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To me the fundamental question about Spotify Podcaster Joe Rogan is this: Is he somehow dangerous?

Neil Young and Joni Mitchell think so, which is why from Spotify in protest.

It’s true that Rogan plays the part of the renegade: Right after his podcast moved to Spotify last April, he was bragging to his co-host about how hands-off Spotify was.

“They don’t give a [expletive], man, they haven’t given me a hard time at all,” Rogan said.

But he was a lot more contrite in Monday’s statement, apologizing if he misled anyone, saying he’d try to bring more balance to his COVID interviews, and even thanking his haters.

“It’s good to have some haters — it makes you reassess what you’re doing and put things into perspective,” Rogan said.

He even promised to impose his own equal-time rule!

“My pledge to you is that I will do my best to try to balance out these more controversial viewpoints,” he vowed. “I don’t want to just show the contrary opinion to what the narrative is. It’s a strange responsibility to have this many viewers and listeners, and it’s nothing that I ever anticipated.”

He sounded transparent – even a little overwhelmed – while admitting that he works with a production team of one, and that he has no fact-checkers.

I should also mention that, being a podcaster, Rogan is which prohibit broadcasters like us from airing false information about a catastrophe – which COVID certainly has been – and which also prohibit us from intentionally distorting the news.

So, getting back to my original question, is Joe Rogan dangerous?

Only if you let him be your doctor. Otherwise, if you see him as an entertainer who’s just giving his opinion, and who, despite having a bigger audience than every American TV network, is under no obligation to give accurate or truthful advice, you should live a long and healthy life.

Listen to Seattle’s Morning News with Dave Ross and Colleen O’Brien weekday mornings from 5 – 9 a.m. on ³ÉÈËXÕ¾ Newsradio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.