ABC chair Kim Williams has launched an extraordinary attack on US podcaster Joe Rogan, claiming the globally successful podcast host ‘preys on people’s vulnerability’.
Mr Williams made the comments while speaking at the National Press Club on Wednesday.
He was asked by ABC reporter Jane Norman how the national broadcaster could amass an audience similar size to that of Rogan.
‘I am not a consumer or enthusiast about Mr Rogan and his work,’ Mr Williams said.
‘I think that people like Mr Rogan prey on people’s vulnerabilities. They prey on fear. They prey on anxiety.
‘They prey on all of the elements that contribute to uncertainty in society, and they entrepreneur fantasy outcomes and conspiracy outcomes as being a normal part of social narrative.’
He went so far as to say he found Rogan’s reach in the US ‘deeply repulsive’.
‘I’m also absolutely in dismay that this can be a source of public entertainment, when it’s really treating the public as plunder for purposes that are really quite malevolent.’
The Joe Rogan Experience is the most popular podcast on Spotify with 14.5million followers.
Rogan signed a $100million deal with the streaming giant in 2020.
Mr 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 the Covid lockdowns.
During the Covid pandemic Australia quarantined people arriving in the country for weeks before they were able to enter the community.
Most were put in hotels but some were also housed in temporary isolation camps.
Australia’s specialised national quarantine facility, Howard Springs on the outskirts of Darwin, hosted around 64,000 people for a mandatory two-week isolation period.
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