Since Joe Rogan’s podcast has millions of listeners, he can afford to pay his staff a fortune and he publicly turned down $100 million. One of the biggest reasons why “The Joe Rogan Experience” has so many listeners is because he takes positions that a lot of other celebrities wouldn’t. For example, Joe defended Justin Bieber from a harsh backlash, he ranted about stars who date Jennifer Lopez, and he mocked Diddy.
Unfortunately for Joe, his willingness to be frank has created some controversy for him, like when he called out Taylor Swift or the time he feuded with Trisha Paytas. One of the most remarkable times Joe faced controversy is when he made a claim that the FBI publicly debunked.
Why The FBI Debunked A Claim From Joe Rogan
In January 2025, Los Angeles was rocked by wildfires that destroyed thousands of buildings, including the homes of far too many people. Tragically, that is far from the first time that fires caused a great deal of destruction and suffering.
Years earlier, in 2020, many residents of Oregon found themselves in a similar situation as thousands of homes were destroyed. Worse yet, a January 2024 NPR article revealed that at least nine people died as a result of the Oregon wildfires.
Since Joe Rogan didn’t live in Oregon, it may surprise some observers that he became a controversial part of the coverage of the 2020 wildfires. The reason Joe became part of the story is that The FBI put out a statement debunking a claim about the wildfire that Joe played a major role in spreading.
On September 11th, 2020, the FBI’s website put out a statement on the wildfires. That statement began by revealing that they’d received several reports from citizens claiming extremists started the wildfires. It is important to note that Joe helped spread the claim that extremists started the wildfires.
Uproxx’s List Of The “The Joe Rogan Experience” Episodes To Start With | |
|---|---|
Episode | Rank |
Bobcat Goldthwait, episode #800 | #10 |
Abby Martin, episode #1316 | #9 |
Sean Carrol, episode #1352 | #8 |
W. Kamau Bell, episode #1004 | #7 |
Elon Musk, episode #1169 | #6 |
Dr. Rhonda Patrick, episode #459 | #5 |
Dr. Cornel West, episode #1325 | #4 |
Edward Snowden, episode #1368 | #3 |
Anthony Bourdain, episode #138 | #2 |
Bernie Sanders, episode #1330 | #1 |
The FBI’s statement assured citizens those claims had been investigated and deemed to be false.
“FBI Portland and local law enforcement agencies have been receiving reports that extremists are responsible for setting wildfires in Oregon. With our state and local partners, the FBI has investigated several such reports and found them to be untrue.”
After revealing that the claims were false, the FBI’s statement continued with more important information.
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At the time that the FBI was being inundated with claims that extremists started the Oregon wildfires, resources were still required to deal with the wildfires.
In August 2022, Joe Rogan and the FBI were in the headlines once again for a very different reason. As a BBC article from that time states, that was when Marck Zuckerberg told Joe about the FBI warning that prompted the censorship of the Hunter Biden laptop story.
The FBI’s statement warned the public that having to investigate false claims took time and resources away from being able to really help people.
“Conspiracy theories and misinformation take valuable resources away local fire and police agencies working around the clock to bring these fires under control.”
The FBI ended their statement about the claim that Joe helped spread by asking the public to not spread false theories. “Please help our entire community by only sharing validated information from official sources.”
The reason why Joe was affected by that statement was because of comments he made on his podcast. Joe spoke about the Oregon wildfires during a September 2020 episode of his podcast with Douglas Murray as his guest that can be heard on the website for “The Joe Rogan Experience.”
Joe Rogan’s Biggest Scandals, According to Watchmojo | |
|---|---|
Scandal | Rank |
The Jack Dorsey Interview | #10 |
Moving to Spotify | #9 |
Smoking with Elon Musk | #8 |
Shared by Donald Trump | #7 |
Misreporting the Wildfires | #6 |
Hosting Alex Jones | #5 |
Using Ethnic Slurs | #4 |
The Robert W. Malone Episode | #3 |
His Views on Trans Fighters | #2 |
COVID-19 Misinformation | #1 |
While talking about the Portland, Oregon area, Joe spread the claim that the wildfires had been set by extremists.
“There is a madness going on there,” Rogan said during the Thursday episode. “You want to talk about madness of crowds. That exemplifies that right now. They have arrested people for lighting forest fires up there.”
Still not done, Joe went on to make an even more specific claim about the wildfires.
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As Joe continued to talk about the wildfires, Joe made a claim about the motivations the people he falsely believed started the wildfires had.
They have arrested left-wing people for lighting these forest fires. You know, air quote, activists.
Keep in mind, the FBI stated that there was zero truth to the claim that activists started the wildfires.
Over the last several years, Joe has repeatedly spoken out about how flawed he believes the mainstream media’s reporting is. Similarly, Joe finished his statement about the wildfires that were debunked by seemingly calling out the media for not reporting on the false story.
This is also something that is not widely being reported.
Joe Rogan Apologized For Spreading The False Wildfires Claims
One week after the FBI debunked the claims that the Orgeon wildfires were set by extremists, Joe Rogan apologized publicly. On September 18th, 2020, Joe published an apology video on his Instagram account.
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In his Instagram video, Joe began by stating that he got duped by misinformation about the wildfires. Joe then explained that a true story about someone getting arrested for lighting a fire elsewhere played a role in him believing the misinformation.
“I need to make an apology and a retraction. I said something on the podcast with Douglas Murray about people getting arrested for lighting fires, and I got duped. It’s wrong. There was one guy who got arrested for lighting fires somewhere else, and someone sent me something about people getting arrested for lighting fires in Portland.”
Joe went on to admit that he failed to check if the false claim he spread was true before stating it on his podcast.
“I said it without looking into it. It’s very irresponsible. I just I didn’t check. I made a mistake. I f***** up, and, I’m sorry if I duped you as well.”
Finally, Joe stated that he took his mistake seriously, and he pledged not to do the same thing in the future. “There’s nothing I can do about it now. It’s out there, but it’s definitely a mistake. My apologies. And I will take this into consideration certainly when I say things in the future. I know it feels very irresponsible of me. I don’t take it lightly. I’m very upset with myself, and, I apologize to you as well. Sorry.”
Joe Rogan
- Birthname
-
Joseph J. Rogan
- Birthdate
-
August 11, 1967
- Birthplace
-
Newark, New Jersey, USA
- Height
-
5’7
-
@joerogan
-
@joerogan
- Profession
-
Host
- Net worth
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$120,000,000
- Source of Wealth
-
Podcast, endorsements
- Nationality
-
American
