Who Would YOU Choose? Neil or Joe?

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Neil Young has threatened to pull his music from Spotify in protest of its relationship with podcaster Joe Rogan. The legendary rocker accuses Rogan of spreading COVID misinformation. He says, ‘They can have Rogan or Young. Not both."

Young, who survived polio as a child, is 76 years old.

Rogan is 54 and the most popular podcaster in the world.

So far there’s been no response from Spotify

If you had to make the decision, who would you choose?

Comments:

Marcelo Braga - Jan 3, 2022

Easy: JOE! Amazing how artists are aligned with censorship, when opinions don’t align with their beliefs.

“Amazing how artists are aligned with censorship,when opinions don’t align with their beliefs”, and what exactly is Joe? He’s not a doctor, not a scientist… he’s an entertainer. He has no more right to dispense medical advice than any other entertainer. He is entitled to his opinions, but when he states them as facts, and his listeners put more value on his opinions than medically-based facts, then he needs to shut up. How many people have died because they have listened to Joe rather than their own doctor?

Never Neil to Bullies! Bullies are always outwardly arrogant, inwardly timid souls! So, if Spotify doesn’t play his way, Young is going to take his ball and go home? See ya!

Without a doubt they have to back Rogan. I don’t care if it was the Beatles, Springsteen and Madonna wanting to go, you always have to back freedom of speech. And Young would want and demand his was backed and fought for! Even if Rogan was talking about Martians kidnapping Nuns, let the public work out for themselves what is real, reasonable, or ridiculous. But there’s also the question of where does misinformation start and stuff you simply don’t want to hear end?

Young is not a government censor, he is an artist himself making a free choice about where he wants his music to appear. Heavy handed, yes a bit. And I have no idea if he’s obligated himself already and if he checked with his lawyers first. But nonetheless you can make a reasonable case that what Rogan’s podcast “means” has changed over time, and Neil Young is saying let him speak, but not next to my music. We can say Neil vs. Joe and vote but it’s more complex than that. Young is saying - don’t let my music be used to pull people on to a channel that also has anti-vaxx information. Now I don’t agree with Neil’s tactics. If Spotify was a small network with just Joe and a few things, I’d be more inclined to agree. I feel with the size of Spotify this might be putting too much blame on Spotify which is so large and diverse that it probably should be protected under the same laws that protect the phone company. The country has a long history of regulating medical speech versus other forms of speech, since the days of patent medicine doctors on the radio prescribing their own stuff. It’s never been considered totally free speech to give medical advice. Same with legal, construction ‘advice’ if presented as factual could all be liable to prosecution.

Freedom of Speech wins on podcasts! Google, FB, Twitter, and now Neil Young are trying to stifle freedom of speech.

Young is irrelevant , go away and take your music with you, who cares.