here s what a spokesperson for their foundation said. our co-founders began expressing concerns for our partners at spotify about the all too real consequences of covid-19 misinformation on its platform. we look to spotify to meet this moment and are committed to continuing our work together as it does. so the spokesperson there also said this has been a conversation they ve had with spotify starting in progress of last year. this all follows an open letter to spotify written earlier this month by about 250 doctors, nurses and scientists, very concerned about the spread of misinformation, particularly naming joe rogan s podcast but saying that s just an example of the type of misinformation that is spread on the platform. saying that it really damages the trust in science and data-driven guidance offered by the medical professionals, citing really crazy claims about
possibly nils lofgren s as well. and there are other podcasters having problems with it. they have to fix this. whether that means they cut ties with joe rogan, that seems the most extreme option. or he says he s not going to talk about vaccines anymore on his show. they ve got to find some kind of compromise. it seems something has to happen because it s just going to get worse and worse. there s a rock band that posted a sign on their spotify page saying, delete spotify, which is i don t really mean to laugh at that, but it s kind of funny because people see it when it says recommended for you and it s a rock band called belly and what they see is delete spotify on spotify. the pressure is mounting clearly from a lot of the musicians. but if spotify has already said in a statement that the new york times had that it has a great responsibility, you know, in quote, unquote balancing messages, when that does not sign post that they re going to
so you see another argument, a similar argument is going to be made about sirius xm radio, which relaunched a stadium featuring music from neil young but then that service also hosts shows by a number of far right figures or has controversial programming that, you know, shares some similar views to, say, a joe rogan. so do you see a real conflict here for, you know, someone like neil young leaving spotify but then finding home at sirius xm? well, there s certainly a contradiction at work there. i m not sure that sirius xm s right-leaning broadcast has anywhere near the audience that joe rogan s does because you re talking about one show on a giant network. but, yeah, there are an awful lot of contradictions to point at here and, frankly, neil young has always owned the contradictions in some of his stances, like the news section on his website is called
the mrna vaccines being gene therapy, promoting ivermectim as a treatment, discouraging vaccination in young children and young people. so a lot of problematic statements that the scientific community has flagged and, of course, now we re seeing all the celebrities come forward in this movement. we ll see what s next or what the next chapter might be. natasha chen, thanks so much. meantime, let s discuss based on the information we do know. with me now is variety s senior music editor. jim, good to see you again. one has to wonder with all of this criticism that spotify is facing, do you expect that they will continue to stand by joe rogan? well, they have to do something. they may stand by him. i m sure they re in deep conversation with neil young and joni mitchell s management,
hell for a long time. wow. joining us now is janelle hill contributing writer for the atlantic and host of janelle hill on spotify and nba superstar renee montgomery, owner and vice president of the team. if we can turn to both of you on break news stories, political stories, sports stories, covid, intersection of all those things. we ve never sat down and put this at the center of it. the example, the opportunity, in sharing their struggles. it s so powerful especially now. janelle, we talked about naomi osaki at the time and what that was like. the truth is, while most people don t ever have the experience of that greatness on the tennis court, a lot of people could relate to what she talks about. how sit received sort of in