Jon Stewart defends Joe Rogan, asking 'who gets to decide' what is 'misinformation'

• Jon Stewart defended Joe Rogan as the embattled podcast host faces criticism over his COVID-19 claims.
• Stewart asked on his podcast "who gets to decide" what is "misinformation."
• Stewart cited his own opposition to the Iraq War as something others could have used to "censor" him.

Comedian Jon Stewart defended Joe Rogan during a podcast episode on Thursday, asking "who gets to decide" what is and isn't characterized as misinformation and claiming his opposition to the Iraq War could have led people to "censor" him.

"These are shifting sands, and I think I get concerned with, well, who gets to decide" what is referred to as "misinformation," Stewart said in an episode of his show "The Problem With Jon Stewart."

Stewart said he knows Rogan personally and acknowledged he had a "bias" toward the embattled podcast host.

On his show, Stewart noted that newspapers promoted the Bush administration's claims there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq during the run-up to the war.

Stewart, who was vocally opposed to the war, said: "I was on the side of, what you would think, on the mainstream, is misinformation. I was promoting what they would call misinformation."

"But it turned out to be right years later and the establishment media was wrong," he added.

Rogan came under fire last month after being accused of promoting COVID-19 misinformation during his Spotify podcast, "The Joe Rogan Experience."

In response, 270 doctors, nurses, scientists, and educators wrote a letter calling on Spotify to remove Rogan's show from the platform in order to curb misinformation.

A handful of musicians — like Neil Young and Joni Mitchell — have gone as far as to pull their music from Spotify in protest.

Stewart last week said he's opposed to musicians pulling their music from the platform. 

"There's no question that there is egregious misinformation that's purposeful and hateful, and that being moderated is a credit to the platforms that run them," he said. "But this overreaction to Rogan, I think, is a mistake."