by Sean Doherty, Student Reporter
Opinion: No, Joe Rogan shouldn’t moderate the next presidential debate
After last Tuesday’s presidential debate, calls for popular comedian and podcast personality Joe Rogan to be the next debate moderator grew all over social media.
The idea first started after episode #1535 of the Joe Rogan Experience aired on Sept. 11. Rogan’s guest on the podcast, Army Ranger and UFC fighter Tim Kennedy, pointed out that Rogan’s platform would be a perfect setting for the 2020 debates, which at the time were to be determined. Rogan said he would be willing, and the internet did the rest.
Kennedy tweeted out after the podcast, “Just the two candidates, cameras, and their vision of how to move this country forward. Who wants this? #debates #Election2020.” President Trump responded the following Monday, “I do!” The first debate on Sept. 29 followed the traditional format with Fox News anchor Chris Wallace moderating. It was disappointing, to say the least.
It’s been apparent for some time now that the traditional broadcast debate format falls sort of its intention to inform and clarify for the voting body of both presidential candidate’s platforms. But advocates for Rogan to be the next moderator need to watch episode #961.
Rogan organized a debate between Michael Shermer, founder of The Skeptics Society and editor of Skeptic magazine; Graham Hancock, journalist and best-selling author; and Randall Carlson, geological researcher.
Hancock and Carlson back the theory that a global cataclysm—most likely meteor impacts—occurred 11,600 years ago, ending the last Ice Age. The rapid melting of the ice cap caused a rise in sea levels, providing the basis for “great flood” accounts from ancient cultures around the world. Hancock goes further and suggests this cataclysm wiped out an advanced civilization, an entire chapter of human history. Shermer disagreed.
The episode started out civil, but quickly regressed as things got personal and more argumentative. Rogan, to his credit, did a decent job of keeping things on track, but it did little to make the listening experience more enjoyable. This topic may be important to Rogan, his guests and his listeners, but it pales in relevancy compared to an upcoming presidential election. The expectation that a debate between President Trump and Vice President Biden would go any smoother is naive.
It is not the moderator that is the problem—it’s the format. It doesn’t matter if the debate is on ABC or in a podcast studio, two opponents with hot microphones at the same time will always escalate to what we saw in episode #961 And last Tuesday.
This doesn’t mean the podcast idea should go away completely. The Joe Rogan Experience is one of the largest podcasts in the world, averaging about 190 million downloads monthly as of 2019. Full, three hour episodes of the Joe Rogan Experience on YouTube regularly get millions of views, and short clips from the show get even more.
The popularity of the Joe Rogan Experience proves that people are willing to listen to long-form interviews and the podcast provides a platform that rivals, and sometimes outperforms, major cable networks. A full episode with either candidate would be more than enough to flesh out each candidate’s policies and stances on relevant social issues while engaging a bigger audience.
As for Rogan’s impartiality, the former Fear Factor host and UFC commentator might be the fairest and most open-minded person in media right now. Rogan’s politics lean left, but that hasn’t stopped him from hosting guests with differing viewpoints.
Rogan has hosted popular conservative commentators such as Ben Shapiro and Steven Crowder, Rep. Dan Crenshaw, Proud Boys founder Gavin McInnes and InfoWars founder Alex Jones.
Rogan, who hosted Bernie Sanders on the podcast and endorsed him for president, voices his concerns with both Trump and Biden regularly; concerns that voters on both sides share, as much as their campaigns would not like to admit. Both men would not leave unchallenged on their ideas.
An appearance from either major party candidate also gives credibility to Rogan’s interviews with other political hopefuls such as Sen. Tulsi Gabbard and former Democratic primary candidate Andrew Yang. Potential third-party candidates could use the Joe Rogan Experience as a springboard to relevancy in a general election—something the traditional broadcast format historically makes difficult.
The Joe Rogan Experience, in a lot ways, represents the tidal wave of media in the digital age.
People are tuning out from national news networks and flocking to the internet for news and entertainment. An interview with a major presidential candidate could officially usher in a new era in media.