Rogan's leaning more into it now, since the woke brigade came after him. But I think he's actually damaging himself if he goes too far into loony-bin territory.

"That can't possibly be true"

Read this and tell me that it couldn't possibly be true -

https://www.factcheck.org/2020/04/hospital-payments-and-the-...

I'm not saying there's a bunch of greedy doctors rubbing their hands together thinking about all the sweet sweet covid money they could make, but there are definitely perverse incentives there.

Is it so difficult to imagine that a hospital would err on the side of declaring a death as caused by covid if there is a financial incentive for doing so? And if you're willing to accept that as a possibility, then perhaps you might be willing to entertain the possibility that a small percentage of them might be willing to outright fabricate covid deaths.