Joe Rogan has hit back at scathing criticism from ABC chair Kim Williams with a bewildered response, prompting Elon Musk to weigh in with his own jab at Australia’s national broadcaster.
Williams claimed Rogan ‘preys on people’s vulnerability’ and told the National Press Club on Wednesday that he was ‘not a consumer or enthusiast’ of the influential US podcaster.
‘People like Mr Rogan prey on people’s vulnerabilities. They prey on fear,’ Williams said.
‘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.
‘I personally find it deeply repulsive, to think that someone has such remarkable power.’
A clip of Williams’ comments was shared to social media platform X, where Rogan replied ‘LOL WUT’ in a post seen more than 8.4million times.
The owner of the platform, Elon Musk, similarly denounced the ABC boss.
‘From the head of Australian government-funded media, their Pravda,’ Musk said.
ABC chair Kim Williams (pictured) claimed people like Joe Rogan ‘prey on people’s vulnerabilities’
The influential podcast host took X to responded to the comments, saying ‘LOL WUT’
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.
Daily Mail Australia contacted the 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 the Covid lockdowns.
The podcaster said he had once considered Australia as a viable alternative to the US but his mind had since changed.
‘I used to think Australia but then I saw how they handled the pandemic I was like ”oh f**, that well that’s what happens when no one has guns’,’ he said.
‘Yep the army just rolls in 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 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.
Owner of the social media platform, Elon Musk (pictured), also took aim at Williams and the ABC which he likened to ‘Pravda’, the former official newspaper of the USSR
Opponents of the quarantine arrangement described the Howard Springs centre as a ‘concentration camp’.
The Joe Rogan Experience is the most popular podcast on Spotify with 14.5million followers.
Rogan signed a $200million 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 chair of the ABC in March, has since taken swipes at his own journalists over the quality of the news they were producing.
He said in August that the national broadcaster was producing too much news and current affairs that was ‘filler and bland’.
‘We tend at times to go to that which is more representative of tabloid sensibility, than what I would regard as being national responsibility.’
He inherited a ‘severely depleted’ broadcaster and largely blamed a lack of funding for the ABC’s downfall – specifically a 13.7 per cent reduction during the Coalition Government’s time in power.
He has also had to deal with Sydney staff grumbling about a shift from headquarters near the CBD to an office in Parramatta.
The move to ‘modernise’ has been widely lamented by ABC staff with the 25-minute commute from the city centre sparking logistical issues.
The ABC plans to move some 300 staff to the new location, a project set to cost $39million, in order to improve its services in the western suburbs – which Williams has labelled ‘the nation’s fastest growing residential region’.
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