Joe Rogan Is In Hot Water All Over Again About Ukraine Posts

For better or worse, Joe Rogan can't seem to stay away from the headlines in 2022. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the comedian and commentator has been facing backlash from the scientific community, whose experts have accused Rogan of spreading vaccine misinformation through "The Joe Rogan Experience," his massively popular Spotify podcast. The issue turned into controversy in January, when legendary musician Neil Young asked Spotify to remove his music from its platform. Young, who nearly lost his life to polio as a child before the Salk vaccine was developed and suffers from lifelong effects, argued the streaming service should be held accountable for enabling Rogan. "Spotify is spreading fake information about vaccines ... They can have Rogan or Young. Not both," Young said in a statement posted to his website, which he later deleted (via Rolling Stone).

Following the backlash, Rogan defended his decision to host the controversial physicians on his podcast but vowed to include more balanced expert views in a January 31 Instagram video. "If there's anything that I've done that I could do better it's have more experts with different opinions right after I have the controversial ones," he said. "I would most certainly be open to doing that." Despite his pledge to be more careful about the information he puts out there, Rogan recently shared untruthful information amid the Russian invasion Ukraine regarding Steven Seagal, who is friends with Vladimir Putin and a naturalized Russian citizen. And, unsurprisingly, the internet has opinions.

On February 28, Joe Rogan shared a fake CNN report to Facebook and Instagram that claimed actor and martial artist Steven Seagal had joined Russia's special forces in its invasion of Ukraine, per the New York Post. "If I had to guess the plot of this f***ed up movie we're living through I would say we are about 14 hours from the arrival of the aliens," Rogan captioned the now-deleted posts. A snapshot of Seagal armed with a machine gun and surrounded by other men in uniform accompanied the report. 

But, as many social media users pointed out, the photo was captured from the 2016 movie "Sniper: Special Ops," the report detailed. "Steven Seagal is not fighting for Russia currently ... Use ya heads people. Especially you, Joe Rogan," one Twitter user said. "All he had to do is Google 'cnn Steven Seagal' to see that that news piece does not exist." Others accused Rogan of willfully sharing fake news. "Just another example of how Joe Rogan is performing a disservice to the American people, by spreading lies! It's a shame he doesn't use his notoriety to do good!" tweeted another.

On Instagram, Rogan suggested he was unaware the report was fake. "... it was parody, which isn't surprising, but honestly it wouldn't be surprising if it was true either," he captioned the post, which included a 2017 headline announcing when Seagal was banned from Ukraine after being deemed a "security threat."